It is to be deplored that this happened after a demonstration of its power by the USSR; in a way, one could even say this happened because of it. This was not setting the best of examples for the future.
NOTES
Translated from German into English by Otmar Binder, Vienna.
1. The sources used here are above all the files of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation from the holdings F. 138a (Czechoslovak Desk), F. 757 (FRG Desk), F. 553 (Desk of the Soviet embassy in the FRG), F. 66 (Austrian Desk), and F. 56 “b” (holdings of the Press Department—TASS files), as well as the files of the former Archive of the CC of the CPSU.
2. RGANI, F. 3, op. 72, d. 214, 61, Politburo resolution of the CC of the CPSU P 106 (10), “On the memorandum addressed to the fraternal parties on the current situation in Czechoslovakia,” 18 October 1968.
3. See also the chapter by Günter Bischof, “‘No Action’: The Johnson Administration and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968,” in this volume.
4. This was one of the issues the Soviet ambassador to Austria, Boris Podtserob, addressed on 31 August 1968 in his conversation with Austria’s chancellor, Josef Klaus. AVP RF, F. 66, op. 47, 100, d. 6, pp. 179–83, official log of the USSR ambassador to Austria, Podtserob, reprinted in Karner et al., Dokumente, #182.
5. This refers to a reprint of an article first published in Volksstimme.
6. TASS, 28 August 1968, 4-AD, and TASS, 30 December 1968, 16-VE.
7. TASS, 2 April 1968, 11-BE.
8. TASS-Report, 1–4-AD.
9. TASS, 13 July 1968, 29-BE, 41-BE.
10. TASS, 16 July 1968, 19–20-BE.
11. TASS, 20 July 1968, 6-AD.
12. The said interview was also published in the TASS edition of 2 August 1968, 15–19-BE.
13. TASS, 2 August 1968, 17–18-BE.
14. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 13, p. 47, transcript of the conversation between the FRG ambassador to Moscow, H. Allardt, and the head of the 3rd European Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, G. Gorinovich, on 31 August 1968.
15. TASS, 5 August 1968, 34–35-BE.
16. TASS, 3 August 1968, 16–18-BE.
17. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 148, d. 16, p. 27, report of the second secretary of the Soviet embassy in Prague, Y. Zhuravlev, to the Soviet Foreign Ministry.
18. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 147, d. 12, pp. 1–4.
19. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 148, d. 16, pp. 2–4.
20. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, p. 2, transcript of a conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Bonn, S. Tsarapkin, and his colleague, the Dutch ambassador to Bonn, de Beys, 26 January 1968.
21. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 148, d. 16, pp. 85–86, report of the 4th European Department of the Foreign Ministry of the USSR, 25 March 1968.
22. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 148, d. 16, p. 160, report of the 4th European Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, 16 April 1968.
23. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 14, pp. 12–13, transcript of a conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Bonn, S. Tsarapkin, and the head of the Trade Union of Metal Workers, O. Brenner, 14 March 1968.
24. TASS, 11 April 1968, 35–36-BE.
25. TASS, 12 April 1968, 18-BE.
26. AVP RF, F. 66, op. 47, 100, d. 6, p. 45, transcript of a conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Vienna, B. Podtserob, and his colleague, the Czechoslovak ambassador to Vienna, P. Novotný, 26 February 1968.
27. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 148, d. 16, pp. 120, 223–24, report of the Soviet ambassador to Vienna, B. Podtserob, to the Soviet Foreign Ministry, April 1968.
28. TASS, 4 April 1968, 6-AD.
29. TASS, 17 April 1968, 40-BE.
30. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 147, d. 1, p. 23, quoted according to the text of the Soviet note of 20 July 1968.
31. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 147, d. 1, p. 25.
32. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 147, d. 2, pp. 14–15, text of the Czechoslovak note.
33. AVP RF, F. 138a, op. 49, 147, d. 1, p. 24.
34. TASS, 8 August 1968, 14-BE.
35. TASS, 5 August 1968, 34-BE.
36. TASS, 15 August 1968, 18-BE.
37. AVP RF, F. 66, op. 47, 100, d. 6, p. 155, transcript of a conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Vienna, B. Podtserob, and his colleague, the Czechoslovak ambassador to Vienna, P. Novotný, 22 July 1968. In addition to this, Novotný passed on another piece of information to Podtserob: the West German ambassador, Josef Löns, had assured him that the last thing the FRG wanted was to interfere in the course of events in Czechoslovakia. In Bonn’s leading circles, the question of granting a loan to Czechoslovakia had been discussed. The idea was dropped, Löns said, because no one wanted to be accused of meddling in Czechoslovakia’s internal affairs. Comrade Novotný, however, added it was all very well for Löns to say this; the ruling circles in the FRG were in fact acting differently.
38. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 85, d. 19, pp. 8–12, note of the government of the FRG, 1 March 1968.
39. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 13, p. 13, transcript of a conversation between the Polish ambassador to Moscow, Paszkowski, with the head of the 3rd European Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, A. Balatov, 17 April 1968.
40. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 85, d. 19, p. 19.
41. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 14, p. 34, transcript of the conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Bonn, S. Tsarapkin, with the federal minister of Scientific Research, G. Stoltenberg, 18 July 1968.
42. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 14, p. 31, transcript of a conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Bonn, S. Tsarapkin, with the Dutch ambassador, de Beys, 16 July 1968.
43. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 85, d. 19, p. 36, report written by A. Kovalev, A. Gromyko, and G. Gorinovich, 22 June 1968.
44. TASS, 2 August 1968, 14–15-BE.
45. TASS, 3 August 1968, 7-BE.
46. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 13, pp. 40–41, transcript of a conversation of the FRG ambassador to Moscow, Allardt, with the head of the 3rd European Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, 20 August 1968.
47. See N. I. Egorova and A. O. Čubarjan, eds., Cholodnaja vojna i politika razrjadki: Diskussionnye problemy (Moscow: Moskva, 2003), 181–82.
48. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 14, p. 45, transcript of the conversation between the Soviet ambassador to Bonn, S. Tsarapkin, with Berthold Beitz, a member of the board of directors of the Krupp conglomerate, 7 September 1968.
49. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 13, p. 55, transcript of the conversation between the second secretary of the FRG embassy in Moscow, Diepgen, with Ivan Sorokoletov, an official of the 3rd European Department of the Foreign Ministry, 20 September 1968.
50. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 13, pp. 57–58. AVP RF, F. 757, op. 13, 84, d. 13, pp. 61–62.