Issue Date: July 24, 1968 Prague-Moscow Rift: Warsaw Powers' Warning

The Soviet Union and its 4 more orthodox East European allies warned Czechoslovakia July 16 that its liberalization drive was "completely unacceptable" and demanded that Prague end it. The USSR and its 4 allies charged that pro-liberalization elements were endangering in Czechoslovakia. The Presidium of the Czechoslovak CP Central Committee replied July 18 that the Soviet fears were unfounded and that the liberalizing actions in Czechoslovakia would strengthen socialism. [See 1968 Czechoslovakia: Cernik Outlines Program]

The warning was contained in a 3,000-word letter drafted at the conclusion of a hastily convoked 2-day summit conference, held in Warsaw July 14-15. The meeting was attended by top party and government delegations from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland. Czechoslovakia, the focus of attention at the meeting, declined to participate. The Rumanian CP also stayed away because of its previously proclaimed policy of non- intervention in the affairs of other fraternal parties.

A communique issued at the conclusion of the meeting stated that the 5 powers had "paid particular attention to the aggressive imperialist forces," in Czechoslovakia. A phrase noting that the participants had "exchanged information...on the development of events in Czechoslovakia" was viewed as indicating differences of opinion during the discussions.

Although the Czechoslovak CP, after an agitated session in the Presidium July 8, had decided not to attend the conference, it declared its willingness to hold bilateral talks with individual parties. The rejection of the invitation to Warsaw was reported in Prague to have been phoned to Soviet CP General Secretary Brezhnev by Czechoslovak CP First Secretary Dubcek, who charged that the summons was an attempt to interfere in his country's internal affairs. Prague was reported to have transmitted similar rejections to the other 4 signatories of the letter. The Czechoslovak CP Presidium's rejection received widespread popular approval in Czechoslovakia and was believed to have strengthened the progressive faction within the leadership. Among these attending the conference were: Soviet CP General Secretary Brezhnev, Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin, President Nikolai N. Podgorny; East German CP First Secretary Walter Ulbricht, Premier Willy Stoph; Hungarian CP First Secretary Janos Kadar, Premier Jeno Fock; Bulgarian First Secretary , Stanko Todorov, a Politburo member; Polish CP First Secretary Wladyslaw Gomulka and Premier Josef Cyrankiewicz. The letter declared that the 5 powers "do not want to interfere in your affairs or infringe your sovereignty," but it warned that certain forces in Czechoslovakia had "tried to take the country out of the Socialist camp." In particular, the letter singled out a manifesto, "2,000 Words," signed by 70 Czechoslovak intellectuals and supported by signatures of some 40,000 people across the country. The manifesto appealing for a speed-up in democratization was denounced in the letter as a call for anarchy and counter-. The letter charged that certain Czechoslovak CP leaders not only failed to fight the manifesto but went so far as to defend it. The letter asserted that such manifestations were a threat to the vital interests of the whole Socialist community and that, therefore, it was "something more than only your concern." It also noted that there were within Czechoslovakia "healthy forces" capable of defending "the Socialist system and inflicting defeat on the anti-Socialist elements." Excerpts from the joint letter: "... The development of events in your country evokes deep anxiety in us. It is our deep conviction that the offensive of the reactionary forces, backed by , against your party...threatens to push your country off the road of socialism and that consequently it jeopardizes the interest of the entire Socialist system.... "We neither had nor have any intention to interfere in [affairs that]...are strictly the internal business of your party and your state, to violate the principles of respect, independence and equality in the relations among the Communist parties and Socialist countries.... "At the same time we cannot agree to have hostile forces push your country from the road of socialism and create a threat of severing Czechoslovakia from the Socialist community. This is something more than only your concern. It is the common concern of all the Communist and workers' parties and states united by alliance, co-operation and friendship....

"You are aware of the understanding with which the fraternal parties treated the January plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the of Czechoslovakia, as they believed that your party...would direct the entire process in the interest of socialism and not let anti-Communist reaction exploit it to grind its own axe. We shared the conviction that you would protect the Leninist principle of democratic centralism as the apple of your eye. For the flouting of any aspect of this principle, democracy or centralism, inevitably serves to weaken the party and its leading role by transforming the party into either a bureaucratic organization or debating club. We...received from you assurances that you are aware of the dangers and are fully resolved to repulse them. "Unfortunately events have taken another course. "Capitalizing on the weakening of the party leadership.... the forces of reaction triggered a campaign...clearly to abolish the party's leading role, subvert the Socialist system and place Czechoslovakia in opposition to the other Socialist countries.

"The political organizations and clubs that have emerged of late outside the framework of the national front have become, in effect, headquarters of reaction.... Anti-Socialist and revisionist forces have laid hand on the press, radio and television, making of them a rostrum for attacking the Communist Party...and undermining the friendly relations between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the other Socialist countries. Some mass communications media are carrying on a systematic campaign of real oral terror against people opposing the forces of reaction or voicing anxiety over the trend of developments.

"Despite the decisions of the May Plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which indicated the threat emanating from right-wing and anti-Communist forces as the main danger, the increasing attacks that reaction has mounted have not met with any rebuff. This is precisely why reaction has been able to publicly address the entire country and to print its political platform, under the title of '2,000 Words,' which contain an outright call for struggle against the Communist Party and constitutional authority, for strikes and disorders. In essence, this statement is the organizational and political platform of counter-revolution.... "The situation has thus arisen which is absolutely unacceptable for a Socialist country.... "Don't you, comrades, see these dangers? Is it possible under such conditions to remain passive, to limit oneself to mere declarations and assurances of loyalty to the cause of socialism and allied observations? Don't you see that counter-revolution is wresting from you one position after another, that the party is losing control over the course of events and is further retreating under the pressure of anti-Communist forces? "Is it not for the purpose of sowing distrust and enmity towards the Soviet Union and other Socialist countries that the press, radio and television of your country unleashed a campaign in connection with the staff exercises of the armed forces of the Warsaw Treaty?... The joint staff exercises of our troops with the participation of several units of the Soviet Army, customary for military co-operation, are being used for groundless accusations of violating the sovereignty of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic....

"It is our conviction that a situation has arisen, in which the threat to foundations of socialism in Czechoslovakia jeopardizes the common vital interest of other Socialist countries.... "Each of our parties is responsible not only to its working class and its people, but also to the international working class, the world Communist movement, and cannot evade the obligations following from this.... "That is why we believe that the decisive rebuff to the anti-Communist forces and the decisive efforts for the preservation of the Socialist system in Czechoslovakia are not only your but also our task.

"The cause of defending the power of the working class and all working people, of the Socialist gains in Czechoslovakia demands a decisive and bold offensive against the right-wing and anti-Socialist forces; mobilization of all means of defense created by the Socialist state; the stopping of the activity of all political organizations coming out against socialism; the mastery by the party of the means of mass information--press, radio, television--and the use of them in the interest of the working class, all working people and socialism....

"We are aware that forces exist in Czechoslovakia that are capable of defending the Socialist system and inflicting defeat on the anti-Socialist elements....

"We express the conviction that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, conscious of its responsibility, will take the necessary steps to block the path of reaction. In this struggle you can count on the solidarity and all-around assistance of the fraternal Socialist countries."

Excerpts from the July 18 Czechoslovak reply:

"... The May plenum of the [Czechoslovak CP] Central Committee stated clearly that it is necessary to mobilize all forces to prevent a conflict situation in the country and the endangering of Socialist power in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Our party has also unequivocally stated that if any such danger occurred that we should use all means to protect the Socialist system. We, therefore, ourselves saw the possibility of such danger. We understand that the fraternal parties of the Socialist countries cannot be indifferent to this. We do not, however, see any realistic reasons permitting our present situation to be called counter-revolutionary, statements on the immediate endangering of the basis of the Socialist system or statements that Czechoslovakia is preparing a change in the orientation of our socialist foreign policy and that there is concrete danger of separating our country from the Socialist society.... "... We shall not agree to the historic achievements of socialism and the safety of the nations of our country being threatened or to imperialism either by peaceful or forceful means breaking down the Socialist system and changing the balance of power in Europe to its advantage.... "The staff exercise of the allied forces of the Warsaw Treaty on the territory of Czechoslovakia are a concrete proof of our faithful fulfillment of our alliance commitments.... The obscurities and some doubts in the minds of our public occurred only after the repeated changes of the time of the departure of the allies' armies from the territory of Czechoslovakia at the end of the exercise.... "In the present time it is especially essential for the party to carry out such a policy that could fully merit it the leading role in our society. We are convinced that under the present circumstances it is a condition for the Socialist development of the country.

The Communist Party depends on the voluntary support of the people. It is not implementing its leading role by ruling over the society but by faithfully serving its free, progressive socialist development. It cannot impel its authority, but must constantly acquire it by its actions. It cannot force its line by orders, but by the work of its members and the veracity of its ideals.... "The leading role of our party gravely suffered in the past by the distortions of the '50s and the policy of their inconsistent removal by the leadership headed by A. Novotny. He is even more responsible for the deepening the social conflicts between the Czechs and Slovaks, between the intelligensia and workers, between the young generation and the older generations. "The inconsistent solution of economic problems has left us in a condition in which we cannot solve a series of justified economic demands of the workers and...the effectiveness of the entire national economy is gravely disrupted. "Under that leadership the confidence of the masses in the party dropped and there were expressions of criticism and resistance, but all this was 'solved' by interference from a position of power against justified dissatisfaction, against criticism and against attempts to consistently solve the social problems in the interests of the party and in the interests of its leading role.... "... The decline in the confidence in the party was masked by exterior forms of directive party control. Although this regime was given out as being the firm guarantee of the interests of the entire Socialist camp, inside problems were growing, the real solution of which was suppressed by forceful means against those advocates of new and creative approaches. "Any indication of a return to these methods would evoke the resistance of the overwhelming majority of party members, the resistance of the working class, the workers, cooperative farmers and intelligensia.... "Our party has laid down the following main aims and stages of political work. "1. To consistently separate the party as a whole from the distortions of the past for which specific persons of the old party leadership are responsible: These specific people are justifiably being called to task. "2. To prepare the 14th extraordinary congress of the party, which will evaluate the development and political situation during the January plenum and, in accordance with the principles of democratic centralism, will lay down the compulsory line for the entire party, will adopt an attitude to the federal arrangement ofCzechoslovakia, will approve the new party statute and elect a new Central Committee so that it has the full authority and confidence of the party and the entire society. "3. After the 14th congress to launch the offensive for the solution of all the fundamental internal political questions: toward the construction of a political system based on the socialist platform of the National Front and social self government, the solution of the federal constitutional arrangement, the elections to the representative bodies of the state (federal, national and local) and the preparation of a new constitution.... 'Now, too, it happens that voices and tendencies appear in the press and the radio and in public meetings which are outside the positive endeavors of the party, the state bodies and the national front. "We consider the solution of these questions to be a long-term task and are guided by the resolutions of the May plenary session of the Central Committee according to which 'political leadership cannot be imposed by the old, administrative and power structures.' The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the government and the national front clearly rejected the appeal of the statement of '2,000 Words,' which urges people to engage in anarchist acts, and to violate the constitutional character of our political reform. It should be noted that, following these negative positions, similar campaigns in fact did not occur in our country and that the consequences of the appeal of '2,000 Words' did not threaten the party, the National Front and the Socialist state.... "we know that this situation is facilitated by the abolition of censorship in our country and the enactment of freedom of expression and of the press. What had been spread in the form of 'whispered propaganda,' etc. before can now be expressed openly. "By the law of judiciary rehabilitations we basically solved the painful problem of the illegal reprisals against innocent people which took place in the past years. "In September--immediately after the party congress--other new important laws will be discussed: the constitutional law on the national front, which is to confirm the permanent existence of the system of political parties on the ground of the national front, and, further, a law on the right for assembly and association which sets forth the legal regulations for the birth and activities of various voluntary organizations, associations, clubs, etc. "The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia is trying to show that it is capable of a different political leadership and management than the discredited bureaucratic-police methods, mainly by the strength of its Marxist-Leninist ideas, by the strength of its program, its just policy supported by all the people.... "We, therefore, consider all pressure directed at forcing the party onto another path, that is to settle basic questions of its policy elsewhere and at another time than at the 14th congress, the principal danger to the successful consolidation of the leading role of the party in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. "At the given time the interest of socialism in our country can be served best by a ration of confidence in the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and of full support of its policy by our fraternal parties.... "We think that the common cause of socialism is not advanced by the holding of conferences at which the policy and activity of one of the fraternal parties is judged without the presence of their representatives.... "We do not want our relationships to become worse, and we are willing on our side to contribute to the calming of the situation in the interests of socialism and the unity of the Socialist countries. On our side, we shall do nothing which would be against this aim. We expect however, that the other parties will aid these efforts of ours and will express understanding for our situation....