A Good Example of Peaceful Coexistence? The Soviet Union, Austria, and Neutrality, 1955–1991 WOLFGANG MUELLER WOLFGANG MUELLER A GOOD EXAMPLE OF PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE? THE SOVIET UNION, AUSTRIA, AND NEUTRALITY, 1955‒1991 ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN PHILOSOPHISCH-HISTORISCHE KLASSE HISTORISCHE KOMMISSION ZENTRALEUROPA-STUDIEN HERAUSGEGEBEN VON ARNOLD SUPPAN UND GRETE KLINGENSTEIN BAND 15 WOLFGANG MUELLER A Good Example of Peaceful Coexistence? The Soviet Union, Austria, and Neutrality 1955‒1991 Vorgelegt von w. M. Arnold Suppan in der Sitzung am 18. Juni 2010 Cover: The Austrian chancellor, Julius Raab (r.), welcomes Nikita Khrushchev in his office, 30 June 1960, photograph by Fritz Kern, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Bildarchiv, FO504632_4_48. Cover design: Oliver Hunger British Library Cataloguing in Publication data. A Catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library. Die verwendete Papiersorte ist aus chlorfrei gebleichtem Zellstoff hergestellt, frei von säurebildenden Bestandteilen und alterungsbeständig. Alle Rechte vorbehalten ISBN 978-3-7001-6898-0 Copyright © 2011 by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Druck und Bindung: Prime Rate kft., Budapest http://hw.oeaw.ac.at/6898-0 http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... 9 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 13 Soviet-Austrian relations, 1945–1955 ......................................................... 13 “Peaceful coexistence” ................................................................................ 16 The Austrian state treaty and declaration of neutrality ................................ 20 The aim, sources and structure of this study ................................................ 29 I. Laying the Groundwork and Changing Neutrality, 1955–1960 ............ 39 1. Two Differing Concepts of Neutrality .................................................... 41 The Soviet attitude towards neutrality .................................................. 43 The Soviet theory of neutrality in the late 1950s and 1960s ................ 56 Austria’s neutrality, its Swiss model, and the Soviet interpretation ..... 67 2. The Post-State Treaty Honeymoon… ..................................................... 77 The establishment of friendly relations ................................................ 79 Frictions ................................................................................................ 86 3. …and its Sudden End ............................................................................. 89 The Hungarian revolution ..................................................................... 89 The recovery ......................................................................................... 95 4. Starting Anew: After the Hungarian Revolution .................................... 103 The Raab visit and the Lebanon crisis .................................................. 106 Cultural relations and the World Youth Festival 1959 .......................... 111 The Khrushchev visit ............................................................................ 116 Economic relations ............................................................................... 122 5. Summary: Soviet “Thaw” and the Making of a Neutral ........................ 127 II. Overcast, but Friendly? 1961–1972 .......................................................... 133 6. The Soviet Union, Austria’s Rapprochement with the EEC, and the Convocation of the CSCE .................................................................... 135 The Soviet attitude towards an Austrian rapprochement with the EEC, 1959–1963 ......................................................................................... 138 The Alleingang, 1963–1967 ................................................................. 150 The EEC issue and the Soviet encouragement for convoking the CSCE,1967–1972 .............................................................................. 162 6 Contents 7. The Czechoslovakian Crisis of 1968 and Austria’s Military Vulner- ability ..................................................................................................... 175 The Warsaw Pact’s intervention and the Soviet reputation in Austria.. 175 Warsaw Pact plans and Austria’s self-defense ...................................... 180 8. Making Economic and Cultural Relations Mutual ................................. 187 Trade ..................................................................................................... 187 Cultural relations and personal contacts ............................................... 192 9. Summary: Soviet Containment and Encouragement; Austria’s Ostpolitik and Further Neutralization ...................................................................... 197 III. Détente, the Heyday of Multilateralism, and the Last Peak of the Cold War, 1973–1984 .......................................................................................... 201 10. Political Relations and the Rise of Multilateralism .............................. 203 Kreisky, “active neutrality,” and Austrian-Soviet relations ................ 207 The USSR and Austria on the international stage .............................. 215 11. A Thorn in the Side: Human and Cultural Contacts ............................. 225 Soviet dissidents, the Jewish exodus from the USSR, and the Austrian media ................................................................................... 225 Cultural exchange, tourism, and the image of the other ..................... 230 12. Booming, but not Enough: Economic Relations .................................. 235 Austria’s dependency and trade deficit ............................................... 238 13. The Final Peak of the Cold War ........................................................... 245 To boycott or not to boycott? .............................................................. 248 Trade or embargo? .............................................................................. 251 14. Summary: Declining Soviet Interest in Neutrality despite Austria’s Efforts ................................................................................................. 253 IV. The Aftermath, 1985–1991 ........................................................................ 259 15. The End of the Cold War, European Integration, and the Obsolescence of the Special Relationship ................................................................... 261 Gorbachev, Austria’s EC application, and the disintegration of the USSR ............................................................................................... 261 Humanitarian aid and economic relations .......................................... 269 Human contacts, scientific and cultural cooperation .......................... 271 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 275 Documents ......................................................................................................... 287 Document 1: Conversation A. Mikoian – J. Raab, Vienna, 24 April 1957 (in German) ............................................................................................... 287 Contents 7 Document 2: Personal letter N. Bulganin – J. Raab, 8 January 1958 (in German and Russian) .......................................................................... 293 Document 3: Conversation N. Khrushchev – A. Schärf and B. Kreisky, Moscow, 13 October 1959 (in German) ................................................... 298 Document 4: Conversation A. Gorbach – N. Khrushchev, Moscow, 29 June 1962 (in German) ........................................................................ 300 Document 5: Conversation N. Khrushchev – B. Pittermann, Moscow, 17 September 1962 (in German) .............................................................. 318 Document 6: The Democratic Lawyers Association’s Theses on Neutrality, Sofia, 14 October 1962 (in English) ......................................................... 327 Document 7: Conversation A. Gromyko – K. Waldheim, Moscow, 22 March 1968 (in English, translated from Russian) .............................. 328 Document 8: Conversation L. Brezhnev – B. Kreisky, Moscow, 8 February 1978 (in German) ................................................................... 330 Document 9: Report Austrian embassy Moscow – Austrian MFA, On Austrian Soviet Relations, 23 November 1985 (in German) .................... 333 Soviet Ambassadors to Austria, Austrian Ambassadors to the USSR.......... 339 Abbreviations .................................................................................................... 341 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 343 Index .................................................................................................................. 377 List of Tables 1 Soviet-Austrian trade, 1955–1960 .............................................................. 124 2 Defense indicators of neutral states in the mid-1980s ................................ 185 3 Soviet-Austrian trade, 1961–1972 .............................................................. 191 4 Soviet-Austrian trade, 1973–1984 .............................................................