Operacja „Karkonosze” – część prawdziwych przygotowań do interwencji czy gra psychologiczna?
The „Krkonoše” Operation – part of real preparations for an intervention or a psychological play?

Summary/Abstract: The material study examines the special military exercise of the Czechoslovak People’s Army (ČSĽA) in the first decade of December 1980 in relation to the „Polish Crisis”. It was directly related to the events in the neighbouring Poland, where the activities of Solidarność not only imposed a threat on the strategic military communications and the overall Warsaw Pact potential but also represented a serious risk of spreading to the other Socialist countries. Study contains the final report of the Investigation Committee of Parliament of Czech Republic about the „Krkonoše” operation. In confrontation with its conclusions, the study tries to uncover the whole context from a different perspective and point out, on the specific aspects, that it might not have been a case of potential military intervention and that the manoeuvres themselves were of formal nature and had a camouflage focus. The study shows that the exercises of the Warsaw Pact armies around Poland became a well-established means of coercion, in this particular case also with the participation of ČSĽA.

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