Československo a Írán v 60. letech 20. století: překvapivé partnerství
Czechoslovakia and Iran in the 1960s: an unlikely partnership

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the rapidly changing attitudes of Czechoslovakdiplomacy towards Iran at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s when theinitially rather hostile mutual relations were replaced by an extraordinarypartnership, especially in economic relations but partially also in politicsand culture. The peak of the process of rapprochement came in thelate 1960s when first Shah Muhammad Pahlavi made a state visit toCzechoslovakia in 1967, and this was followed by the official journeyof Czechoslovak President Ludvík Svoboda to Iran two years later. Thefact that the two countries were affiliated with the opposite superpowerblocs during the ongoing Cold War made this shift in Czechoslovakforeign policy towards Iran particularly surprising. The rapid progressof Czechoslovak-Iranian relations in the 1960s was in contrast to thestill relatively slow development of relations between Czechoslovakiaand other pro-Western countries in the Middle East. This article aims toexplain the political reasons for such an unexpected partnership betweencommunist Czechoslovakia and the Iranian Empire. The research willdraw on recently declassified sources from relevant Czech archives.Subsequently, the dynamics of Czechoslovak-Iranian relations during the1960s will be evaluated.

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