Jugoslávie a československý disent v prvním desetiletí normalizace
Yugoslavia and the Czechoslovak dissent in the first decade of the normalization

A thematic edition of documents from Belgrade archives

Summary/Abstract: In the beginning, the authors set the edition into a historical context. They recall the sympathies toward and illusions about Yugoslavia, which persisted in all segments of the Czechoslovak society throughout the existence of state socialism in Czechoslovakia (1948–1989), and state their reasons. These sympathies peaked at the time of the Prague Spring and after the Soviet invasion in August 1968, which Yugoslavia’s leaders condemned. However, Tito’s leadership perceived the Czechoslovak reform process ambiguously, trying to avoid any steps which the Soviet Union might interpret as interference in its sphere of interest. During the so-called normalization in the 1970s and 1980s, they were maintaining essentially friendly relations with Czechoslovak Communist rulers. These facts, however, seemed to escape deposed representatives of the so-called reform process, as indicated, for example, by the initiative to establish an exile government in Belgrade after the Soviet invasion, a later attempt of the former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Zdeněk Mlynář (1930–1997) to obtain political asylum in Yugoslavia, or personal letter of the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubček (1921–1992) addressed to Josip Broz Tito. The edition contains eleven documents dating back to 1970 and 1977, the originals of which are deposited in Belgrade archives.

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