The Yugoslav View of the Czechoslovakian Armed Forces during the First Years after WWII Cover Image

Југословенски погледи на чехословачку војску првих година после Другог светског рата
The Yugoslav View of the Czechoslovakian Armed Forces during the First Years after WWII

Author(s): Milan P. Sovilj
Subject(s): Military history, Political history, International relations/trade, Military policy, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949)
Published by: Institut za strategijska istraživanja
Keywords: Czechoslovakia; Yugoslavia; Czechoslovakian Amred Forces; cooperation; USSR; foreign policy; military policy;

Summary/Abstract: The first years after WWII brought Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia together and developed various kinds of cooperation between these two countries. Yugoslav diplomatic representatives in Prague and Bratislava and defense attaches regularly reported to Belgrade on the situation in Czechoslovakia, its domestic development and military status. Those reports often contained harsh evaluations of equipment, and the number and expertise of Czechoslovakian Armed Forces (CAF), but also some data on disagreements among officers. The occupation of Czechoslovakia lasted for years and influenced the lives of many officers who were partly in emigration, in the national resistance or inactive back home. Misunderstandings were also present among those officers who were abroad during the war, in the USSR or in England. Czechoslovakian and CAF’s foreign policy was not completely determined right after the war because one side of statesmen and military elite thought that the role model to follow should be the USSR and the other side – the West. Yugoslav diplomatic representatives were under the influence of the USSR, so they supported those Czechoslovakian officers and political and military elite who worked in favor of the USSR.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 149-161
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Serbian