The Warsaw Letter

TASS, The Warsaw Letter. July 18, 1968

 

The excerpts from the two documents which follow outline the basic issues in the dispute between the Prague Spring reformers led by Alexander Dubcek in 1968 and those promoting the orthodox Marxist-Leninist line in Czechoslovakia, The first is in the form of a warning given to the Czechoslovak reformers after the appearance of their “Two Thousand Words Manifesto,” calling for political reforms in Czechoslovakia, including an end to censorship. The second is the ex post facto justification of the invasion, as given in a Pravda editorial, which became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty of socialist states, emphasizing the primacy of defending “socialist gains” over the bourgeois notion of national sovereignty.

Original Source: Excerpts from TASS release, 18 July 1968.

The development of events in your country evokes deep anxiety in us. It is our deep conviction that the offensive of the reactionary forces, backed by imperialism, against your party and the foundations of the socialist system in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic threatens to push your country off the road of socialism and thus jeopardizes the interests of the entire socialist system… We cannot agree to have hostile forces push your country from the road of socialism and create a threat of severing Czechoslovakia from the socialist community. This is something more than your cause. It is the common cause of our countries, which have joined in the Warsaw Pact …

You are aware of the understanding with which the fraternal parties treated the decisions of the January plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, as they believed that your party, firmly controlling the levers of power, would direct the entire process in the interest of socialism and not let anti-Communist reaction exploit it to grind its own ax. We shared the conviction that you would protect and cherish the Leninist principle of democratic centralism…

Unfortunately, events have taken another course.

Capitalizing on the weakening of party leadership in the country and demagogically abusing the slogan of “democratization,” the forces of reaction triggered off a campaign against the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and its honest and devoted cadres, clearly seeking to abolish the party’s leading role, subvert the socialist system, and place Czechoslovakia in opposition to the other socialist countries…

Anti-socialist and revisionist forces have laid hands on the press, radio and television, making them a rostrum for attacking the Communist Party, disorienting the working class and all working folk, spewing forth uncurbed anti-socialist demagogy, and undermining friendly relations between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the other socialist countries…

This is precisely why the reaction has been able publicly to address the entire country and to print in political platform under the title of “The 2,000 Words,” which contains an outright call for struggle against the Communist Party and constitutional authority, for strikes and disorders. This call represents a serious danger to the party, the national front, and the socialist state, and is an attempt to introduce anarchy… Far from being repudiated, this platform, being so extensively circulated at a responsible movement on the eve of the extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, has, on the contrary, found obvious advocates in the party rank and file and its leadership, who second the anti-socialist calls… A situation has thus arisen which is absolutely unacceptable for a socialist country…

Matters have gone so far that the joint staff exercises of our troops, with the participation of several units of the Soviet Army… are being used for groundless accusations of violations of the sovereignty of the CSSR…

Czechoslovakia can retain her independence and sovereignty only as a socialist country, as a member of the socialist community… It is our conviction that a situation has arisen in which the threat to the foundations of socialism in Czechoslovakia jeopardizes the common vital interests of other socialist countries…

That is why we believe that a decisive rebuff to the forces of anti-communism and decisive efforts to preserve the socialist system in Czechoslovakia are not only your task but ours, too.

The cause of defending the power of the working class and of all working people, as well as Czechoslovakia’s socialist gains, demands that a bold and decisive offensive should be launched against right-wing and anti-socialist forces; that all the defensive means set up by the socialist state should be mobilized; that a stop should be put to the activity of all political organizations that come out against socialism; that the party should take control of the mass-information media-press, radio, and television-and use them in the interests of the working class, of all working people, and of socialism; that the ranks of the party itself should be closed on the principled basis of Marxism-Leninism; that the principle of democratic centralism should be undeviatingly observed; and that a struggle should be undertaken against those whose activity helps the enemy…

We express the conviction that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, conscious of its responsibility, will take the necessary steps to block the path of reaction. In this struggle, you can count on the solidarity and all-around assistance of the fraternal socialist countries.

Source: Richard Lowenthal, The Sparrow in the Cage, Problems of Communism, Vol. 17, No. 6 (November-December 1968), pp. 2-28 (excerpts).

 

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