Memoirs of Czechoslovak Communist Diplomats. (Contribution to Importance of Memoirs in the Research of International Relations, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy) Cover Image

Paměti diplomatů komunistického Československa. (Příspěvek k významu pamětí ve výzkumu mezinárodních vztahů, zahraniční politiky a diplomacie)
Memoirs of Czechoslovak Communist Diplomats. (Contribution to Importance of Memoirs in the Research of International Relations, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy)

Author(s): Zdeněk Veselý
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Univerzita Mateja Bela
Keywords: memoirs; international relations; diplomacy; foreign policy; Cold War; détente; Communist Czechoslovakia; Prague Spring; Warsaw Pact;

Summary/Abstract: Memoirs of politicians and diplomats present very interesting, but rather default field of the research of international relations. In the following paper the author examines with using of method of analysis and comparison the possible concepts of the activities of the selected Czechoslovak diplomats serving to the totalitarian state as a satellite of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. The authors of the memoirs of the Czechoslovak Communist diplomats were divided by author into two groups with following results of research: The first group includes the politicians and diplomats who were active during the Prague Spring. At the same time, also those who approached (and actively endeavoured to) the Czechoslovak foreign policy and diplomacy as an ally of the Soviet Union but not as its satellite and that is complied with the needs and interests of the Czechoslovak state). To the second group belong the diplomats from the period after the suppression of the Prague Spring, i.e. from the period of normalisation. Unlikely to the first group, these diplomats strived for an absolute subordination to the foreign policy of the Soviet Union as the crucial guarantor of the Czechoslovak interests.

  • Issue Year: 22/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 142-163
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Czech