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We fight to rebuild - Airmen’s contribution to recognition of the government in exile

Author(s): Ladislav Kudrna / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In the turbulent summer of 1940, the Czechoslovak airmen were among the greatest assets of the foreign resistance movement. A shocking defeat of France and the loneliness of Great Britain affirmed their privileged position. What was highlighted in the difficult negotiations with the British side was the strength of the air force, as well as the success of fighter pilots in the Battle of France. Recognition of the Czechoslovak provisional government could be described as a diplomatic miracle, thanks to a significant contribution by the aviation staff.

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I undertake voluntarily… - Residents, agents, informers and others. The State Security’s secret collaborators, 1945–1989

Author(s): Libor Bílek / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

All of the world’s intelligence or security services have no doubt used and continue to use secret collaborators. The reason is simple: Frequently it is the only way to acquire necessary information from particular suspicious milieus and closed groups of people believed to be engaged in unlawful activities. The State Security (Státní bezpečnost, StB) – Communist Czechoslovakia’s secret political police – always regarded its network of covert collaborators (which on the Soviet model it dubbed an “agency”) as a very important tool in its work.

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Two journeys to the gallows - Life stories of members of the Prague Gestapo Wilhelm Wollner and Friedrich Dennert

Author(s): Jiří Plachý / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In January 1942, the representatives of nine occupied European countries, including Czechoslovakia, met in London to formulate their attitude to post-war punishment of Nazi war criminals and collaborators. Together they adopted the Declaration of St James’s Palace, which later became the basis of the principles according to which war criminals were prosecuted and which were also adopted by the Allied Powers and many other countries.

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The story of a dilatory informer - Robert Sylten – State Security Service (StB) collaborator in Israel

Author(s): Jan Dvořák / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Robert Sylten was never a publicly known or important person. His actions did not make a significant mark on history either. Yet his story certainly cannot be described as commonplace – it dramatically reflected the turbulent history of the 20th century. When watching the fateful twists of Sylten’s life, we can also clearly see some practices of totalitarian regimes.

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Our Comrade in Havana - The establishment of Czechoslovak residency and co-operation with the Cuban Security Service

Author(s): Pavel Žáček / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In the second half of 1959, the policy of the Soviet Union and its satellites towards Cuba changed. An irreplaceable role in this process was played by the Soviet intelligence service, the 1st Chief Directorate of the KGB attached to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, headed by General Alexander Mikhailovich Sakharovsky , which also engaged the security services of Soviet satellites into the complicated foreign operation to obtain an important beachhead in the western hemisphere. However, the scope of Czechoslovak assistance in the area of security and the influence of the Czechoslovak State Security in Cuba have remained basically up to now on the edge of professional interest.

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Karel Vaš in the USSR - A prisoner and collaborator of the people’s commissariat for internal affairs

Author(s): Adam Hradilek / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Investigation file No. 29064 on Karel Vaš was preserved in the State Archives of the Transcarpathian Region. It contains a large amount of interesting information about his activities in the inter-war period as well as his internment in the USSR. The presented edition of documents from the file is supplemented by the transcription of an interview with Karel Vaš on this topic.

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Military Intelligence from Libya and Terrorism - The “Oil” residency in the materials of the Main Military Counterintelligence Directorate

Author(s): Pavel Žáček / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

On the basis of an international treaty between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, at the end of October and the beginning of November 1977, 625 Czechoslovak military experts arrived in Tripoli. Led by Brigadier General Juraj Lalo, they were meant to assist the Libyan armed forces improve their training and to improve the battle readiness of the air force, armoured forces, and artillery.1 The Czechoslovak “normalisation” regime had no excessive illusions about the nature of its north African partner. The only thing that perhaps united them both was their acute anti-Americanism or possibly their opposition to Israel. Besides ensuring the required inflow of foreign currencies with security forces – in a manner similar to their Soviet and East German counterparts – until the year 1989, they strived to take advantage of the relatively opportune political situation in their sphere of interest for the benefit of their power politics.

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Cautious Preparations for the Černínský Palace Revolution - February 1948 and persecution of employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Author(s): Ivana Koutská / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The Communists quickly won control over key ministries after World War II to prepare an eventual bid for power. The Foreign Ministry held out against their traditional methods but could not defy the tide.

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Communist Regime Investigative Aids Help Historians Uncover Secrets - Preparation of the Action 48 card index for researchers’ use

Author(s): Martin Tichý,Olga Bezděková / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

State Security aids for discovering and identifying enemies and opposition, combined with modern computer technology, are providing invaluable assistance to historians trying to map out resistance to the regime.

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Exhibition and Book: Orwell in Photographs, Prague Through the Lens of the Secret Police

Author(s): Pavel Žáček,Anna Pavlíková / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

One of the most interesting bodies of the Czechoslovak Communist political police – the State Security Service (Státní bezpečnost – StB) – was the Surveillance Directorate and its predecessors. Its founding nucleus, numbering 14 men, came into being on March 1, 1948, shortly aft er the Communist putsch. From small, specialized State Security units within the Ministry of the Interior, an independent and comparatively well staff ed body – the Surveillance Directorate – developed, cooperating closely with other constituent parts of the political police. Until 1956, in addition to surveillance, this division had the authority to place people under arrest or carry out house searches.

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2010: New challenges with new answers

Author(s): Mikuláš Dzurinda / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

At the beginning of the 2010–2014 term of the Government, we considered it inevitable to introduce and bring new quality and new dimension to our foreign policy; a valuebased approach to formulate our clear positions on particular issues.

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The Performance of the SR in the UN Security Council

Author(s): Ivo Samson / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

From January 2006, Slovakia has been carrying out its two year mandate as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council (UN SC). It bears – in accordance with the UN Charter – still an exclusive responsibility for international peace and security, despite an increasing number of surfacing opinions about the failure of the initial hope (in the intentions of chapter VII. of the UN Charter), that “the new world order could be founded on the UN” and its “centre” (i.e. the UN SC). This doubt represents (quite rightfully), that the UN has simply not become a binding warrantor of the post-war world order, as spoken of in the UN Charter. Nevertheless, the exclusive position of the UN (especially the UN SC) is still formally in force and the Slovak republic (SR) officially considers its membership in this exceptional body as “something that increases the prestige of the country”.

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The Development of the NATO and the EU Security Policy in 2005 in the Context of the Security and Defense Policy of the SR

Author(s): Vladimir Tarasovic / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The year 2005 was the first whole year of Slovakia’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union and the first year of evaluation in this regard. The SR was able to react to the fundamental change of its political-security situation after the accession to NATO and the EU and despite several enduring problems Slovakia has achieved a number of considerable successes in the security and defense fields throughout this period. The National Council of the SR passed new security documents in September 2005 – The Security Strategy of the Slovak Republic and Defense Strategy of the Slovak Republic – while this year, Slovakia continued its active participation in 14 missions and operations, comprised of 563 members towards the end of the year.

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Ukrajina ako spúšťač existenciálnej krízy V4? Ďalšiu otázku, prosím!

Author(s): Tomáš Strážay / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

Vyšehradská štvorka zastávala v roku 2014 obzvlášť významné postavenie v zahraničnej a európskej politike Slovenska. Kríza na Ukrajine podnietila predstaviteľov krajín V4 na mnohé aktivity nad rámec tradične plánovaných stretnutí a samitov. Hoci na úrovni V4 sa prijímali vyhlásenia deklarujúce spoločný postup, dizonancie vo vyjadreniach niektorých politických predstaviteľov jednotlivých krajín vyvolávali určité otázniky nad perspektívou spolupráce vo formáte V4 v ďalšom období. Viacerí politickí analytici či publicisti vo všetkých štyroch krajinách i mimo nich na základe týchto dizonancií začali hovoriť o existenciálnej kríze vyšehradskej skupiny – vo svetle deklarácií a stanovísk prijatých na politickej úrovni, ako aj ďalších dokumentov, na ktorých bazíruje tento text, však nebol tento trend badateľný. Do popredia tak opäť vystúpila otázka posilňovania vnútornej súdržnosti V4, aj vo vzťahu k rozširovaniu spolupráce o stále ďalšie krajiny vo formáte V4+.

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Zahraničná politika Slovenska v roku 2013

Author(s): Miroslav Lajčák / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

Rok 2013 bol rokom jubileí. Pripomenuli sme si dva významné momenty našich dejín – 1150. výročie príchodu sv. Cyrila a sv. Metoda na územie Veľkej Moravy a 20. výročie vzniku Slovenskej republiky. Najmä ten druhý míľnik nám poskytol ideálnu príležitosť obzrieť sa späť a zhodnotiť vývoj, ktorým sme za uplynulé dve dekády prešli. Som rád, že môžeme hovoriť o úspešnom príbehu. Z krajiny, ktorá sa krátko po svojom vzniku ocitla takmer na európskej periférii, sme dnes rešpektovaným, dôveryhodným a zodpovedným partnerom. Stali sme sa súčasťou najužšieho jadra európskej integrácie (eurozóny i Schengenu) a aktívne sa zapájame do diskusií na pôde EÚ, vrátane tých, ktoré sú kľúčové pre ďalšie smerovanie európskeho projektu.

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Stálica sa volá západný Balkán

Author(s): Július Lőrincz / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

Západný Balkán patrí medzi trvalé priority zahraničnej politiky Slovenska od jej začiatkov po súčasnosť a vzhľadom na dosiahnuté výsledky, úroveň vzťahov s tamojšími štátmi a kontext vývoja v spomínanej oblasti s politikou Európskej únie nie je dôvod očakávať, že by sa v tom niečo zmenilo. V prvopočiatkoch boli motívy takejto orientácie najskôr historické a kultúrne, k čomu v deväťdesiatych rokoch pristúpili tragické spory a vojna na území rozpadávajúcej sa Juhoslávie, a teda bezpečnostná hrozba takmer v bezprostrednom susedstve. Slovensko sa angažovalo v hľadaní východísk z tejto krízy, odstraňovaní jej následkov a stabilizácii, čo najmä v nasledujúcom desaťročí prerástlo do uplatňovania európskych hodnotových polôh – t. j. riešenia konfliktných situácii dialógom, nastoľovania dobrých susedských vzťahov, rozvoja demokracie a princípov právneho štátu, rozvoja trhového hospodárstva a šírenia euroatlantickej integrácie – v slovenskej zahraničnej politike na západnom Balkáne. Spája sa to s úspechom Slovenska na ceste euroatlantickej integrácie a so šírením tohto procesu do juhovýchodnej Európy, k čomu prispeli ďalšie európske štáty a USA.

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Zahraničná politika Slovenska v roku 2010 z pohľadu prezidenta Slovenskej republiky

Author(s): Ivan Gašparovič / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

The hectic international development in the first months of 2011 created an impression that 2010 was not very dynamic or even indistinct from the foreign policy perspective. However, we should not succumb to this delusion. Since the outbreak of the 2008–2009 global financial and economic crisis, the international development commenced its long journey of global or local turbulences that follow in the international events of 2010 and have continued with dramatic changes in the Arab world in 2011. As for Slovak foreign policy, it was also a year of changes in the government, the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on the emphasis on specific aspects of foreign policy.

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Rok 2010: Nové výzvy aj odpovede

Author(s): Mikuláš Dzurinda / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

At the beginning of the 2010–2014 term of the Government, we considered it inevitable to introduce and bring new quality and new dimension to our foreign policy; a value based approach to formulate our clear positions on particular issues.

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Zahraničná politika Slovenska v roku 2007 optikou ministra zahraničných vecí SR

Author(s): Ján Kubiš / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

The year 2007 was the fifteenth year of Slovakia’s independence. In that time the Slovak Republic has transformed from a country striving to strengthen its identity and prove itself, building administrative capacities and its position in international relations almost from zero – to a country which is firmly anchored in reliable and secure integration structures of the world and active in the most significant relations of international events. Although Slovakia is not a great power, in its own way it managed to create adequate conditions for the promotion of its interests as well as unambiguously and consistently to operate in favor of the international community while applying the principles of democracy, humanity and solidarity in the fight for human rights and against poverty and other global threats. Although this road was not straight and smooth all the way, during the 15 years the development towards the clearly set integration goals gained momentum and in a relatively short period of time Slovakia was able to achieve strategically significant progress in its international political position.

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Pôsobenie Slovenskej republiky v Bezpečnostnej rade OSN (2006 – 2007)

Author(s): Peter Burian / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

Our membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was a unique opportunity to show that the Slovak Republic is a responsible member of the international community capable of contributing to the resolution of both global and regional issues. It was historically the first membership of the independent Slovak Republic in the UNSC, which is generally considered the most effective instrument for dealing with the questions of international peace and security. Slovakia was thus given the historically first opportunity to assume an appropriate share of global responsibility and directly take part in the resolution of current security issues and challenges in the world and in the adoption of the relevant decisions of this body. In this spirit, we pursued the following basic objectives and principles during the UNSC membership: • promotion of democratic values and rigorous application of the principles of international law with the goal of contributing to both the resolution of crisis situations in the world and to the effective operation of this UN body; • reinforcement of the international standing of the SR as a country capable of contributing to the resolution of complex international problems; • utilization of the SR’s unique transition experience, Slovak diplomacy’s expert potential, and comprehensive knowledge of certain regions to enrich the UNSC debate and to seek effective solutions intended to reinforce regional as well as global security and stability; • rigorous defense of SR’s interests and security priorities as laid down in The Security Strategy of the SR; effective application of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU; • active contribution to the effective operation of the UNSC and to the reinforcement of its transparency and openness, in particular towards other UN member states, including complex reform of the UNSC and the reform of its working methods. I believe that the results we achieved while pursuing the afore-mentioned objectives, as well as the impression we have left behind in the UNSC thanks to the superior and responsible execution of our membership, fully reaffirm that we have handled the exceptionally demanding task very well. The experience and reputation our foreign service has gained during the Security Council membership needs to be utilized adequately in the upcoming years to further our standing on the international scene. One of the ways of achieving this is also building upon what we have started and accomplished in the Security Council.

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