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Czechoslovakia Relations with Communist Nations
Central to Czechoslovakia's relations with communist nations
in the late 1980s was its relationship with the Soviet Union. In
his address to the Seventeenth Party Congress in March 1986,
Husak reasserted the importance Czechoslovakia attaches to its
alliance with the Soviet Union. The party chief reconfirmed the
"lasting significance of the alliance, friendship, and
cooperation with the USSR for vital interests of the Czechoslovak
people and for safeguarding the security of our state." That
alliance, which Husak described as "based on mutual respect and
understanding and on the identity of views between our communist
parties on all the fundamental questions," represents the
"safeguard on which we rest all our plans and perspectives."
Soviet influence in Czechoslovak foreign affairs was
institutionalized after 1948 through the economic alliance of the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), founded in
1949, and the Warsaw Pact military alliance, founded in 1955 and
renewed in 1985
(see Appendix B;
Appendix C).
The framework for
Soviet influence was expanded with the 1968 introduction of the
so-called Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty and the 1970
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance between
Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Devised as a Soviet
justification of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, the
Brezhnev Doctrine asserts the right of military intervention by
Warsaw Pact forces whenever one of the member countries is
perceived by Moscow to be threatened either internally or
externally, or whenever events in one of these nations are
perceived to endanger the socialist alliance. Shortly after the
invasion, Czechoslovak officials effectively endorsed the
doctrine when they explained that the Warsaw Pact troops "decided
to render internationalist assistance to Czechoslovakia" after
receiving appeals for help from "party and state leaders,
communists, and working people of Czechoslovakia." The 1970
friendship treaty, among other provisions, legitimized the
invasion and the ongoing stationing of Soviet troops on
Czechoslovak soil and bound Czechoslovakia to support any war
engaged in by the Soviets.
Since coming to power in 1969, the Husak regime has pursued
one fundamental objective in its relations with the Soviet Union:
to maintain its position as a loyal ally and a staunch defender
of Soviet policies. In pursuing this goal, Czechoslovak officials
have downplayed any distinct Czechoslovak foreign policy
interests that may have existed and instead have adopted Soviet
interests as their own. Whereas other East European communist
regimes on numerous occasions in the 1970s and 1980s adopted
foreign policy positions that differed from those of the Soviets,
the Husak regime has consistently echoed the Soviet stance.
Probably the most pressing issue affecting Czechoslovakia's
relations with the Soviet Union in the late 1980s was trade. In
1986 trade with the Soviets constituted almost 50 percent of
Czechoslovakia's total trade
(see Foreign Trade
, ch. 3). Heavily
dependent on the Soviet Union for energy, Czechoslovakia was hard
hit by the rising cost of Soviet energy exports. Domestic
economic problems, such as declining productivity, low
investment, and corruption, made it difficult for Czechoslovakia
to produce high-quality exports for the Soviet Union.
Czechoslovakia's response to these trends was to advocate even
further integration of the Comecon network and particularly the
Soviet and Czechoslovak economies.
Czechoslovakia conducted its relations with the other
communist nations of Eastern Europe largely through the
multilateral facilities of the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. The
Prague government was a proponent of the integration of both the
economies and the foreign policies of the nations of the region,
and it pursued this goal through the mechanisms of Comecon and
the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Warsaw Pact.
Bilateral relations between Czechoslovakia and the communist
nations of Eastern Europe were, in large part, a reflection of
their respective relations with the Soviet Union. East Germany,
which shared the vision of Soviet-dominated "proletarian
internationalism" and was the most ardent critic of the Dubcek
regime during the 1970s, became Czechoslovakia's closest friend
in Eastern Europe. Poland, with which Czechoslovakia shares a
border of some 600 kilometers, was another close friend of the
Husak regime through the 1970s. The development of independent
trade unions and the demand for economic and political reform in
Poland in 1980-81 led to strains in the otherwise amicable
relations between the two countries. Labor strife in Poland
concerned Czechoslovak authorities primarily for two reasons:
Poland's port of Szczecin served as Czechoslovakia's main sea
outlet, and strikes there disrupted Czechoslovak exports and
imports; but, even more important, officials feared that labor
unrest in Poland would spill over into Czechoslovakia. The mining
area around Ostrava, which was close to the Polish border and
inhabited by a sizable Polish minority, was of special concern,
and some labor difficulty was reported in the area in late 1980.
Czechoslovak officials feared that dissident intellectuals and
workers in Czechoslovakia might unite in their support of the
working-class dissidents in Poland.
Not surprisingly, Czechoslovakia became the East European
nation loudest in its denunciation of Poland's deviation from
socialist unity. At the Sixteenth Party Congress in April 1981,
Husak harshly criticized the independent labor unions and their
leadership and blamed the "antisocialist" forces abroad for
encouraging the "counterrevolutionaries" inside Poland. He
pledged support for fellow Polish communists but withheld
explicit support for the Polish party or its leadership. The
Czechoslovak leadership applauded the December 1981 imposition of
martial law in Poland, referring to it as a necessary act of
self-defense. Once martial law was established, Czechoslovakia
ceased its criticism of Poland and instead turned its attention
to resolving bilateral issues, primarily Czechoslovak-Polish
trade.
Romania refused to participate with its fellow Warsaw Pact
members in the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Instead, it loudly
condemned the action and, as a result, had less cordial relations
with the Husak regime than with other Warsaw Pact members.
Yugoslavia too condemned the invasion, and the Yugoslav
ideological stance has evoked constant criticism from Prague,
although trade relations between the two states have continued.
Albania also condemned the invasion, using it as a pretext to
withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. Albania's ideological dispute with
Moscow precluded the development of normal relations with
Czechoslovakia.
Likewise, commercial relations with China, which were active
until 1964, were strained thereafter by the Sino-Soviet dispute
and by China's condemnation of the 1968 Warsaw Pact action. In
the 1980s, Czechoslovakia's relations with China began to improve
as both nations sought to expand bilateral trade as a first step
toward improving political ties.
Czechoslovakia has remained active in its relations with
nations of the Third World, especially socialist nations and what
is termed "the national liberation struggles in Asia, Africa, and
Latin America." Although Czechoslovakia had political and trade
relations with the whole gamut of Third World communist nations
during the mid-1980s, its relations were especially close
(perhaps because of relative geographic proximity) with Ethiopia,
the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and the Mongolian
People's Republic. Of Soviet-aligned but noncommunist countries,
Syria and Libya were particularly close to Czechoslovakia. Of the
"national liberation movements," the Palestine Liberation
Organization and the insurgents in southern Africa were
especially favored by Prague. Czechoslovak relations with the
communist Third World typically involved political and military
cooperation, trade, and economic and technological cooperation.
Data as of August 1987
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