“Friendly Help” in 1968 and the Outbreak of the So-called Normalisation of Society

In the late evening of 20 August 1968, the invading armies of five Warsaw Pact states, namely the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Bulgaria, crossed the borders of the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Next day, tanks of these armies drove through the streets of Czechoslovak towns. This marked the end of the pro-reform period in communist-led Czechoslovakia that gradually developed into the “normalisation” of society.

The end of the so-called Prague Spring and the outbreak of normalisation is evidenced, amongst others, through file no. KR 723486 MV and its “permanent value materials” (MTH). The change in the conditions in Czechoslovakia after the invasion of the “friendly” armies is seen, for instance, in a record made in the file describing a check and interviewing of a Czechoslovak student who studied in the former West Germany, who was held at the Rozvadov border crossing on 13 September 1969. A search in his car led to the confiscation of Turkish dailies and magazines, the book Prager Tagebuch by Ivan Steiger, and especially photographs from Prague streets from the first days of the occupation in August 1968, that have still been preserved as “permanent value materials” in the file. The file also contains a letter of confirmation dated 12 September 1969, mentioning that the import of the confiscated press and photographs to Czechoslovakia had already been banned at the time. The topic of the August 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia became a public taboo for the ruling Communist Party and its security apparatus for the next twenty years.

However, you can view these photographs from August 1968 through our website today. The file KR 723486 MV is accessible via eBadatelna, our viewing application.

Source: ABD, Counterintelligence files, arch. no. KR 723486 MV, including MTH materials.