From the archives: The Warsaw Pact Condemns Its ’68 Invasion of Prague

MOSCOW -- Leaders of the Warsaw Pact, removing what had remained an important political and psychological brake on reforms under way in Eastern Europe, Monday condemned as illegal their countries’ 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia that brought an end to the political and economic reforms of the “Prague Spring.”

The Warsaw Pact’s declaration marked a crucial first step toward the transformation of the 34-year-old, Soviet-led military bloc into the “political alliance” now advocated by Moscow--and perhaps toward its outright dissolution.

Adopted at a meeting here of Warsaw Pact leaders under the chairmanship of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the joint statement condemns the invasion, justified two decades ago as a defense of socialism, as “interference in the internal affairs of Czechoslovakia.”

“Disrupting the process of democratic renewal in Czechoslovakia, those illegal actions had long-term negative consequences,” the statement said, accepting the legitimacy of the 1968 reforms and lamenting the impact that the invasion had not only on Czechoslovakia but on other East European countries in halting the reform process.

“History showed how important it is, even in the most complex international situation, to use political means for the solution of any problems, to observe strictly the principles of sovereignty, independence and non-interference in internal affairs,” the statement said.

The declaration, a striking confession of error that will call many other actions, both foreign and domestic, into question in virtually all socialist countries, was signed by the Soviet Union, whose troops led the invasion, and by Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary and Poland, which all sent support contingents.

Romania, the other Warsaw Pact member, had condemned the invasion from the outset and refused to send troops. A spokesman for the Romanian delegation said that it accepted but did not sign the statement.

Ironically, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu is now the most hard-line leader in Eastern Europe and a severe critic of the reforms in the Soviet Union and other East Bloc countries.

The Czechoslovak government Sunday had called upon the five countries that had dispatched troops to repudiate their action as “an infringement to the normals of relations among sovereign states.”

The Soviet Union also opened negotiations Monday, as requested by Czechoslovakia, on the withdrawal of the 75,000 Soviet troops still stationed in the country.

Both Prague and Moscow said, however, that the withdrawal would be carried out as part of the general reduction in conventional armed forces in Europe now under negotiation between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact.

But the talks between Prague and Moscow are likely to be expanded soon, according to informed East European sources, to cover the withdrawal of the Soviet forces remaining in Hungary and Poland.

“With this declaration and the negotiations with Prague, the Warsaw Pact as we have known it is coming to an end,” a member of one of the delegations from Eastern Europe said as he left for home Monday evening. “Do not kill off the Warsaw Pact--at least not yet--but all is now in question.”

The Warsaw Pact meeting here on Monday brought together for the first time new leaders from all of those countries, and Gorbachev and other top Kremlin leaders spent much of the day consulting with them individually on developments in their countries.

Some of the new leaders, notably President Egon Krenz and Prime Minister Hans Modrow of East Germany and Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Poland, were introduced around by veterans and Soviet officials as the meeting opened in the Kremlin.

Gorbachev had convened the unusual session, according to Soviet officials, to report on his weekend summit with President Bush on Malta but also to discuss the recent developments in Eastern Europe with the new leaders emerging in most of those countries.

He told the leaders that he had received from Bush a solemn pledge that the United States and its allies will not interfere in the changes still under way in the region and that this guaranteed that the reforms could proceed freely, without fear of becoming embroiled in a renewed confrontation between East and West.

“Much attention was paid to the events and the process of change going on in Eastern Europe,” Gorbachev told the other leaders, according to official Soviet accounts. “Great attention was also paid by both sides to stability in Europe; what would make Europeans more confident of their future.”

Gorbachev, as he has increasingly in recent weeks, then argued strongly for the accelerated transformation of the Warsaw Pact into a political rather a military alliance.

“Realism makes one proceed from the fact that the existing alliances, NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organization alike, will remain for the foreseeable future,” Gorbachev said. “They can contribute, however, to the strengthening of European security as political alliances; become a bridge on the basis of high and joint responsibility.”

Although it has long advocated disbanding both alliances, Moscow now sees the Warsaw Pact as the best vehicle for negotiating the sharp reductions it wants in conventional armed forces in Europe. And, as a political organization, it could help resolve the probable conflicts between East European countries as historical rivalries emerge with the replacement of communism by nationalism.

Gorbachev met separately on Monday with the East German and Czechoslovak delegations and with Ceausescu. The meetings with the East German and Czechoslovaks were described as friendly, reflecting Gorbachev’s strong support for the reforms they have begun. But the session with Ceausescu was characterized as “frank,” a reflection of the serious differences that Gorbachev has with the Romanian leader.

This intense give and take, informed Soviet officials commented, will undoubtedly shape further developments in the region. But Moscow is uncertain what it can do to manage the change. “Events are running ahead of our understanding of them,” a senior adviser to Gorbachev said over the weekend. “We are trying to get a grip on what is going on, to get ahead of this powerful wave sweeping the Continent.”

In Moscow’s view, the admission of error on the 1968 invasion was “a necessary and fundamental act,” another Soviet official explained, “because the very things that we are doing were being attempted in Czechoslovakia.

“There are important issues of legitimacy, of integrity and of historical imperative involved. . . . You could say that, until we admit we were wrong, politically as well as morally, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, then we could not assert that perestroika and the reforms in Eastern Europe are correct today.”

Although Prague had offered on Sunday to create joint historical commissions to assess the circumstances surrounding the invasion, and thus ease its comrades through this awkward admission, none of the countries needed such a political device.

In its own statement, separate from that signed by the Warsaw Pact leaders, the Soviet government went further, accepting the blame for the invasion and praising Czechoslovakia’s 1968 reforms--and those now under way there.

“Czechoslovak society is at the stage of a critical reassessment of the experiences of its political and economic development,” the Soviet statement said. “This is a natural process. Many countries undergo it in one way or another.

“Regrettably, the need for constant socialist self-renewal and realistic appraisal of events has not always been taken for granted, particularly in situations when such events intertwined in a contradictory way and required bold answers to the challenges of the times.”

The Soviet leadership had sided with one group during the 1968 reforms, the statement continued, in the belief that developments in Czechoslovakia should be assessed as part of the “acute East-West confrontation.”

That assessment and the subsequent decision to intervene militarily were “erroneous,” Moscow said.

BACKGROUND

Twenty-one years ago, Czechoslovakia experienced a brief period of political liberalization that became known as the Prague Spring. Key points of the reform movement, instituted by party leader Alexander Dubcek, included reduced restrictions on elections, freedom of expression and religion, curbs on police and increased trade with the West. The movement was crushed in November, 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled into eastern Czechoslovakia. Other Warsaw Pact nations joined the Soviets in responding to what a rightist faction in the Czech government called Dubcek’s betrayal of socialism. Dubcek, and about 500,000 of his supporters, were ousted from the Communist Party, and hard-line leader Gustav Husak took his place. The ouster of Dubcek effectively ended political reform in Eastern Europe.

BACKGROUND

Twenty-one years ago, Czechoslovakia experienced a brief period of political liberalization that became known as the Prague Spring. The reform movement, instituted by party leader Alexander Dubcek, was crushed in November, 1968, when Soviet tanks rolled into eastern Czechoslovakia. Other Warsaw Pact nations joined the Soviets in responding to what a rightist faction in the Czech government called Dubcek’s betrayal of socialism. Dubcek, and nearly 500,000 of his supporters, were ousted from the Communist Party, and hard-line leader Gustav Husak took his place. The ouster of Dubcek effectively ended political reform in Eastern Europe.