The Russian View(s) of the Prague Spring

In: Journal of Cold War studies, Band 14, Heft 2, S. 128-141

Abstract

This essay discusses five recently published volumes dealing with the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. These volumes mark the first extensive involvement by Russian scholars and archivists in historical assessments of the Soviet-Czechoslovak crisis. Reams of declassified documents and analytical essays in four of the volumes illuminate the events of 1968 and add details and nuances, but they do not alter the basic interpretations developed by Western scholars in earlier decades. The fifth volume, put out by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), says more about the mentality of the Putin-era MVD than about the events of 1968. Adapted from the source document.