Ondřej Vojtěchovský

The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague, Czech Republic
e‑mail: ondrej.vojtechovsky[at]ustrcr.cz

Jan Pelikán, Ondřej Vojtěchovský - In Anticipation of Fading: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in the Initial Months of the Normalisation Era
Abstract

The study maps the period from the spring of 1969 to the early 1970 as Husák’s suite established itself at the helm of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) and the state. Its stance towards Yugoslavia was ambiguous. The conservative and dogmatist members of the new regime considered the Yugoslav “revisionists” to be the inspiration for and the supporters of the Prague Spring. A part of the normalisation suite including Gustáv Husák himself wished to renew good relations with Belgrade and obtain a gesture of recognition from it to boost its own legitimacy. The Yugoslav leaders insisted on condemning the Soviet invasion in August 1968 while accepting the new status quo. They tried to avoid accusations of actively interfering with Czechoslovakia’s internal matters since Yugoslavia’s own foreign policy strategy was based on the principle of non‑interference. Czechoslovak‑Yugoslav relations were influenced by the Soviet Union, which normalised its relations with Yugoslavia for pragmatic reasons again after a brief period of deterioration. However, both Soviets and Yugoslavs used the Czechoslovak platform to present more critical and offensive stances than they would show to each other. In effect, Czechoslovak‑Yugoslav relations remained markedly more reserved than Soviet‑Yugoslav relations of the period. The arrival of new power structures in Prague did not affect the practical level of the relations, in particular in economic terms, since both sides were extremely interested in cooperation. The study also analyses the Slovak aspect of relations to Yugoslavia and the impact of political matters on social phenomena such as tourism and travel.

Ondřej Vojtěchovský - Every Assassination Led into a Circle of Violence: An Interview with Christian Axboe Nielsen on his Research and Forthcoming Book on the Yugoslav State Security Service’s “Illegal Operations”
Abstract

Christian Axboe Nielsen is an associate professor of history and human security at Aarhus University in Denmark, where he regularly lectures on the history of South Eastern Europe and other topics. Besides his academic career, he worked as an analyst and external consultant for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and witnessed at five trials including the trial of Radovan Karadžić. Currently he is conducting research on the state security and intelligence services of socialist Yugoslavia. The activity of Yugoslav state security (UDBA, SDB) was a topic of Professor Nielsen’s presentation at the Prague conference on the 100th anniversary of Cheka in November 2017. His book "Yugoslavia and Political Assassinations. The History and Legacy of Tito’s Campaign Against the Émigrés" on violent operations of Yugoslav secret service against political émigrés is scheduled for publication in November 2020.