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“SRERTS RE OREESER FEE

Party and government leaders of the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic have
asked the USSR and other allied states
to give the fraternal Czechoslovak
people urgent assistance, including as-
sistance with armed forces.

This appeal stems from the threat
to the socialist system and the consti-
tutionally’ established statehood in
Czechoslovakia from counter-revolu-
tionary forces that have entered into
collusion with external forces inimical
to socialism.

The need for the historical decision
to turn to the Soviet Union and other
fraternal socialist countries for aid was
fully substantiated in the appeal of a
group of members of the Central Com-
mittee of the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia, the government and
the National Assembly of the Czecho-
slovak Socialist Republic published in
Pravda on August 22, 1968. This need
‘stemmed from the threat of a fratrici-
dal struggle engineered by the Czecho-
slovak reactionaries.

In conformity with the commitments
assumed at the Bratislava Conference
of Communist and Workers’ Parties, the
principles of inviolable friendship and
cooperation and the existing treaty ob-
ligations, the governments of the Soviet
Union and the other allied nations de-
cided to satisfy this request and give
the fraternal Czechoslovak people all
the necessary assistance. By doing so
the fraternal socialist countries are dis-
charging their common internationalist
duty. ;

: e

‘Relations with Czechoslovakia, with
its Communist Party have always oc-
cupied a prominent place in the policy
of the CPSU and Soviet government
and in the minds and hearts of Soviet
Communists and all Soviet people.
There is nothing fortuitous about this.
The age-old traditions of Slavonic com-
munity had long been enhanced by in-
violable bonds of common struggle for
the freedom, independence and social
progress of our two peoples.

Our two Parties and peoples fought
shoulder to shoulder against the dan-
ger of enslavement, against the Hitler-
ite invaders. In the life-and-death

é grapple with fascism for the freedom

and independence of the first socialist
state and the deliverance of the other
enslaved nations, more than 20 million
Soviet people gave up their lives. More
than a hundred thousand Soviet sol-
diers are buried in various places in
Czechoslovakia. These people fought

. shoulder to shoulder with the heroic

Czechoslovak patriots and Ludvik Svo-

voda’s glorious corps for Czechoslova- .

kia’s deliverance from Hitlerite fas-
cism. It was in those grim years that
the firm foundations were laid for the
unity and brotherhood between our
two peoples.

After the rout of the Hitlerites the
Czechoslovak people chose the social-
ist road. This still further cemented thé
bonds of friendship between our two

peoples. The years of joint advance in
socialist and communist construction
have raised our friendship to new and
and higher levels.

The fraternal friendship and combat
comradeship between the USSR and
Czechoslovakia were cemented by the
Treaty of. Friendship, Mutual Assist-
ance and Postwar Cooperation conclu-
ded back in 1943 and prolonged in 1963.
Loyal to this Treaty our two states,
Parties and peoples are committed to
come to one another’s assistance in the

event of a threat to the security of our ,

borders, of a threat to the cause of
socialism.
‘In reply to the establishment of the
aggressive NATO bloc, which also in-
cluded revanchist West Germany, a
number of socialist countries of Eu-
rope joined in setting. up the Warsaw
Treaty Organization, which has placed
an insuperable barrier in the way of
all who would try to endanger peace
and the socialist gains of our peoples.
Over two decades the fraternal rela-
tions between the USSR and Czecho-
slovakia successfully developed in all
fields; in politics, economy and culture.
Nothing clouded our friendship. The
successes scored by the Czechoslovak
people were considered our successes,

while the working people of Czechoslo-—

vakia acclaimed the achievements of
the Soviet peoples as their own achieve-
ments.

In the days when the Soviet people
were celebrating the 50th anniversary
of Soviet power and summing up the
results gained on the road traversed
under the leadership of the Communist
Party, the Party of Lenin, the Com-
munist Party and the people of Czecho-
slovakia rejoiced with us at the glorious
results of the victorious October Revo-
lution.

Our two peoples are linked together
by sincere and cordial bonds of bro-
therhood, respect and affection. For
every Soviet person “Czech” and “Slo-
vak” have become synonymous for
“friend” and “brother”. The Commun-

_ ists of the USSR and the Czechoslovak
Socialist Republic are fused by the -

common duty of comrades and fellow
thinkers marching under one banner,
who have chosen for themselves one
road in life, the road of communism.
Soviet Communists have always shown
profound respect for the Communist
Party of Czechoslovakia as a reliable,
steadfast militant detachment of the
world communist movement, unswerv-
ing in its loyalty to the ideas of Marx-
ism-Leninism and the noble banner of
proletarian internationalism.

It is the conviction of our Party and
the Soviet people that even today the
working class, peasantry and honest
intelligentsia of Czechoslovakia have
not changed their attitude to our com-
mon cause, that of building a new so-
ciety, that they are loyal in their
friendly attitudes to our people and to
the cause of socialism in the Czecho-
slovak Socialist Republic. Nor have the

240-million-strong Soviet people now

_ building a communist society changed

their attitude to Czechoslovakia and its
people. We are also faithful to the
friendship which our two Parties have
been strengthening ever since the end
of the war.

I

Our Party treated with understand-
ing the decisions which the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia took at its Plenary
Meeting last January. At the same time
it was evident that even then the pre-
vailing situation could weaken the
Party of Czechoslovak Communists
and intensify moods hostile to social-
ism existing in certain sections of
Czechoslovak society that have suc-
cumbed to the influence of bourgeois
outlooks and imperialist propaganda.

These apprehensions were frankly
expressed in the true party spirit during
the conversations which the leaders of
the CPSU had with the leaders of
Czechoslovakia in Moscow in January
and in Prague in February. It was sta-
ted quite definitely at these meetings
that the choice of the way of building
socialism and of the forms and me-
thods of party guidance of social pro-
cesses was exclusively and fully within
the: scope and competence of the Cen-
tral Committee of the Communist Party

’ of Czechoslovakia and that our Party

did not have and could not have any
intentions of imposing upon the Com-
munist Party of Czechoslovakia any re-
commendations whatever on this score.
At the same time, the attention of the
leadership of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Czechoslova-

kia ‘was called to the already intensify- -

ing activities of Right-wing revisionist
elements which tried to capitalize upon
the situation obtaining in the country
for purposes far removed from the in-
terests of socialism.

At that time the leaders of the Com-
munist Party of Czechoslovakia de-
clared that they were aware of the
strained political situation in the coun-
try and would take the necessary mea-
sures to stabilize the situation. How-
ever, time went by and our Party saw
with growing anxiety that actual events
began to take an increasingly different
direction from that anticipated by the
Czechoslovak leaders. The develop-
ments showed that in the Communist
Party itself a situation began to deve-
lop marked by confusion, vacillation
and uncertainty. Reactionary anti-
socialist forces in the country, relying
on the backing of world imperialism,
reared their heads.

All this was cause for alarm not only

Defence of socialism:
~ supreme internationalist duty

and the Czechoslovak Socialist Repub-
lic. By common consent such a meeting
was arranged in Dresden on March 23.

At the Dresden Meeting the Czecho-
slovak comrades did not deny that cer-
tain negative processes were develop-
ing in the country, that the mass media
had been taken away from party con-
trol and had in effect fallen into the
hands of anti-socialist elements, and
that the Right-wing forces were conso-
lidating. At the same time, the Czecho-
slovak representatives stated that the
Party as a whole was in control of the
situation and that there were no
grounds for serious alarm.

The Soviet representatives and all the
delegations of the other fraternal par-
ties noted with full candor that they
believed the picture to be different.
They indicated the tangible danger with
which the prevailing situation was
fraught. From all the facts they drew
the conclusion that a trend was in evi-.
dence which could lead to a counter-
revolutionary coup. The CPSU delega-
tion and also the delegations of the
Bulgarian Communist Party, the Hun-
garian Socialist Workers’ Party, the
Polish United Workers’ Party and the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany de-
clared that they supported the Czecho-
slovak Communist Party leadership
and the positive content of the deci-
sions of the January Plenary Meeting
and that their entire position was for
helping the Czechoslovak comrades to
rebuff the insolent anti-social elements
and consolidate the positions of social-
ism in Czechoslovakia.

Subsequent developments confirmed
the conclusions drawn by the fraternal
parties while they regrettably failed to
justify the optimism shown by the lead-
ers of the Communist Party of Czecho-
slovakia. The March-April Plenary
Meeting of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Czechoslova-
kia failed to take measures for stabiliz-

. ing the situation. On the contrary, as

facts showed, a number of planks in
the action program of the Czecho-
slovak Communist Party, which was
adopted at this Plenary Meeting, came
in effect to be exploited by the Right-
wing elements as a kind of legal plat-
form for mounting further attacks on
the Communist Party, the foundations
of socialism, and -the friendship be-
tween the Czechoslovak and Soviet

_ peoples.

Anxiety increased still further when,
clearly under the influence of Right-
wing anti-socialist forces, a wide-scale ©
campaign was set afoot in the country
to besmirch all the previous activities
of the Communist Party of Czechoslo-
vakia, when a broad-scale process was
got under way of the wholesale replace-

for our Party. Just as gravely perturb————ment-of party and government func-

ed by the developments in Czechoslo-
vakia were the fraternal parties of Bul-
garia, Hungary, the GDR and Poland.
The need arose for a meeting and ex-
change of views with the leaders of the
Communist Party of Czchoslovakia

tionaries which undermined the sta-
bility of the social system and gave
rise to a wave of anti-Soviet propagan-
da in the press, on radio and television,
clearly inspired by reactionary forces,
and when sundry organizations plac-

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 13, 1968—Page 11