Paměti diplomatů komunistického Československa. (Příspěvek kvýznamu pamětí ve výzkumu mezinárodních vztahů, zahraniční politiky a diplomacie) Prečítať

MEMOIRS O F CZECHOSLOVAK COMMUNIST DIPLOMATS. (CONTRIBUTION TO IMPORTANCE OF MEMOIRS IN THE RESEARCH OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, FOREIGN POLICY AND DIPLOMACY)

Zdeněk Veselý

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Politické vedy, Volume 22, Number 3/2019, pages 142-163

DOI: http://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2019.22.3.142-163 

Recommended form for quotation of the article / Odporúčaná forma citácie článku:

VESELÝ, Z. 2019. Paměti diplomatů komunistického Československa. (Příspěvek kvýznamu pamětí ve výzkumu mezinárodních vztahů, zahraniční politiky a diplomacie). In Politické vedy. [online]. Vol. 22, No. 3, 2019. ISSN 1335–2741, pp. 142-163. Available at: http://doi.org/10.24040/politickevedy.2019.22.3.142-163 

ABSTRACT

Memoirs of politicians and diplomats present very interesting, but rather default field of the research of international relations. In the following paper the author examines with using of method of analysis and comparison  the possible concepts of the activities of the selected Czechoslovak diplomats serving to the totalitarian stateas a satellite of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. The authors of the memoirs of the Czechoslovak Communist diplomats were divided by author into two groups with following results of research: The first group includes the politicians and diplomats whowere active during the Prague Spring. At the same time, also those who approached (and actively endeavoured to) the Czechoslovak foreign policy and diplomacy as an ally of the Soviet Union but not as its satellite and that is complied with the needs and interests of the Czechoslovak state). To the second group belong the diplomats from the period after the suppression of the Prague Spring, i.e. from the period of normalisation. Unlikely to the first group, these diplomats strived for an absolute subordination to the foreign policy of the Soviet Union as the crucial guarantor of the Czechoslovak interests.

Key words: memoirs, international relations, diplomacy, foreign policy, Cold War, détente, Communist Czechoslovakia, Prague Spring,Warsaw Pact