Word: come
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Afternoon Off. Svoboda soon decided that he wanted to talk directly with the Kremlin leaders; Moscow agreed that he could come, but insisted that representatives of the conservatives on the Presidium must also be represented. Bilak and Indra joined the delegation, as did another conservative, Jan Filler, the party boss of Middle Bohemia. To balance the lineup, Svoboda was also permitted to bring along three Dubcek loyalists: Defense Minister Dzur, Minister of Justice Bohuslav Kucera and Central Committeeman Gustav Husak. It began to look like Cierna all over again?but on the Kremlin's terms. Before leaving, Svoboda asked...
Unreality ruled once more when Svoboda arrived in Moscow. The whitehaired general was given a 21-gun salute, presented with flowers and bussed on both cheeks by Brezhnev, Kosygin and President Nikolai Podgorny, who had come to the airport to greet him. Together the four rode in an open car, waving to thousands of Russians who had been given the afternoon off, oddly enough, to hail the conquered hero...
When Svoboda sat down with Brezh nev in the Kremlin, he discovered that the Russians wanted to talk only with him and the six men that had come with him from Prague. Svoboda demanded that Dubcek and Cernik be in cluded. When Brezhnev demurred, Svoboda threatened to break off all negotiations, and Brezhnev gave in. Svoboda then informed the Czechoslovaks in a message broadcast over Prague's free radio station that Dubcek "was at his side" in the Kremlin confrontation...
...Cernik and Smrkovsky to continue in office. This would leave mat ters pretty much where they stood after Cierna?except that Soviet tanks would still be in Czechoslovakia as enforcers of the agreement. There were even reports that the party bosses from Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Bulgaria might come to Moscow to give their endorsement to such an accord...
...answer is that the dangers constituted by Dubcek's Czechoslovakia finally came, in their estimation, to outweigh all the dangerous consequences of invasion. The Kremlin leaders must have come to the conclusion that Czechoslovakia's experiment would sooner or later prove fatal to the system that they had so carefully constructed since World War II. Freedom of speech and of the press, the right of free assembly, criticism both from within the party and political clubs outside it-all threatened to un dermine and eventually destroy Eastern European Communism. Poland, Hungary, East Germany were all susceptible...