ECHOES OF THE «PRAGUE SPRING» OF 1968 IN TRANSCARPATHIA: ACCORDING TO THE MATERIALS OF THE STATE ARCHIVE OF THE TRANSCARPATHIAN REGION

Abstract

The article highlights the question of the reaction of the party and Soviet leadership, as well as the population of the Transcarpathian region to the events in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The study is based on the materials of the State Archive of the Transcarpathian Region, which were not previously published. We note that the archive did not include the main documents - the materials of the 3rd plenum of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which considered the issue of events in Czechoslovakia. This happened at the level of acquisition of the fund in October 1990. In total, 25 cases P-1 have been withdrawn from the description of 6 funds. Some materials are preserved in the «Soviet» fund R-195. We are talking about the certificates and information that the party and Soviet leadership sent to the republican center, as well as letters from the chairman of the regional executive committee of the Transcarpathian regional council V. Rusin and the head of the culture department of the Transcarpathian regional executive committee V. Kerechanin to the first secretary of the Transcarpathian regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Yu. Ilnitsky. The Soviet leadership saw the events in Czechoslovakia as a direct threat to the socialist system. Therefore, the propagandists were entrusted with the task of «correctly» conveying the party's policy for members of the CPSU, as well as broad segments of the population. For this, special information letters were sent in the region of the Ukrainian SSR. Researchers have identified at least two propaganda campaigns to interpret the «Prague Spring»: the first (summer 1968) – aimed at supporting the official position of the USSR on the events in Czechoslovakia; the second – in August 1968 – from the «popular» discussion of the TASS message about «fraternal assistance» – the introduction of troops of the Warsaw Pact Organization into Czechoslovakia. Under special supervision was the Transcarpathian region – the territory that in 1920-1930. was an integral part of Czechoslovakia. Here, state security agencies especially closely monitored the reaction of the population to events in Czechoslovakia. A significant number of the recorded 1,182 cases of critical statements and assessments of the situation from «anti-Soviet positions», were in Transcarpathia. The leadership of the region was entrusted with a number of tasks: through the exchange of delegations through party, Soviet, Komsomol, trade union bodies, public organizations, cultural and sports societies, journalists to communicate with the leadership of the East Slovak region, to receive the necessary information from them regarding the development of events in Czechoslovakia; inform the senior republican leadership; restrict access to information that came from Czechoslovakia through radio, television, the press; propaganda processing of ordinary members of the CPSU and the population of the Transcarpathian region.