Both Czech and Slovak government officials have registered their dismay at a new Russian documentary about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 that was broadcast on Russia’s state-run Rossiya 1 TV channel on May 23.
A statement on the Slovak ministry of foreign affairs website said they had been “unpleasantly surprised” by the film, entitled Warsaw Pact – Pages Declassified, describing it as an attempt “to rewrite history and to falsify historical truths about such a dark chapter of our history”. Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova called it “lies”, and said the issue had been raised with the Russian ambassador as the same time as a demand for an explanation over Russia’s travel ban on a string of prominent Europeans.
Along with its Warsaw Pact allies, Russian troops entered Czechoslovakia in a successful attempt to halt the Prague Spring liberalisation reforms instituted by the country’s then leader, Alexander Dubček. Over 100 Czechoslovaks were killed and five times that wounded. Warsaw Pact – Pages Declassified has been accused of seeking to claim that the invasion was designed to prevent the “illegal armed overthrow of the government” as Nato troops were poised “to enter Czechoslovakia”.
Czech European MP Pavel Telička said the film was “more proof of the deterioration of Russian democracy and the onset of Brezhnev-like thinking and behaviour”.
