Problems of czech-slovak relations in the 20th century viewed by the soviet historian (July 1968)

The Prague Spring of 1968 is known primarily as a mass democratic movement aimed at giving fresh strength to real socialism, increasing its effectiveness and external attractiveness. Getting ahead of its time, it was stopped by the ruling elites of the USSR and of the Soviet bloc countries, who were not ready for such a far-reaching liberalization of system in one of the socialist countries. The literature concerning the Prague Spring and the August 1968 intervention is extremely extensive and diverse, but putting into circulation of new sources remains actual. The notes and reports of the Soviet experts in the problems of Czechoslovakia and its culture who visited the country in the months of the Prague Spring add new facts to the picture of events and above all expand our knowledge of the perception by the domestic intelligentsia of the processes which took place in the neighbor country. We offer to our readers a report on a visit to the congress of Slovak historians in July 1968 by an employee of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences P.I. Rezonov, who noted not only the differences in the approaches of Czech and Slovak historians to the common past in the relations between these two nations, but also the priority attention of the Slovaks to the problems of federalization of the country, which was not always supported by the Czech reformers, who put the tasks of general democratization at the forefront.