Circular Despatches of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1969-1980. Vol. II/1 (1969-1972)

The second part of the project of formerly “secret” Circular instructions and information of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the years of the communist period, divided into three volumes for technical reasons, brings a critical edition of the relevant documents from 1969–1980. From the chronological point of view, documents from the entire first half of the so-called normalization are published in these three volumes, starting with the power change in the spring of 1969 and ending at the end of 1980. The first volume publishes documents from the years 1969–1972 (when the ministry was headed by the first federal minister J. Marko and when this office was subjected to the normalization purge). The second and third volumes publish documents from the years 1973–1977, resp. 1977–1980, when the ministry was headed by B. Chňoupek.  The basic issues are the participation of Czechoslovak diplomacy in the preparation of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Helsinki and the problems related to the holding of the first so-called follow-up meetings OSCE in Belgrade and Madrid. An important part consists of documentation on the normalization of relations between Czechoslovakia and FDR, resp. with Austria.