A Matter of Courtesy: The Role of Soviet Diplomacy and Soviet “System Safeguards” in Maintaining Soviet Influence on Czechoslovak Science before and after 1968 (original) (raw)

In 1969,af ew shortm onthsa fter theW arsawP acti nvasiono f Czechoslovakia, Sergei I. Prasolov,a dvisor to the Soviet Ambassador in Prague,i nformedF rantišek Šorm, Presidento ft he Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, at af ormalm eeting that he welcomed Šorm'ss uggestiont o intensifys cientifice xchange betweenC zechoslovakia andt he Soviet Union.Šormp olitely declinedt hiso ffer.B ehindt he veneero fd iplomatic courtesy on thep arto fb otha ctors, ar eald rama wast akingp lace.Šorm andthe CzechoslovakAcademy of Sciencesh ad actually never formulated such ar equest.T ot he contrary,s ince thel ate1 950s thea cademyh ad repeatedly pointedo ut that theS ovietsw erei ncapable of coordinating scientificactivitiesinthe Eastern Bloc.The Soviet system of academic cooperationw ithint he EasternB loch ad already begunt oc ollapse after the Geneva Summit of 1955,w here theS ovietso penedt he door to international collaborationacrossthe Iron Curtain. Yetitwas only in thelate1960s that theSovietsrealizedthatwhile they dominatedlarge-scaleinternational collaboration, they hadl ostcontrol of internal developments withinthe Eastern Bloc.