Document No. 49: Notes of CC CPSU Politburo Session March 3, 1989

1Yet another Politburo member returns from a trip to Eastern Europe and sounds the alarm. In these notes, Ryzhkov describes his talks with the prime minister of Czechoslovakia, Ladislav Adamec, and reports that the country is in total crisis: “half of Czechoslovakia does not support the government, because all of them—and their children and grandchildren, too—are connected to ‘the year 1968.’” If Gorbachev had changed his interpretation of those events during his 1987 trip—as many Czechoslovaks had hoped he would—or simply encouraged the CPCz to do so, the communists might have gotten out ahead of the issue.

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2Concerning talks with Adamec (Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia)

3Ryzhkov: Five hundred thousand have been expelled from the CPCz. Already half of Czechoslovakia does not support the government, because all of them— and their children and grandchildren, too—are connected to “1968.” […]

4The CMEA. We need to finally stop apportioning who gets what for every brick; we need to start just trading with one another.

5Gorbachev: This Adamec is a reliable man. He told me: we will get nowhere with this kind of personnel!

6[Source: Archive of the Gorbachev Foundation. Fond 2. Opis 1. On file at the National Security Archive. Translated by Anna Melyakova.]