Avoiding (unwanted) departures: British diplomacy and Soviet Bloc dissidents during the Cold War

ABSTRACT

In the mid-1970s, no Western leader on an official visit to a Soviet Bloc country wasted any thoughts on whether or not to meet a dissident, even in countries where dissidents actually existed. By the late 1980s, such encounters had become part of an almost obligatory ritual. This remarkably swift and dramatic transformation was both preceded and accompanied by a similar change in the relationship between diplomats and dissidents. All of this happened despite considerable resistance on the part of the regimes in the host countries, which sometimes resorted to retaliatory measures, including expulsions. This article examines the role played by the United Kingdom in this normative and practical change. It identifies the different layers of relationships between the British government and Soviet Bloc dissidents, distinguishing between ‘para-contacts’, political contacts, and diplomatic contacts. It shows how political and diplomatic face-to-face contacts with the dissidents increased in frequency and scope during the 1980s, and how ministers’ and diplomats’ contacts furthered each other. Finally, it discusses possible explanations for this change.

KEYWORDS:

• Cold War
• dissidence
• diplomacy
• British foreign policy
• diplomats

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Western embassy contacts with Soviet Bloc dissidents have so far only attracted limited scholarly interest. However, see Boel, “Entre ingérence étatique et solidarité transnationale”.

2. ”’Five O’clock Tea’ at Mr. Broucher’s,” Svobodne slovo, August 10, 1978, The National Archives (TNA), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (hereafter FCO), FCO 28/3298.

3. Peter Male (Ambassador, Prague) to KBA Scott, August 21, 1978, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

4. Tel., Prague Embassy to FCO, August 11, 1978, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

5. MJE Mayhew (Prague Embassy, hereafter Prague) to RP Campbell (FCO), 13 August 1981, TNA, FO 973/61.

6. Mayhew to Campbell, March 25, 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4421 (it includes a translated version of an article by Bohumil Švarc entitled ‘Spies in Diplomatic Suits”, which appeared in the weekly magazine Kvety. It accused the wife of a former Danish Ambassador, Ursula Müller [Ursule Møller], of being in cahoots with four dissidents put on trial (the Charter 77 signatories Václav Havel, Jiří Lederer, František Pavlíček, Ota Ornest) and of using diplomatic channels to smuggle dissident material to the émigré publications Svedectvi and Listy. Swedish, Canadian and Pakistani diplomats were also identified as ‘spies’.

7. William Drozdiak, “Allies Leave U.S. Behind in Reviving Polish Ties,” The Washington Post, 11 October 1984. About expulsions of diplomats see for example: UPI, ‘Prague expels two British diplomats’, September 28, 1988 (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/09/28/Prague-expels-two-British-diplomats/5199591422400/); and ‘Czechoslovakia expels four British diplomats’, May 26, 1989 (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/05/26/Czechoslovakia-expels-four-British-diplomats/7590612158400); Hughes, “’Giving the Russians”’, 233, 240; Turner, Britain’s International role, 102–103.

8. CMT (Caroline) Elmes (Prague) to JCR Gray (Warsaw Embassy, hereafter Warsaw), 1 June 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

9. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 82.

10. Richard Thomas (Prague) to Alan Montgomery (FCO), 22 October 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

11. Threatened with expulsion from Bulgaria in 1989, Richard Thomas thought: ‘Gotsev’s reaction was bad news. Expulsion of an ambassador was tantamount to breaking relations, and I doubted whether the FCO would thank me for having precipitated such a dire state of affairs. In fact I was pretty sure that they would be fed to the teeth, and would at best consign me to some dreary job at home, organising Queen’s Messenger schedules perhaps, or running the Tuvalu desk, and at my previous rank (for I was still on probation as a Grade 3), or at worst propel me into early retirement’ in Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 82. For David Colvin’s similar worries in Hungary in 1987, see below.

12. Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda, 139.

13. Dockrill, “Verteidigung und Entspannung,” 379; Hughes, ‘British Policy towards Eastern Europe’, 126–127.

14. Geraint Hughes, “’Giving the Russians’”, 234.

15. The Labour Party took a somewhat more outspoken stand. In January 1977, the Labour Party did “condemn[…] the arrest and harrowing by police of the Czech citizens who signed Charter 77 and calls upon the Czech government to respect human rights as it is pledged to do under the Helsinki agreements and the UN conventions,” The Labour History Archive and Study Centre (Manchester), Report 1977 of the 76th conference of the Labour Party, 39.

16. Callaghan, Time and Change, 364.

17. Figgis to Lipsey, 6 April 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3011.

18. Callaghan, Time and Change, 370.

19. There are several FCO Ministers: in addition to the Foreign Secretary (or Secretary of State or Foreign Minister, i.e. the Head of the FCO) there are junior FCO Ministers (Minister of State and the even more junior Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, in both cases the post involves being in charge of a more specifically defined area and responsibility to the Foreign Secretary).

20. Goronwy-Roberts to David Owen, 12 July 1977, TNA, FCO 28/4195. See also Bryan Cartledge to Iain Sutherland, 15 June 1977, FCO28/3093.

21. Background Note on Vladimir Bukovsky, FCO 28/3093. In July 1976 the Government’s official line was that “HMG have no locus standi to intervene on behalf of Soviet citizens. There can, therefore, be no question of our formally raising Bukovsky’s case with the Russians,” Philip John Weston (Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary) to J Meadway, 1 July 1976, TNA, FCO 28/2932. Callaghan probably raised the issue with Boris Ponomarev because the guest formally was a party and not a state representative.

22. The reaction to Orlov’s sentence may also have been influenced by HMG’s legal advisers finding that the government actually had locus standi to raise humanitarian cases which did not concern British subjects with the Soviet and East European governments; Cartledge (EESD) to Mallaby (Moscow Embassy), 11 February 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093; RFE RL Appendix B, RL research, 30 August 1978, RL120/78, Western reaction to the Orlov trial, FCO28/3453. Alexander Ginzburg would recall Owen’s statement when he met Minister of State Peter Blaker in January 1980: ‘Dr. Owen’s statements at the time of the human rights trials in the summer of 1978 had been very important and the dissidents concerned, including himself, had been extremely grateful for them. This kind of support was very important for dissidents’; Record of Conversation between Blaker and Ginzburg at the FCO on 10 January 1980, TNA, FCO 28/5093.

23. Draft ltr., Ewen Fergusson to Cartledge, 31 May 1979(?), TNA, FCO 28/3847.

24. Hurst, British Human Rights Organizations, 45; Boobbyer, ‘Vladimir Bukovskii and Soviet Communism’, 465, 481–82. It should be noted, however, that Solzhenitsyn met Home Secretary Roy Jenkins in 1976.

25. Cartledge to Sutherland, 24 January 1977; Goronwy-Roberts to Sutherland, 26 January 1977; Note by Sutherland, 25 January 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

26. Moore, Margaret Thatcher, 556.

27. Young, One of us, 169.

28. Ibid., 185, 389.

29. Brown, The Human Factor, 97–98. Occasionally, however, her anti-Sovietism may have overshadowed her anti-communism, as illustrated by her seemingly untroubled or even positive attitude towards the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, whom she visited in 1975 and saw again during the latter’s state visit to Britain in 1978 (Percival, ‘Britain’s “Political Romance”’, 83.

30. Thatcher, House of Commons PQs, 5 June 1980, https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104374.

31. It seems, for instance, that Thatcher refused to see the Ukrainian exile Valentin Moroz, draft ltr., Fergusson to Cartledge, 31 May 1979 (?); Mallaby to Fergusson, 31 May 1979; Draft ltr., PS/Prime Minister to Whitlock, TNA, FCO28/3847.

32. Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol. 2, 651.

33. About Bethell see Reddaway, The Dissidents, 156–161.

34. Thatcher, The Downing Street years, 290; Young, One of us, 389.

35. Thatcher, The Downing Street years, 476; Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol. 2, 615; Charles Powell to Colin Budd, 28 November 1986, Prime Minister’s Meeting with Mr. Orlov, TNA, PREM 16/1463; Charles Powell to Lyn Parker, 24 March 1987, TNA, PREM 19/3174.

36. Wynn, Notes of a Non-Conspirator, 193, 198–199.

37. Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol. 2, 109, 112; Hurst, British Human Rights Organizations, 138–41; Brown, ‘The Change to Engagement’.

38. Michael Bourdeaux, “George Urban. Free man of Europe,” The Guardian, 20 October 1997.

39. Lazarová, “Publisher Alexander Tomsky”.

40. Brown, “Margaret Thatcher and Perceptions of Change,” 18–19.

41. Charles Powell to Colin Budd, 28. November 1986, Prime Minister’s Meeting with Mr. Orlov, TNA, PREM16/1463.

42. Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol. 1, 236, 556; and Vol. 2, 229; Thatcher, The Downing Street years, 460; Umberto Tulli, “Bringing Human Rights In’, 2036; Young, One of us, 389; Mark Hurst, ‘Slowing down the going-away process”, 495. See also Brown, The Human Factor, 95, 97.

43. ‘Shunning Solidarity. Thatcher was Suspicious of Polish Solidarity Movement’, Der Spiegel, February 27, 2012 (https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/shunning-solidarity-thatcher-was-supicious-of-polish-solidarity-movement-a-817778.html). See also Stefan Berger and Norman LaPorte, ‘Great Britain’, 135 and 141.

44. Turner, Britain’s International role, 102; Ministerial Visits to East European States, Hansard, HL Deb November 6, 1980 (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1980/nov/06/ministerial-visits-to-east-european).

45. Bátonyi, “Creative Ferment in Eastern Europe”; Young, One of us, 390; ‘British Aide to Visit Soviet’, The New York Times, April 20, 1983.

46. Turner, Britain’s International role, 102.

47. Brown, “The Change to Engagement,” 6.

48. Young, One of us, 390.

49. Thatcher, The Downing Street years, 457. See also Turner, Britain’s International role, 102; Bátonyi, “’Creative Ferment in Eastern Europe’”; Collins, ‘Iron will in Diplomacy’. When Mitterrand went on an official visit to Hungary in 1982, he met the semi-dissident writer Gyula Illyés.

50. Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol. 2, 255–257.

51. Rifkind, “Reflections on the 100th Anniversary”.

52. Alex Macleod, “Britain’s foreign secretary tries to bridge East-West divide. Sir Geoffrey’s East European trip confirms UK’s interest in Ostpolitik,” Christian Science Monitor, 9 April 1985; Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 20–24; Turner, Britain’s International role, 102; Brown, ‘The Change to Engagement’, 8.

53. ”British Foreign Chief Acts as Decoy in Czech Pub”, Los Angeles Times, 12 April 1985; Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 20–24; Turner, Britain’s International role.

54. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 29.

55. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 82, 480. See also Brown, The Human Factor, 229.

56. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 777–782.

57. For a highly laudatory assessment of the visit’s impact (‘a decisive moment in Poland’s history’), see Thorpe, “Behind the Iron Curtain,” 283. For a different and broader perspective, see Domber, Empowering Revolution, 217.

58. MacGregor (Head of Chancery/Deputy Head of Mission in Prague, 1986–1989) quoted in Kandiah and Staerck, The Helsinki Negotiations, 69–70. According to another source, Renton met Charter 77 spokesperson Libuše Šilhánová and representatives of VONS (The Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted) Václav Malý and Anna Šabatová, see Prečan and Paton, The Democratic Revolution, 6.

59. Kandiah and Staerck, The Helsinki Negotiations, 69.

60. Alison Smale, “Twenty Dissidents Reported Arrested Before Pilgrimmage,” AP News, 5 March 1988 (https://apnews.com/article/7351644a8d02e820e0db7e13cb556fd8).

61. Kandiah and Staerck, The Helsinki Negotiations, 70; Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 40. According to another source, Mellor met with Charter 77 representatives Pavel Bratinka, Jiří Dienstbier, Stanislav Devátý, Miloš Hájek, Václav Havel, Bohumír Janát, Martin Palouš, Anna Šabatová, Petr Uhl and with the Chairman of the Jazz Section Karel Srp (Prečan and Paton, The Democratic Revolution, 16).

62. Cartledge to K.G. McInnes (Prague), 4 February 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

63. Ibid.

64. Gray to Elmes, 24 May 1979; Elmes (Prague) to Gray (Warsaw), 1 June 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

65. Peter Blaker’s interest in dissident issues was not new. In February 1977, he posted a Parliamentary Question (PQ) to ask the Foreign Secretary ‘what representations he has made to the Government of the Soviet Union about the arrest of Alexander Ginzburg in breach of the Helsinki Agreement’; Note, EESD, 7 February 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

66. CLG (Christopher) Mallaby to KRC (Kenneth) Pridham (Warsaw), 20 December 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

67. Tombs and Smith, The Polish Crisis, 48.

68. Ibid., 26.

69. Ibid., 49.

70. Ibid.

71. Ibid., 40.

72. Brown, “The Change to Engagement,” 30.

73. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 23.

74. Ibid., 33.

75. Ibid., 26.

76. Ibid., 35.

77. Brian Barder quoted in Staerck, The Helsinki Negotiations, 25; Hopkins, “’Worlds apart’”, 139.

78. Staerck, “Role of HM Embassy in Moscow”.

79. ”Interview with Sir Christopher Mallaby on 17 December 1997”, British Diplomatic Oral History Project (BDOHP), 9 (https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/Mallaby.pdf). See also Mallaby, Living the Cold War.

80. Mallaby to Cartledge, 4 February 1977, TNA, FCO28/3847. An American correspondent in Moscow had offered to arrange a meeting between Iain Sutherland (Deputy Head of Mission, Moscow, 1974–76) and Amalrik, but ‘it was decided that this would not be prudent’. Annotation by Sutherland, Goronwy-Roberts to Sutherland, January 26 ,1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

81. Mallaby to Cartledge, 4 February 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3847.

82. Ibid.

83. Mallaby to Cartledge, 14 February 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

84. Ibid.

85. Mallaby to Cartledge, 13 June 1977, TNA, FCO28/3093. See also Mallaby to Figgis, 13 July 1977, TNA, FCO 28/4195.

86. In January 1980, Sakharov was sent in internal exile in the closed city of Gorky. In December 1986, Gorbachev called him back to Moscow.

87. D.J. Johnson to A.M. Wood (Moscow), 19 September 1980; A.M. Wood to D.J. Johnson, 3 September 1980, TNA, FCO 28/4195.

88. Staerck, “Role of HM embassy in Moscow 29–30; Gary Lee, “Soviets Expel 25 Britons The Washington Post, 15 September 1985.

89. Peter Male (Ambassador, Prague) to KBA Scott, 21 August 1978, TNA, FCO 28/3298. Jiří Hájek was Czechoslovakia’s Foreign Minister during the Prague Spring.

90. FB Wheeler to ANR Millington, 23 November 1977, TNA, FCO 28/5507.

91. Tel., Prague Embassy to FCO, 11 August 1978, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

92. Owen to Prague Embassy, 11 August 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

93. Elmes (Prague) to Gray (Warsaw), 1 June 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

94. Prague Embassy to FCO, 11 August 1977, FCO 28/3298; PJE Male (Ambassador, Prague) to Secretary of State (Owen), 26 October 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3013.

95. Richard Makepeace to Fraser A. Wilson, 6 July 1983, FCO 28/5449; Thomas (Embassy) to Montgomery (FCO), 22 October 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

96. Elmes (Prague) to Gray (Warsaw), 1 June 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

97. Rich (Prague) to FCO, 9 October 1981; Makepeace (Prague) to FCO, 8 October 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

98. Paměť Národa, “Denis Keefe26 https://www.pametnaroda.cz/en/keefe-denis-1958.

99. UK Government, Biography of Denis Keefe CMG, https://www.gov.uk/government/people/denis-keefe–2.

100. DEPP/Denis Keefe to Sally Hinds (FCO), December 23, 1987, TNA, FCO 28/3011.

101. Figgis (FCO) to Stephen Barrett (Prague), June 25, 1987, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

102. Damian Todd (Prague) to Hinds (FCO), December 10, 1987, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

103. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 59.

104. Nigel Thorpe, “Behind the Iron Curtain,” 375.

105. Tombs and Smith, The Polish Crisis, 26.

106. Ibid., 269.

107. Rifkind, ‘Reflections’.

108. Thorpe, ‘Behind the Iron Curtain’, 378.

109. Jonathan Steele, “Sir Brian Barder obituary. Diplomat who negotiated the provision of aid to Ethiopia during the 1980s famine,” The Guardian, 2 October 2017; ‘Sir Brian Barder interviewed by Malcolm McBain on Thursday the 6 of March 1997 at Sir Brian’s homec’, BDOHP, https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/Barder.pdf.

110. Tombs and Smith, The Polish Crisis, 25.

111. Birch to Wilson, 17 January 1983; JA Birch to Wilson, 10 March 1983; Birch to Wilson, 12 April 1983; John Birch to Wilson, 27 April 1983, TNA, FCO20/5507.

112. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 28.

113. Ibid., 29.

114. Ibid., 77.

115. Ibid., 82.

116. There were no embassy contacts with the opposition in the GDR, which was seen as a purely German/West German issue, Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 57.

117. Richard Morris, “Romanian Revolution through British Eyes: ‘Awakening Romania’”, December 11, 2014 (https://blogs.fcdo.gov.uk/paulbrummell/2014/12/11/romanian-revolution-through-british-eyes-richard-morris-awakening-romania/).

118. Smith, Britain and the Revolutions, 246.

119. ”Interview with Sir Christopher Mallaby on 17 December 1997”, BDOHP.

120. Ferguson, “Iron Lady”.

121. ”Shunning Solidarity. Thatcher was Suspicious of Polish Solidarity Movement”, Der Spiegel, February 27, 2012 (https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/shunning-solidarity-thatcher-was-supicious-of-polish-solidarity-movement-a-817778.html).

122. John Birch quoted in Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 34. Charles Moore offers the following perspective on the FCO-Thatcher relationship: ‘Thatcher was also far more willing than the Foreign Office to draw attention to the Soviet Union’s failure to live up to its promises. […] Like all bureaucracies, the Foreign Office was instinctively suspicious of contacts, which were not government to government. It therefore regarded dissidents as a bit of a nuisance […]. Here was another role for the irregulars, notably the conservative MEP Lord Bethell. Mrs. Thatcher always encouraged them to bring dissidents who had managed to get out of the Soviet Union to come and call on her […] The Foreign Office disliked this, and tended to regard the subject as an irritating distraction’, Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol. 1, 556, see also 236, and Brown, The Human Factor, 100–103.

123. B.J.P. Fall to D Johnson (EESD, FCO), 6 June 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

124. Peter Male (Ambassador, Prague) to David Owen, 9 August 1978, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

125. KBA Scott (EESD) to Fergusson, Hibbert and Lord Goronwy-Roberts, 10 October 1978, FCO28/3298.

126. See Neumann, Home with the Diplomats, 118–119; Lequesne, Ethnographie du Quai d’Orsay, 198.

127. Mallaby to Pridham (Warsaw), December 20, 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805. See also D.J. Johnson to A.M. Wood (Moscow), 19 September 1980, TNA, FCO 28/4195.

128. Cartledge to Moscow embassy, 7 February 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

129. Cartledge to Sutherland, 1 February 1977; Note, Call by Amalrik on the Head of the EESD (Cartledge) on 28 January 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

130. Michael Alexander (Prime Minister’s Private Secretary) to Walden, 4 January 1980; see also Mallaby to Cartledge, February 14, 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

131. Wilson to Thomas (Prague), 7 February 1983, TNA, FCO 28/5448.

132. Brown, ‘The Change to Engagement’, 6. Concerning contacts between the FCO and Michael Bourdeaux, see Record of a meeting between Ginzburg and Rifkind, 24 November 1982, TNA, FCO 28/5093.

133. Martin Dewhirst to Lawrence Elliott, 30 September 1985, in Edward Kline Papers, Andrei Sakharov Archives, Harvard University.

134. Cerami, “The Open Society”.

135. Thorpe, “Behind the Iron Curtain,” 383.

136. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 32–33.

137. Ibid., 67.

138. Michael Alexander (Prime Minister’s Private Secretary) to Walden, 4 January 1980, TNA, FCO 28/5093; “Entry and Exit,” The Times, 11 March 1983; ‘Braine Storm’, The Times, 20 May 1983. On the impact of domestic factors on UK attitudes towards Czechoslovakia, see Fergusson to Goronwy-Roberts, 19 October 1978, TNA, FCO 28/3298.

139. ”How the East was lost: the triumph and tragedy of 1989. Misha Glenny smuggled out messages from Eastern European dissidents. Was it all worth it?” Financial Times, 1 March 2020. Glenny is far from the only observer to have noted what they perceive as a discrepancy between Thatcher’s support for free trade unionism in Poland and her domestic policy. Eastern European regime officials had a different perspective. British diplomat Colvin has noted that ‘[c]uriously enough, the fact that she defeated the miners went down very well in Hungary’, Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 34. French diplomats noted that Polish regime supporters found that the main lesson to be drawn from Thatcherism was that it was “the weakening of trade unions’ political role which made a British economic revival possible, notably through the elimination of unprofitable companies”: ‘Voyage de Madame Thatcher en Pologne’ (2–4 November 1988), French National Archives (FNA), AG/5(4)/CD/356, file 1. Finally, it has been argued that there was a striking difference between Thatcher’s assessment of the situation in Soviet Bloc countries and her view of human rights violations during the same period in, e.g. South Africa and Chile (Livingstone, Britain and the Dictatorships, 85; Schaffer, ‘Limits of “Liberal Imagination”’).

140. Birch quoted in Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 34.

141. Thomas (Prague) to Montgomery (FCO), 22 October 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

142. Gray (Warsaw) to Elmes (Prague), 24 May 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

143. Mallaby to Pridham (Warsaw), 20 December 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

144. Thomas (Prague) to Montgomery (FCO), 22 October 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

145. Baudet, “Human rights and Cold War”, 131 (for an audio recording of the encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNaCP4fKFuk).

146. In 1983, some Western leaders, e.g. Helmut Kohl, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Giulio Andreotti, were returning to Moscow.

147. Michael T. Kaufman, “U.S. Official, in Poland, see relations improving,” New York Times, 1 February 1987; Domber, Empowering revolution, 176–77.

148. Paczkowski, ‘Poland and Western Diplomats’, 141.

149. Charles T. Powers, “Bush Arrives in Warsaw, Meets With Polish Leader,” Los Angeles Times, 27 September 1987; Jackson Diehl and David Hoffman, ‘Bush, in Poland, Publicly Backs Solidarity’, The Washington Post, 29 September 1987.

150. Keefe (Prague) to Hinds (FCO), 23 December 1987, TNA, FCO 28/3011.

151. Drozdiak, “Allies Leave U.S. Behind”; Paczkowski, ‘Poland and Western Diplomats’.

152. Hopkins, ‘Worlds apart’.

153. The belief that the Soviet system would not change in the foreseeable future remained influential in leading circles in the West in the mid-1980s (Brown, ‘Thatcher and Perceptions of Change’, 17; Brown, The Human Factor, 101).

154. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 42.

155. Tombs and Smith, The Polish Crisis, 49.

156. Makepeace to Wilson, 6 July 1983, TNA, FCO 28/5449.

157. RH Smith (EESD) to Goodison, 13 April 1983, TNA, FCO 28/5449.

158. Elmes (Prague) to Gray (Warsaw), June 1, 1979, TNA, FCO28/7805; S O’Flaherty (Prague) to Wilson (EESD, FCO), 7 June 1983, TNA, FCO 28/5468.

159. Taylor to FCO, June 1, 1983, and Rhodes to FCO, 12 July 1983, TNA, FCO 28/5449; Note, Czechoslovak trials, Amended contingency text, 3 November 1981, TNA, FCO973/61; Carrington to Prague embassy, 29 September 1981 and Presidency (Dublin) to all COREU, ‘CSCE Working Group: Charter 77’, 25 October 1979, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

160. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 51.

161. In one British assessment the greater toleration shown by Czechoslovak authorities towards such encounters in 1987 had a lot to do with the CSCE process: ‘Plain speaking by Ministers and the work of our delegation in Vienna have certainly played a major role in causing the necessary embarrassment’, Keefe (Prague) to Hinds (FCO), 23 December 1987, TNA, FCO 28/3011.

162. Todd (Prague) to Hinds (FCO), 10 December 1987, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

163. Michael Dobbs, “Allies praise Mitterrand for firm Stand in Moscow,” The Washington Post, 26 June 1984.

164. Luers, “Czechoslovakia: Road to Revolution,” 77–98.

165. Kandiah and Starck, ‘The Helsinki Negotiations’, 60.

166. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 60–61.

167. Ibid., 63.

168. Kate McGovern toured Poland and met Solidarity activists together with a Canadian diplomat Lillian Thomsen; see Burgess, ‘Poland, 1980–1984’, 15.

169. Jiří Hájek, “’Fahren Sie sich halt erhohlen’. Grosseinsatz der Prager Geheimpolizei beim Genscher-Besuch”, Der Spiegel, No. 3, 1981, pp. 103–107; Note (Duclos), 15 February 1983, FNA, 5AG4/CD383.

170. ”Visite du Ministre à Prague”, Note (Duclos), 1 April 1985, FNA, 5AG4/CD383; Le Gourrierec to Jean François-Poncet, 11 February 1981, Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), Direction Europe 1981–85, Box 5557; Boris Catoire to Roland Dumas, 13 June 1985, MAE, Direction Europe 1981–85, Box 5557.

171. Prague Embassy to MAE, September 12, 1987, MAE, Direction Europe 1986–90, Box 6548.

172. Note, File on ‘Voyage de Margaret Thatcher en Pologne’ (2–4 November 1988), FNA, 5AG4/CD356; Note by Jean Musitelli, File on ‘Visite de Mitterrand en Tchécoslovaquie’ (8–9 December 1988), FNA, 5AG4/CD383. The French diplomats soon got further reason to rejoice. On 10 December 1988, Mitterrand received Wałęsa, at the French Elysée palace. Wałęsa later declared on the French TV channel Antenne 2: ‘It is President Mitterrand who unblocked the political situation. The invitation of the French President […] changed everything’ [author’s translation], File 1 ‘Visite d’Etat du Président de la République en Pologne, 14–16 juin 1989, Dossier du Président’, note by Musitelli, 4 June 1989, FNA, AG/5(4)CD/358.

173. Elmes (Prague) to Gray (Warsaw), June 1, 1979, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

174. Thomas (Prague) to Montgomery (FCO), October 22, 1981, TNA, FCO 28/4422.

175. Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 29.

176. Walker, “Moscow Human Rights Defenders,” 920.

177. Hopkins, Russia’s Underground Press, 135.

178. Prečan et al., Im Dienst der gemeinsamen Sache.

179. Domber, Empowering Revolution, 181.

180. Keefe (Prague) to Hinds (FCO), 24 September 1987, TNA, FCO 28/301; Figgis (FCO) to Barrett (Prague), June 25, 1987, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

181. The Warsaw Embassy had a number of officials speaking Polish in the 1980s (Onslow and Kandiah, The British Embassies, 39). In Prague, Richard Makepeace, Denis Keefe, Damian Todd and Patricia Holland (and probably others as well) spoke Czech.

182. Barrett to FCO, July 14, 1987, TNA, FCO 28/7805.

183. Author’s interview with Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, August 5, 2014.

184. Smith (EESD) to Goodison, April 13, 1983, TNA, FCO 28/5449.

185. Ibid.

186. Note, Call by Amalrik on the Head of the EESD (Cartledge) on 28 January 1977, TNA, FCO 28/3093.

187. Patricia Holland (Third Secretary at the Prague embassy) and Todd (First Secretary) were among the four Britons expelled by Czechoslovakia in a tit-for-tat action in May 1989. Ambassador Laurence O’Keeffe found that ‘[t]he removal of two of our Czech speakers (Todd and Holland) was no doubt deliberately designed to impede our contacts with dissidents’, Smith et al., Britain and the Revolutions, 132.