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Cold War on Ice

Documents on the political and diplomatic aspects of international hockey during the Cold War. (Image, Soviet stamp commemorating ice hockey at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria)

Popular Documents

February 28, 1968

Note from P. Shelest to CPSU Central Committee

A note from P. Shelest to the CC CSPU regarding a suspicious incident relating to Czechoslovak unrest.

April 1, 1969

Minutes of the 18th Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the events of March 28 and 29, 1969

The Czechoslovakia Executive Committee discusses the anti-Soviet protests of March 28-29 following the defeat of the Soviets by the Czechoslovak national team at the hockey world championships in Stockholm. Segments dealing with procedural or organizational matters and parts where the discussion repeats itself or digresses to other, unrelated issues have been omitted.

April 1, 1967

Embassy of the USSR in Czechoslovakia, 'Information About the Reaction in the ČSSR to the Game between the National Teams of the USSR and the ČSSR at the World Championships in Vienna'

Soviet ambassador in Czechoslovakia, Stepan Chervonenko, sends a report warning about the growth of tension between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak fans expressed strong hostility and anti-Soviet sentiments at a game between the Soviet and Czechoslovak national teams at the 1967 World Hockey Championships in Vienna.

April 1, 1969

Record of Conversation, Czechoslovak Defense Minister Martin Dzúr and Soviet Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, Prague

Top Czechoslovak and Soviet military officials discuss the recent anti-Soviet protests in Czechoslovakia following the following the defeat of the Soviets by the Czechoslovak national team at the hockey world championships in Stockholm. Defense Minister and Marshal of the Soviet Union andrei Grechko warned that Warsaw Pact troops would invade again if the Czechoslovak leadership could not contain the anti-Soviet protests.

March 30, 1969

Letter, Soviet Deputy Head of the Department of the Central Committee P. Ivanshutin, on Czechoslovak Protests following Czechoslovak-Soviet Hockey Game

Letter describing anti-Soviet protests in Czechoslovakia following the defeat of the Soviets in the Ice Hockey World Championships.