Report by a Czechoslovak State Security (StB) Official on the Arrest of Dubcek and Other Members of the CPCz CC Presidium, August 21, 1968

Our Source: Navratil, Jaromir. "The Prague Spring 1968".  Hungary: Central European Press, 1998, pp. 416-417
Original Source:  OSD, Sb. KV, A, from the documents left by L. Hofman, chairman of the Defence and Security Committec of the National Assembly in 1968.
Translated by: Mark Kramer, Joy Moss and Ruth Tosek
Comment: This is a report made by a Secret Police Official on the arrest of Dubček and the other prominent members of the CPCz CC by Soviet Spetznatz Troops.

21 August 1968

Between 8:00 and 8:30 A.M. a group of six people were selected on orders from Lt. Col. Rypl. Those orders were conveyed by Jaroslav Coufal. The six included Mráček, Beran, and Šimon from the 5th Section of the 2nd Department of the StB Supreme Staff, and Kokta, Jelinek, and Škapa from the 7th Section. The group was given the task of protecting the Soviet adviser at the counterintelligence unit, Mukhin, and another plainclothes Soviet security officer, who left for the Soviet embassy in separate cars. Their departure for the Soviet embassy was mentioned at the time, but the actual departure occurred only after a wait of about two hours. At the embassy a tank was already in place, along with a communications vehicle, the GDR ambassador's car, and several Bronevik-type armoured vehicles. Soon afterwards, motorized formations were mobilized in a wide radius around the embassy.

Mukhin arrived at about 11:00 A.M. and divided out the duties: One StB official was to head the military convoy to the Central Board for Communications, another StB official was to go to the radio building, and other officials were assigned to the building of the CPCz Central Committee. The members of this last group, however, were ordered to stop first at the regional StB administration to see Molnář. The convoy heading for the CPCZ Central Committee was accompanied by Major Marcel Šimon, an officer of the StB. It consisted of about 10 tanks, a communications vehicle, and a Volga car carrying a plainclothes Soviet security officer, a small, dark-haired man who was fairly young and moved briskly. The military formation was under the command of a Soviet officer wearing a colonel's uniform. All three were seated in the Volga. From the conversation between the officer in uniform and the KGB official it appeared that the colonel was somewhat unhappy and kept asking "what are we going to do there", "why are they sending us there", "we've come all the way from Dresden," and so forth. 'Me plainclothesman told the colonel that they bad arrived the previous day as tourists and were afraid they might be discovered since the number plates of their cars were jotted down at the ČSSR border. He also said that immediately after arriving in the ČSSR their group had been given the task of tracking down Cisař, they had looked for him but did not find him. They had even gone to his home.

At the CPCZ Central Committee there were already 10 StB officials from the Prague regional police administration. 'They said they had been called that morning and dispatched to the Central Committee by Molnář the act as bodyguards for some members of the CPCz Central Committee. At around 9:00 A.M. the Soviet commander of the building asked these officials which of them would like to call Cdes. Dubček, Smrkovský, Kriegel, and Špaček out of the conference room. They were to be summoned on behalf of the StB and handed over to Soviet officers. This is precisely what happened. Several StB officials called out the above-named comrades and, on orders from a Soviet officer, took them to the office of the absent Čestmir Cisař. StB officials and a Soviet officer took turns standing guard over them."