At the end of May 1983, a secret meeting took place in the office of Czechoslovak President Gustáv Husák involving high-ranking Soviet officials including Marshal Sergej Achromejev and Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Malcev. During this meeting, as revealed by a document recently discovered in the National Archive in Prague, the Soviets issued a clear demand that Husák must agree almost immediately to the deployment of new Soviet missiles with nuclear warheads on Czechoslovak soil. Despite the diplomatic language used, such as 'we propose' and 'it would be appropriate,' the urgency and seriousness of the situation was unmistakable.

The document describes the SS-12 missiles, which are 12 meters long, weigh nearly ten tons, and have a range of 900 kilometers, making them capable of striking western Europe with nuclear payloads. The presence of these missiles in Czechoslovakia would have posed a significant threat not only to the region but also heightened the risk of war, considering the geopolitical tensions of the time. This detail underlines the strategic importance the Soviet Union placed on Czechoslovakia as a front line state against NATO in the Cold War era.

This historic finding was made by historian Prokop Tomek, who highlighted the implications of this revelation in an article published earlier this year on the website of the Military Historical Institute. The documentation sheds light on the aggressive stance of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and raises questions about Czechoslovakia's sovereignty and decision-making under pressure from the Soviet leadership.