Four-Way Negotiations on western Berlin. Documents for the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (november 1970 - march 1971)
The publication includes documents of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation on the final stage of the quadripartite talks of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France on West Berlin (November 1970 - March 1971). In July 1970, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted additional directives for the representatives of the USSR in the negotiations, which expanded the field for maneuvers of Soviet diplomacy. The main idea of the directives was that it was necessary to seek a compromise: concessions from the West side in terms of curtailing the political presence of Germany in West Berlin and the cessation of activities on its territory hostile to the USSR and the GDR, in exchange for concessions from the Soviet side in terms of access to West Berlin and visits by West Berliners to the capital of the GDR and the surrounding areas. The Soviet negotiators were guided by these directives until early November 20th, 1970. The situation in the negotiations of the four powers by the end of November 1970 was different from that of July of the same year. The positions of the parties were continuously clarified. It remained only to determine its parameters and direction. This task was solved in the new additional directives of the CPSU Central Committee to the negotiations on the West Berlin question (documents No. 1, No. 2). The draft directives were submitted to the CPSU Central Committee by the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the USSR on November 20, 1970 (document No. 3). Soviet diplomacy, proceeding from these directives, prepared new important proposals for the entire complex of Berlin Affairs. Soon they had to be corrected and clarified, because on February 5, 1971, the three Western powers submitted their draft agreement on West Berlin (document No. 4). In view of these new developments, Soviet diplomacy actively began to develop its own draft agreement on West Berlin, which was handed over to the Western powers on March 26, 1971 (document No. 5). The publication allows us to understand what a difficult marathon was passed by Soviet diplomacy on the way to the quadripartite agreement on West Berlin of September 3, 1971.