The Brezhnev Doctrine, September 1968

Sovereignty and the International Obligations of Socialist Countries

... It is impossible to overlook the allegations being made in certain quarters that the action of the five socialist countries violates the Marxist-Leninist principle of sovereignty and the right of nations to self-determination. Such claims are untenable insofar as they are based on an abstract, non-class approach... ... Without question, the peoples of the socialist countries and the communist parties have and must have freedom to determine their country's path of development. Any decision they make, however, must not be harmful either to socialism in their own country or to the fundamental interests of other socialist countries ... Whoever forgets this in giving exclusive emphasis to the autonomy and independence of communist parties is guilty of a one-sided approach and of shirking their internationalist duties. ... V. I. Lenin wrote that a person living in a society cannot be free of that society, and it is equally true that a socialist state in a system of other states that make up the socialist commonwealth cannot be free of the common interests of that commonwealth. The sovereignty of individual socialist countries cannot be set against the interests of world socialism and the world revolutionary movement.... ... Each communist party is free to apply the principles of Marxism-Leninism and socialism in its own country, but it is not free to deviate from these principles if it is to remain a genuine communist party.... It must be emphasized that even if a socialist country tries to adopt a position "outside the blocs," it in fact retains its national independence only because of the power of the socialist commonwealth-and above all its chief force, the Soviet Union-and the strength of its armed forces. The weakening of any of the links in the world system of socialism directly affects all the socialist countries, and they cannot look indifferently upon this.... If Czechoslovakia were to be separated from the socialist commonwealth that not only would contravene Czechoslovakia's own vital interests, but would also be of great detriment to the other socialist countries.... To fulfill their internationalist duties to the fraternal nations of Czechoslovakia and to defend their own socialist gains, the Soviet Union and the other socialist states were forced to act and did act in decisive opposition to the anti-socialist forces in Czechoslovakia.... Those who "disapprove" of the actions of the five socialist countries ignore the crucial fact that it is precisely these countries who are protecting the interests of international socialism and the international revolutionary movement....

Needless to say, communists in the fraternal countries could not have stood idly by in the name of abstract sovereignty while [Czechoslovakia] was under the threat of antisocialist degeneration. The action of the five socialist countries in Czechoslovakia corresponds with the vital interests of the Czechoslovak people themselves.... By encroaching on the foundations of socialism in Czechoslovakia, counterrevolutionary elements were undermining the basis of the country's independence and sovereignty.... The assistance provided to workers in the CSSR by the other socialist countries, which thwarted the export of counterrevolution from outside, was in fact a struggle to uphold the sovereignty of the CSSR against forces that wanted to deprive it of this sovereignty Those who claim that the actions of the allied socialist countries in Czechoslovakia were "illegal" forget that in a class-based society there is no such thing as non-class law and there never will be. Laws and legal norms are always subordinate to the laws of class struggle and the laws of social development.... The class approach to this issue can never be discarded under the pretext of legal considerations.... Without question, the actions taken in Czechoslovakia by the five socialist countries, which were aimed at safeguarding the vital interests of the socialist commonwealth and especially at defending the independence and sovereignty of Czechoslovakia as a socialist state, will win ever greater support among all those who genuinely treasure the interests of the revolutionary movement, the peace and security of nations, democracy, and socialism.