Radio Vltava — East Germany's failed covert information operation in 1968

This article looks at a clandestine radio station operated by East Germany in support of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. [1]

Although named after the same river, the Radio Vltava of 1968 and 1969 should not be confused with the eponymous station currently operated by the public broadcaster ČRo (Český rozhlas – Czech Radio). 

Some ČRo veterans have said the name of the current station was deliberately chosen at its launch in 1972 as an attempt to erase the memory of the earlier operation.

I also look at some other pro-Soviet radio activity targeting Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Acknowledgements

Along with the published sources listed at the end of this article, I must thank my BBC Monitoring colleague Simona Kralova, whose knowledge of both Czech and German helped me to understand the problems that Radio Vltava faced. 

Thanks also to my fellow radio hobbyists Kai Ludwig and Wolfgang Büschel, who confirmed several points about what happened in 1968 from their informed perspectives either side of the inner German border.

Most of the detailed published accounts of Radio Vltava's operations are in Czech or German and I wanted to tell its story in an English-language article. 

RADIO VLTAVA

Summary: Radio Vltava was run by, and from, East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, GDR), targeting audiences in Czechoslovakia following the Soviet-led invasion and occupation of the country in August 1968. Posing – entirely unconvincingly – as an authentic Czechoslovak station, it broadcast hardline pro-Kremlin material supporting the invasion and criticising the reforms of the Prague Spring that had prompted it.

Radio Vltava's technical operations were competent. It aired a substantial volume of daily output, produced in a professional broadcasting environment and carried by a powerful transmitter. But its programmes were poorly conceived and executed. The station's operators gave no sign that they understood the target audience. The broadcasts failed to win over listeners to accept the invasion. In the face of criticism, including from Czechoslovakia's communist government (which had no control over the station and opposed its existence), Radio Vltava closed in February 1969.

Background: The invasion of Czechoslovakia

Late in the evening of 20 August 1968, Soviet forces began their invasion of Czechoslovakia, intending to put an end to the reforms of the Prague Spring spearheaded by Alexander Dubček.

While retaining communist rule, these reforms were liberalising politics and society to an extent that alarmed the Kremlin, which feared they threatened Soviet control throughout Eastern Europe. Some of the Soviet Union’s allies, notably the rulers of East Germany, shared these worries.

The armed forces of three other Warsaw Pact countries – Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria – took part in the invasion (codenamed Operation Danube). [2] 

The role of East Germany

The GDR had also been earmarked to take part in the invasion. But, at the last minute, it was realised that the sight of troops wearing the German feldgrau uniform invading Czechoslovakia only 23 years after the last lot had surrendered there would not look good. GDR forces were therefore held back from crossing the border (except, reportedly, for a few specialists and liaison officers).

Although the GDR's military played no role on the ground during the invasion and subsequent military occupation of Czechoslovakia, it had already been assigned another role – conducting information warfare against its people.

It had been decided that the GDR would run a radio station, broadcasting in Czech and Slovak, and intended to be heard throughout Czechoslovakia, but based in East Germany.

The station's objective would be to induce support for the invasion and undermine resistance to it.

A pro-invasion newspaper, Zprávy ("News"), would also be produced in the GDR and distributed in Czechoslovakia.

Preparations in the month before the invasion

The decision to go ahead with such propaganda work appears to have been triggered by a meeting in Warsaw on 14 and 15 July 1968 at which the leaders of the USSR, the GDR, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland discussed the problems created for them by the Prague Spring and the option of mounting an invasion.

One immediate result of the meeting in Warsaw was that the GDR's external broadcasting service, Radio Berlin International (RBI), began broadcasting in Czech on 22 July (one source says 21 July) and in Slovak on 31 July (30 minutes in each language at 0500-0600 and 1800-1900 local times). Until then, RBI had not broadcast to Eastern Europe, its services to Europe only being in Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.

Other preparations were made. In late July, a team of GDR radio specialists drove around Czechoslovakia in private cars, checking the reception of various East German radio stations. These included Deutschlandsender on the longwave frequency of 185 kHz; another longwave station, Radio Volga, which broadcast in Russian to Soviet troops in Germany on 263 kHz; and RBI on the mediumwave frequencies of 1430 and 1511 kHz. [3]

Based on their findings, it was decided to use to 1430 kHz (210 metres) to reach audiences in Czechoslovakia, and that the signal should come from an existing mediumwave transmitting station at Wilsdruff, just outside Dresden, close to the Czech border.

(RBI's existing mediumwave broadcasts on both 1430 and 1511 kHz came from a transmitting station in the Berlin suburb of Köpenick.)

The transmitter at Wilsdruff was a powerful one, 250 kilowatts (kW). Until August 1968, it had operated on a different frequency (1043 kHz), carrying the domestic service Radio DDR 1.

East German officials visited the Wilsdruff station at the end of July and told the staff there that they would be receiving new orders, which should remain secret. Restrictions were placed on the staff's movements and armed guards were posted at the station.

Test transmissions on 1430 kHz from Wilsdruff began, consisting of Czech brass band music, and what would become the new station's musical motif.

The tests were heard by West German radio hobbyist Wolfgang Büschel. In later years, Büschel recalled first hearing the test transmissions on 1430 kHz on his car radio while driving near Frankfurt around a week before the invasion. He later used a directional aerial to confirm that the tests were coming from the Dresden area, not from the usual Radio Berlin International transmitter site at Berlin-Köpenick.

While Wilsdruff would be the transmitting station, the broadcasts to Czechoslovakia would originate from studios at the HQ of GDR radio, the well-known Funkhaus building on Nalepastrasse in East Berlin.

Thanks to inside information now available, we know even the exact studio in the Funkhaus that was used. It was studio K4.

"Radio Vltava" starts its broadcasts

The name chosen for the station was Radio Vltava, after the river flowing through Prague.

As a tuning signal it used a theme from the well-known tone poem Vltava by the 19th century Czech composer Bedřich Smetana.

In this recording, the musical theme is followed by the announcement: "This is Radio Vltava. This is Radio Vltava. We are broadcasting on two hundred and ten metres, 1430 kHz, in the Czech and Slovak languages."

Broadcasts began early on 21 August, just hours after the start of the invasion, using 1430 kHz mediumwave from the Wilsdruff transmitter. Many people first heard about the new station's existence when, at 0525 local time, Czechoslovak Radio (then still in the hands of the legal government) warned listeners that it was operated by the invading forces. [4]

Among the very first items broadcast by Radio Vltava was what would become the famous (and false) claim by the Soviet news agency TASS that Czechoslovakia's leaders had requested "urgent assistance" from the USSR and its allies, "including assistance by their armed forces", to counter the threat from "counter-revolutionary forces which have entered into collusion with foreign forces hostile to socialism".

The TASS statement was followed on Radio Vltava by one from the invading forces, saying they had answered the "invitation".

"We are coming to render you fraternal help… to defend the cause of socialism in Czechoslovakia," the statement by the invaders said.

Slogans and announcements used in the first days of broadcasts included: "Listen to Radio Vltava. For the homeland, socialism and peace" and "Only a socialist radio station gives you correct information."

The announcement in this recording says: "You are listening to Radio Vltava, the socialist voice of truth. You are listening to Radio Vltava, the socialist voice of truth. Only a radio station connected with socialism gives you correct information. You are listening to Radio Vltava."

Broadcasting schedule

In the days immediately after the start of the invasion, Radio Vltava was on the air around the clock.

By early September, it had introduced a broadcast schedule of 0500 to midnight local time (0400-2300 GMT), which remained in place for the remainder of the station’s existence.

Once the schedule had settled down, about a third of output was speech and two thirds music. A typical hour had a three- to five-minute news bulletin at the top and bottom of the hour, along with three or four commentaries, each between five and 10 minutes. The rest of the hour was filled with music.

Frequency usage

Along with its main frequency of 1430 kHz from the Wilsdruff (Dresden) transmitter, Radio Vltava was also heard in its first few days on 1322 kHz, from a transmitter at Wiederau, near Leipzig, which usually relayed external service broadcasts from Radio Moscow.

It's possible that was a mistake, and that it had been intended that the Leipzig-Wiederau transmitter would relay Radio Moscow in Czech and Slovak. The German operators responsible for the programme feed from Berlin to Wiederau may have been unable to distinguish the Czech/Slovak broadcasts of Radio Vltava from those of Radio Moscow.

A mistake would also be the most likely explanation for reports that Radio Vltava was heard, though perhaps only briefly, on 1043 kHz (Radio DDR 1's frequency) from Dresden-Wilsdruff. [5]

I've not found any evidence to support claims by Czech sources in the 21st century that Radio Vltava also broadcast from a mediumwave transmitter in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz).

Problematic pronunciations and troublesome translations

While Radio Vltava's technical operations were professional (excepting the minor glitches with frequency usage noted above), its announcers were ridiculed by listeners for the poor quality of their spoken Czech and Slovak.

Many of the announcers appeared to be Germans, who faced the usual problems that native German speakers have when speaking Czech and Slovak, such as pronouncing "v" as "f", and struggling to distinguish between a soft "p" and a hard "b". Reportedly, they also sometimes had a characteristically German way of pronouncing the accented Czech consonants ž, š, č, ř, ň.

It was also suspected that some of the announcers were Russian, or were very familiar with the Russian language, as they pronounced Russian names as a Russian would, not as a Czech speaker would say them. The suspected Russian announcers would also place the emphasis on the wrong syllable in Czech words and give a harder pronunciation to some "e" sounds.

My BBC Monitoring colleague Simona Kralova says about the 0:34 clip on this page: The first presenter speaks in Slovak, the second in heavily accented Czech.

In this clip, Simona says the announcer at 1:04 is almost certainly a German posing as a Czech speaker, and clearly struggling with what he is reading out.

The announcers were therefore mocked by listeners.

In this cartoon, the Vltava duck is saying "It’s a pity I can’t speak Czech."

And this cartoon mocks the German announcers for pronouncing "v" as "f".

And it wasn’t just a problem of accents.

Fred Eidlin, the author of a Radio Free Europe research paper in November 1968 noted that Radio Vltava used expressions not found in modern Czech and "which sound artificial".

Eidlin added: "Ideological expressions often give the impression of having been taken directly from Russian manuals and translated badly."

Political problems too

Radio Vltava's broadcasts made no concessions to sceptical or hostile Czechoslovak listeners. There was no attempt at a soft sell.

Instead, the output was hardline and uncompromising. For anyone who remembers listening to Radio Berlin International, the output of Radio Vltava was in the same vein.

See the appendix below for transcripts of some of Radio Vltava's commentaries in the week after the invasion. 

Czechoslovak Radio warned its listeners against Radio Vltava. Here's a recording of the station at České Budějovice doing that on the first day of the invasion, when it was still in the hands of the legal authorities (third clip on this page).

Czechoslovakia's communist leaders complained to their East German counterparts that Radio Vltava's broadcasts were counter-productive. Listeners were mocking the announcers' accents, while the station's extreme commentaries generated irritation or hostility, rather than acceptance of the Soviet stance. People were either tuning in for a laugh, or turning off in disgust.

There was also hostility towards the newspaper Zprávy produced in East Germany, which took the same hardline position as Vltava.

Closedown

In the face of such criticism, and with little or no evidence that the broadcasts were having the desired effect – indeed, more likely the opposite – the East Germans abandoned Radio Vltava. The station made its last broadcasts on 12 February 1969, just under six months after it had begun.

The following day it was replaced on 1430 kHz by Radio Berlin International, including in Czech and Slovak.

In an indication of a lack of coordination on the part of the invasion forces, the newspaper Zprávy continued to be published. 

The Czechoslovak authorities were pleased with Vltava's closure. Radio Prague's English service commented two days later that the development was welcome, and said on 9 March 1969 that Vltava had closed "to the relief of the vast majority of our people".

Eventually, in April 1969, Dubček was forced by Moscow to resign, and Czechoslovakia entered a 20-year night of "normalisation".

Other pro-Soviet broadcasts at the time

Along with Radio Vltava, several other stations – both overt and clandestine – broadcast in support of the invasion.

Workers' Voice of the Republic (Dělnický hlas republiky) was first heard by BBC Monitoring from early on 26 August on mediumwave (1178 kHz) and shortwave (7125 and 7285 kHz). It also announced the use of 200 kHz longwave and said it was on the air around the clock. Radio Free Europe said it might have been on the air as early as 22 August. Its broadcasts denounced those by the legal Czechoslovak authorities as being from "revisionists, counter-revolutionaries and foreign agents". RFE said that it stopped broadcasting on 3 September after announcing that that it had fulfilled its "patriotic and partisan" task. It may have been broadcasting from Poland or Hungary. 

Radio Zare (Dawn) began broadcasting on 29 August on 1250 kHz mediumwave. It was a classic "black" (falsely attributed) operation, claiming to support the reformist Dubček leadership, while putting out disinformation. It was immediately denounced by the legal Czechoslovak authorities. RFE suggested that it broadcast from Poland but I note that 1250 kHz was usually a Hungarian frequency.

From Poland: By 24 August, Polish state radio was using its longwave frequency (227 kHz), which usually carried its domestic service, to air programmes in Czech at certain times of the day. By 5 September, Polish radio was broadcasting in Czech for 20 hours a day, with shortwave, mediumwave (1502 kHz) and longwave (227 kHz) being used at various times of the day and night.

It was also reported that a station on 7280 kHz shortwave operated by the Polish army was on the air for audiences in Czechoslovakia, in Polish and Czech/Slovak, at times in the morning and evening.

From Russia: From the evening of 21 August, Radio Moscow expanded its output in Czech/Slovak to round-the-clock broadcasting. At the start of 1968, it had been on the air for just 30 minutes a day in each language.

Transcripts of some commentaries on Radio Vltava

A recording of Radio Vltava from 26 August 1968 contains the following commentaries: 

Woman announcer at 00:00: "…They are using wild emotions to exacerbate the situation so that a group of pro-Western anti-communist adventurers can come to power. Do not allow a handful of adventurers – who are alien to the interests of the people, peace, socialism and the security of the country – to trample on the good name of the Czechoslovak people and to play with their fate. Expose their political diversions! Delete provocations! In the name of the bright future of the socialist homeland, in the name of the nation, people, be prudent."

Male announcer at 00:45: "Dear friends, dear listeners. We received exciting news today. A Nazi nest was discovered near the National Theatre. In the building opposite the footbridge to Slavonic Island, not only a warehouse of foreign weapons was found, not only radio and encryption equipment, not only a special set of gloves designed not to leave fingerprints, but also documents of obvious Nazi origin. Among the fascist pamphlets and posters was a picture of Adolf Hitler. Inexperienced boys are waging an offensive campaign against the Russians. The fascists have acted. We repeat: The fascists from the NDP have begun their activities. It is no coincidence that the counter-revolution is accompanied by the threat of fascism coming from the West. Dear friends. Be vigilant! Draw attention to suspicious gatherings and buildings where mysterious activities are taking place. Tell our authorities or any authorised person about it. Today, a picture of Hitler was found near the footbridge to Slavonic Island. And tomorrow our entire homeland may be covered in swastikas. Czechs and Slovaks, don't let it happen."

Woman announcer at 02:25: "People! Listen and judge for yourself. Is it in the name of humanism? On 21 August, a group of criminals calling themselves adherents of socialist humanism pushed a group of children into the path of a Soviet tank 40 km from Prague. Children of the local boarding school. The tank crew, in order not to crush our children, drove their tank off a high cliff and died. Three Soviet boys sacrificed their lives for the lives of our children without hesitation. They could not have acted otherwise. Illegal radio stations, provocateurs on the streets, constantly brandishing humanism and democracy. Think about the case of the tank crew and you will understand the value of the humanism of the instigators and appreciate real humanism. The imperialist agency and the local counter-revolution misuse the word humanism, which is dear to everyone, only to deceive the gullible and incite them to dangerous acts. Think! Nation, freedom, democracy, humanism - these bright words are now being abused by reaction and counter-revolution for their black betrayal. Those who recently tried to throw Czechoslovak children under a Soviet tank would like to provoke an even worse tragedy today. A fratricidal war! The enemy longs for victims. Look around and see how many victims it wants. Citizens of Czechoslovakia, remember this. Be vigilant! Meet the call of President Ludvík Svoboda. Actively defend order and peace! Protect yourself from provocateurs! Protect yourself from provocations by counter-revolutionaries! It's in our interest."

NOTES AND SOURCES

[1] The Warsaw Pact was the shorthand term for the Soviet-dominated military alliance formed after the signing in 1955 in Warsaw of what was formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. The alliance, intended as a counterweight to NATO, was also known as the Warsaw Treaty Organisation (WTO).

[2] The other two members of the Warsaw Pact, Albania and Romania, refused to take part in the invasion, and Albania left the WTO altogether shortly afterwards.

[3] This field survey is described in a German article which focuses on the technical aspects of Radio Vltava, and which I have used as the source of some other information in this article.

[4] In August 1968, neither Czechoslovakia nor the GDR were using DST (summer time), and so local time there was one hour ahead of GMT.

[5] Radio Vltava on 1430 kHz was using the 250kW transmitter normally used for Radio DDR 1 on 1043 kHz. To allow for that, Radio DDR 1 on 1043 kHz was switched to a less powerful standby transmitter at Wilsdruff. 

Sources for this article

Radio Vltava's broadcasts were widely reported at the time by the Western and Czechoslovak press, and were documented by the US government’s monitoring agency (the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, FBIS, via its outstation in Vienna), FBIS’s partner BBC Monitoring, and the monitoring service of Radio Free Europe (RFE, based in Munich, where the station could be heard easily).

Behind-the-scenes details of the station’s operations were not confirmed until after the end of the Cold War when official archives were opened and some of those in the GDR involved in the project were able to speak. 

Observations of Radio Vltava's broadcasts by radio hobbyists are also a valuable source of information about the frequencies and transmitter sites used.

My sources for this article include the articles listed below, the archives of BBC Monitoring, memories of fellow radio hobbyists and the 1968 edition of the annual World Radio TV Handbook.

Articles and documentaries in Czech:

A 2017 text and audio feature on Czech Radio’s website, including recordings of Radio Vltava: “Špatná čeština a anonymní hlasatelé. Vysílačka Vltava šířila v srpnu 1968 bludy” (Bad Czech and anonymous announcers. Radio Vltava spread delusions in August 1968)

A 2021 text and audio feature on Czech Radio’s website, including recordings of Radio Vltava: “Když ztichl socialistický hlas pravdy aneb Stanice Vltava plnila po srpnu 1968 éter propagandou” (When the socialist voice of truth fell silent, or Radio Vltava filled the airwaves with propaganda after August 1968) 

A 40-minute Czech Radio documentary from 2022: Jak šuměla Vltava? Aneb co vysílala východoněmecká prookupační stanice, která v roce 1968 otravovala rozhlasový éter? (How did the Vltava River murmur? Or what was broadcast by the East German pro-occupation station that was polluting the radio airwaves in 1968?)

Articles in German:

A 2014 article by Radio Prague’s German service: “Propagandafunk aus der DDR in die ČSSR: Sender Vltava 1968/69” (Propaganda radio from the GDR to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic: Radio Vltava 1968/69)

A 1999 article in Berliner Zeitung giving an overview of the story: "Der mysteriöse Sender ‘Vltava’ und sein Ende vor 30 Jahren: DDR-Schützenhilfe gegen den 'Prager Frühling'" (The mysterious Radio Vltava and its end 30 years ago; GDR support against the "Prague Spring")

A 2018 article on the radiomuseum.org site focusing on technical aspects of the station, including the Wilsdruff transmitter: "Radio Vltava, Radio Moldau Geheimsender aus der DDR" (Radio Vltava, secret transmitter from the GDR) 

The radiomuseum.org site also has photographs of the Wilsdruff transmitter.

Articles in English: 

Radio Free Europe (RFE) research paper (11 November 1968): This assessment by Fred Eidlin of RFE’s research department, written while Radio Vltava was still active, gives an excellent overview of the station’s operations and output as they were known by that time, and reports some of the Czechoslovak reaction.

Article by Don Moore on radio and the 1968 events in Czechoslovakia in the August 1993 edition of Monitoring Times

IF YOU ENJOYED READING THIS ARTICLE…

… you may be interested in others that I’ve written about radio stations that were run as exercises in political or military influence in the last four decades of the 20th century:

Voice of the Coast: This soft-sell British station targeted Arabic listeners in the 1960s, wooing them away from listening to the anti-Western broadcasts of Voice of the Arabs from Nasser's Egypt.

Radio Spark: A fully "black" (meaning: falsely attributed) CIA-run station that sought to exploit the turmoil in China during the Cultural Revolution of the second half of the 1960s.

First August Radio: Another pure "black" station, this one was part of Soviet "active measures" targeting the Chinese army between 1979 and 1986.

Radio Atlantico del Sur: Britain’s Spanish-language station for Argentine troops during the 1982 Falklands War, known within the MOD as Project Moonshine. It had as many enemies in Whitehall as in Argentina. 

Radio Truth: A look at this and other covert stations – such as Voice of the Resistance of the Black Cockerel – run by apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s to undermine neighbouring countries.

Al-Quds Palestinian Arab Radio: The "intifada station" – funded by Libya and broadcasting from southern Syria between 1988 and the early 21st century.