What was the border regime between Poland and Czechoslovakia like during the 1970s and 1980s?
score:12
For the countries of the former Warsaw Pact borders were normally restricted to permitted traffic. Borders themselves were patrolled and places where one could cross it were limited. Mind you that permission to cross the border was not only for the "entering another country" part, one had to have permission to be able to leave one's home country, too. Different countries did it differently in different time periods
For example, Poland issued in 1970-1990 period, besides customary and internationally recognized passports (which were issued on "per travel basis" and had to be turned back over to authorities upon return), also something called passport insert, which contained entry that owner could cross the state border, and it was valid with one's ID only, and just for a number of socialist countries. In later time of that period that insert was replaced by an entry in the ID (stamp, as @MarkJohnson pointed out), but it was still for the "demopeoples'.
In case of the Polish-Czechoslovakian border, it was yet another difference.
In 1955 both states signed a Polish-Czechoslovakian Tourism Convention, which designated a number border regions (expanded in 1961-62 to several more, including ones with road border crossings), where passport-less traffic was permitted and where only a pass was required. However, the border could be crossed only at designated points, but my understanding was that there was a lot of them and at popular tourist foot trail traffic especially.
In 1959 there was additional agreement about "small cross-border traffic", that defined a zone at the border where dwellers were entitled to receive a pass authorizing crossing (difference between 1955 and this one was former was tourism-oriented, while latter expanded reasons to receive the pass to a number of them i.e. work, family etc.)
In 1986 there was another agreement signed, but it formalized organized tourism and had no impact on the cross-border traffic. The change came in 1991, when another treaty abolished visa requirement. All those were carried over when Czechoslovakia first reformed internally and then split. Some of them are still in force.
In 1995 there was another treaty about "small cross-border traffic", this time between Poland and Czechia and Poland and Slovakia, requiring only ID for dwellers of the defined border zone instead of passports. After joining EU and Schengen there are no more restrictions on cross border traffic.
I have no information if these were suspended temporarily after both 1968 Czechoslovakian Uprising nor 1980s Polish unrests.
From my personal experience the tourism up until 2006 was not hampered, but of course passports were required whenever crossing borders were required. Snezka is one example but Biskupská Kupa (PL: Kopa Biskupia) is actually hilarious one: the area is very attractive and active tourism region. And when I was there in 2003, I had to present a document to traverse 200m path from PL-CZ border to the actual viewpoint, located at the top of that mountain. It was just ID for me, but friend from different town had no passport, so he had to wait. Fortunately those times are gone...
Passport: official document issued for the purpose of confirmation of holder's identity and nationality.
Pass: document issued by any authorized official confirming holder's right to enter and move within any restricted area. In case of this question the pass could be in the form of paper document to be presented with ID or - in Poland at least - suitable entry in the ID (usually a stamp). Polish ID document before 2001 was a multi-page document very similar in appearance to international passports.
Upvote:3
Just from asking around a little here is a bit about the situation between East Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 1980s (sorry, no online sources):
Crossing the border at official checkpoints was easy and common. Vacations in Czechoslovakia were also quite common and were usually organized independently (unlike e.g. the USSR which was only really accessible to tour groups)
Crossing the border inofficially was also easy and common at least among some demographics (hikers, climbers and the like). The border was not heavily patrolled and unless you crossed directly in front of a border guard, you were unlikely to be fined.
In autumn 1989, East Germany started requiring visas for Czechoslovakia and to erect a fence after East Germans started defecting via the West German embassy in Prague, but that did not last long before the wall opened.
Things changed considerably in the 1990s, when the German side was patrolled quite heavily in order to limit the smuggling of people into Germany and of stolen cars out of Germany. Forest tracks were made unusable e.g. by blocking them off with large stones, cars with thermal sights were posted at strategic points, and occasionally there were also helicopters around. But as long as one was able to hold a short conversation in accent-free German, they did not ask many questions. And so crossing the border inofficially remained easy and common, at least for Germans.
More post
- 📝 Why did leaders seem to overlook diseases in their campaigns?
- 📝 Why did Yamamoto reprimand Nagumo after Pearl Harbor?
- 📝 Roughly how many people were in a Magdalenian group? (And Gravettian?)
- 📝 Upper-class male cohabitation in mid-19th century USA
- 📝 How did societies adapt to using alcohol to make water safer?
- 📝 Were there any battles in Continental Europe that were decided by "peasants with pitchforks?"
- 📝 How many tons of steel were produced in Russia during the Russian Civil War?
- 📝 How was whiskey made in the 1800's?
- 📝 What were the capabilities of U-boats during the battle of the Atlantic?
- 📝 What is the origin of the stereotype that Polish people lack intelligence?
- 📝 Which culture used no personal names?
- 📝 How many lives were estimated to have been saved by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs?
- 📝 Why didn't Tiberius Gracchus seek the consulship?
- 📝 What's the backstory behind the US federal regulation that requires buses to stop at railway crossings?
- 📝 Why do land mines seem to be a more serious problem in the Balkans than the Alps?
- 📝 Was there any way to deal with infections in pre-modern times?
- 📝 Why was Patriarch Nikon removed from power?
- 📝 How did Americans know to use smallpox infected blankets, before germ theory?
- 📝 In WWII, what was behind the very early decision to accept nothing but unconditional surrender in 1941-42?
- 📝 When were the most recent Amendments to the boundaries of Boston Ward 3?
- 📝 Were the (early 17th C) arrivers/colonists to North America (USA) outcasts from European societies?
- 📝 Most significant Congressional Leaders in US History?
- 📝 Did archers lay on their back to draw bows?
- 📝 Why did the rest of the Eastern Bloc not invade Yugoslavia?
- 📝 Did Celtic druids teach in Greece?
- 📝 Why did Russia accept the legal framework that led to Kosovo's independence?
- 📝 Did Hitler really support Subhash Chandra Bose's cause and did he do anything to help Bose?
- 📝 How did pumps work during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 Does anyone have an example of the Tamil elephant symbol?
- 📝 Where did the money come from to build the Colosseum?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the border regime between Poland and Czechoslovakia like during the 1970s and 1980s?
- 📝 Where was the pre-war (ww2) border between Poland and Germany?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What was the shortest time between a historical event occuring and a museum opening dedicated to said event?
- 📝 What did European people of the 5th century AD eat during spring and what was the availability?
- 📝 In the British empire, what was the difference between a Governor General and a Viceroy?
- 📝 How was the relation between the Ottoman Empire and Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro during the Second Balkan War?
- 📝 What was the relationship between Indian caste system and martial skills?
- 📝 How was the border between Vichy and German Occupied France decided?
- 📝 What was the impact of Fischer vs. Spassky 1972 on the relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What was the currency in use in Palestine shortly before and during WWI?
- 📝 What was the personal relationship between Benito Mussolini and Hitler?
- 📝 What were conditions like for Chinese men subject to recruitment by the army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War?
- 📝 What was the Hospitaller gonfalon like in the 12th and 13th centuries?
- 📝 What was the reason that Poland wanted a part of Germany north of Stettin/Szczecin and west of the Oder?
- 📝 What was the difference in the minds of the Romans between human sacrifice and gladiator games?
- 📝 In American Civil War era paper cartridges, what was taking up the space between powder and bullet?
- 📝 What was the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Carolingian emperors?
- 📝 What was the difference between a WWII Engineer General Service Regiment and a Service Unit?
- 📝 What was the relationship between Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; and the Vikings?
- 📝 What was the official position of China during the Sino-Soviet border clashes in the 1960s?
- 📝 What was the relationship between slaves and poor Romans needing jobs in Rome's labour market?
- 📝 What was the Jiangxi Soviet's language of operation between 1931 and 1934?
- 📝 What was the relation between the biblical king Herod and the Parthian king Orodes II?
- 📝 What was the troop ratio between the Reds and the Whites in the Russian Revolution?
- 📝 What was the difference between Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval in the 19th Century French army?
- 📝 What was the natural population growth of Scotland between 1600 and 1900?
- 📝 What was the state of relations between Baathist Iraq and Taliban Afghanistan?
- 📝 What was the trend of forced labor in Germany and its conquered territories during WWII?
- 📝 Why was there such tension between the Ottoman Empire and Russia during the Armenian genocide?