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Chronicle 1983

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    • Intelligence services in East and West step up their activities in the area of high technology. During a meeting of top KGB staff in Moscow, Vladimir Kryuchkov, the head of the 1st KGB department, calls for new intelligence resources for the purchase of high technology in view of measures taken by CoCom. more

    • 5 December

      1983

      The deployment of Soviet medium-range missiles in the GDR is criticised at a synod of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Thuringia.

    • 10 December

      1983

      The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Lech Walesa, the leader of the banned Polish trade union "Solidarity".

    • 14 December

      1983

      Speaking to Soviet war veterans in Moscow, Defence Minister Ustinov proposes striking a more conciliatory tone towards the West. However complicated the military and political situation is, he says, there is no reason to dramatise it.

    • 19 December

      1983

      In a long telephone call, SED leader Erich Honecker and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl affirm their mutual willingness to continue to work together and to enhance relations between the GDR and West Germany, despite the tense East-West situation in the wake of the deployment of new missile systems. Phone call between Erich Honecker and Helmut Kohl (transcription), 19 December 1983 (in German)

    • 25 December

      1983

      Silvio Proksch: born on March 3, 1962, shot dead at the Berlin Wall on Dec. 25, 1983 while trying to escape (date of photo not known)
      On Christmas, the 21-year-old bricklayer Silvio Proksch is shot at while trying to escape over the Berlin Wall. He receives no medical assistance for quite a long time. Silvio Proksch bleeds to death in the "death strip". The guard who delivered the fatal shot is awarded the Bronze Medal of the Border Troops. more

    • 30 December

      1983

      The East German railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn) and the West Berlin Senate agree that the Senate is to take over the suburban railway service in West Berlin city territory.
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