Meeting between SED leader Erich Honecker and Soviet party and state leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow.
Gorbachev appeals for a restructuring of Comecon, saying that its organisation has to be reduced considerably. According to Gorbachev, it contains many "layabouts". Many apparatuses of Comecon, he says, are just cemeteries for new ideas and serve to protect idlers and obstructionists. Gorbachev says this could "ruin our cause".
Honecker criticises the Soviet side in harsh words. According to Honecker, there are "some attitudes that cause the SED problems". He is alluding to an interview with the Soviet author Yevtushenko on Western television. In it, Yevtushenko had spoken of a single body of German literature and also remarked that he was in favour of German unity. "The appearance of such authors on US-backed television and radio in West Berlin," says Honecker, "is counter-revolutionary."
His furious reaction culminates in the demand that "these people should be allowed to make appearances in Siberia, but not West Berlin." Gorbachev’s response to the attacks is reserved and very diplomatic; however, it is already evident here that the relationship between the reformer in Moscow and the SED hardliners in East Berlin is cooling.
Transcript of a conversation between Erich Honecker and Mikhail Gorbachev, 3 October 1986 (in German)less
10 October
1986
The construction of the "fourth generation" of the Wall ("Grenzmauer-75") in the inner-city area of Berlin is practically completed. The GDR border troops now place more importance on arresting would-be escapees in the "hinterland".more
11/12 October
1986
Meeting of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, 12 October 1986 (Photo: Bundesarchiv, Image 183-1986-1012-009, Photographer: Peter Koard)
A summit meeting between US President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet party and state leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik ends inconclusively, as the two sides cannot reach agreement on the American missile defence system, the SDI.
15 October
1986
In an interview with the American magazine "Newsweek", Helmut Kohl compares the rhetorical abilities of the Soviet party and state leader Mikhail Gorbachev with those of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. This places a considerable strain on the relationship between Bonn and Moscow.more
21 October
1986
At a joint press conference in Bonn, Egon Bahr and SED Politburo member Hermann Axen make proposals for a nuclear-free zone in Central Europe. The West German government criticises this as "highly dubious" parallel foreign policy ("Nebenaussenpolitik").
21-26 October
1986
Erich Honecker travels to China on an official goodwill visit.
30 October
1986
For the first time, contemporary art from West Germany is shown in the GDR at an exhibition in East Berlin.
