The borders of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR) with Western Europe, especially that with the Federal Republic of Germany, a NATO member (less so with neutral Austria), were until 1989 fortified. The purpose was to prevent citizens of the Eastern Bloc escaping to the West, although official reports stated it was to keep Western Europeans out of the Communist nations. (For example, the East German border fortifications were euphemistically termed an "anti-fascist protection wall" by GDR apparatchiks.) The border system of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic wasn't as elaborate and fortified as that of the German Democratic Republic, but it was considered difficult to cross the border undetected.