Word: cernik
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Reassuring Words. While the Soviets were trying to create at least a modicum of government over the recalcitrant Czechoslovaks, the destiny of the nation's reformist vision of Communism was being debated behind closed doors in both Prague and Moscow. Dubcek and Cernik were flown off to Moscow in a Soviet military jet. The Czechoslovaks at first broadcast reports that Dubcek had been killed, but that was cleared up in one of the many weird, almost unreal vignettes of the week. Dubcek's mother marched in to see the local Soviet commander in Bratislava, demanding to know what the Russians...
When Svoboda sat down with Brezh nev in the Kremlin, he discovered that the Russians wanted to talk only with him and the six men that had come with him from Prague. Svoboda demanded that Dubcek and Cernik be in cluded. When Brezhnev demurred, Svoboda threatened to break off all negotiations, and Brezhnev gave in. Svoboda then informed the Czechoslovaks in a message broadcast over Prague's free radio station that Dubcek "was at his side" in the Kremlin confrontation...
...Minister Josef Boruvka, "the negotiations would not have lasted more than an hour." One report said that Svoboda was promising to reimpose a degree of censorship and brake the democratization a bit as part of a political compromise. The Russians, in return, would permit not only Dubcek but also Cernik and Smrkovsky to continue in office. This would leave mat ters pretty much where they stood after Cierna?except that Soviet tanks would still be in Czechoslovakia as enforcers of the agreement. There were even reports that the party bosses from Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Bulgaria might come...
...After a press conference later that morning, Ulbricht took off for home. Once he was aloft, the crowd of Czechoslovaks that had dutifully gathered at the airport to wave the East German boss on his way erupted into a demonstration of joy-and relief. They mobbed Dubcek, Premier Oldrich Cernik and Presidium Member Josef Smrkovsky. The Czechoslovak leaders responded by signing autographs, slapping backs and bussing the pretty girls. At one point, Dubcek grabbed Smrkovsky and turned his face to the crowd so that the people could see the lipstick smears...
What had been discussed when Cernik and Party Boss Dubcek journeyed to Moscow for a Kremlin conference the week before? "No question that could sow distrust was at stake. The role of the Soviet Union has been much overplayed." Were the "military maneuvers" of the Russian army in Poland over? "Why don't you ask the Poles?" Cernik insisted that Czechoslovakia would never alter its ties to Russia, but added: "We think we can contribute to the dismantling of the cold war." Cernik and Sik made plain that investments by the capitalist world would henceforth be welcome, announced that...