Word: czech
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Thus the case of the Czech comic novelist Milan Kundera comes up at a time when to be persecuted in Czechoslovakia is not a clear advantage. Kundera's work was banned in Czechoslovakia not long after his novel The Joke was published in 1967. It was about a youth who innocently wrote a postcard to his girl friend that teased her about her dedication to Communism. His little joke got him seven years at hard labor. As Philip Roth notes in his introduction to Kundera's short-story collection Laughable Loves, the author also paid. Now 45, Kundera...
There is a Czech tradition of satirizing mindless officialdom that goes back to Kafka's The Trial and Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk. But this is not Kundera's main theme, and there is no reason to think that his work would be wholly different if his country's absentee landlords were still the Habsburgs, not the Soviets...
...most serious allegation against Boudin in the Hunt memorandum is, unsurprisingly enough, also the most far-fetched. Referring to unnamed--and presumably non-existent--sources, Hunt writes, "It has been said with some certainty that over the years Leonard Boudin has been a contact of both the Czech and Soviet espionage organizations, the latter best known by its initials, KGB. Because of the secrecy normally surrounding meetings between foreign agents and American citizens, it is impossible to say whether Boudin was providing information to Communist governments or--as seems more likely--receiving instructions or advice concerning the defense of clients...
...evidence of this. The Kurds have only a few heavy weapons-notably World War II-vintage antiaircraft guns. But Iran, long at odds with the far-left Iraqi government, may well be providing the Kurds with small arms. The rifles carried by Barzani's bandoliered troops are mostly Czech-designed, Iran-manufactured Brno rifles...
...Prague, registering under a Russian-sounding name. On the accompanying police questionnaire, he gave as his reason for being in Prague, "to investigate the activities of the Austrian general staff." The police at once surrounded the hotel. They discovered that the Russian name spelled backward came out in Czech as "Kiss my arse." Blandly Hašek explained that he just wanted to see if the Austrian police were on their toes-and got off with five days in jail...