Word: dubcek
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...notice and demanded the strictest secrecy. Not even the flag flying over Hradcany Castle-a sign that the President is in residence-was permitted to be lowered. Most residents of Prague consequently assumed that all was normal. In fact, Czechoslovak's President Ludvik Svoboda and Party Chief Alexander Dubcek, along with three other leaders, had flown hurriedly to the Ukrainian city of Kiev for their fourth summit meeting with Soviet Communist Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev since the Russian invasion. Only after the session ended last week were Czechoslovaks informed that it had been held. That fact, and the manner...
Brezhnev had several matters on his mind. Mostly, he wanted to talk about a meeting of the Czechoslovak Central Committee to be held later in the week to decide the fate of the country's liberal economic program that once was an integral part of Dubcek's now defunct reforms. Czechoslovakia's economy is in deep trouble; productivity has lagged far behind wage increases, and prices are in a wild upward spiral (120% for furniture, 60% for clothing). Russia, which aims to fasten the nation's industry more securely than ever to its own economic needs...
...Czechoslovaks loyal to Dubcek's liberal team, the composition of the delegation to Kiev was itself a source of discouragement. Gustav Husak and Lubomir Strougal, party chiefs for the nation's Slovak and Czech peoples, are both "realists" who have enjoyed more prominence under the Russians than they did under an independent Dubcek, and Premier Oldfich Cernik who quickly became adept at compromising with Moscow. There were rumors that Dubcek may soon be given a purely honorific job. That could happen after the federal-socialist state comes into being on Jan. 1, with separate Czech and Slovak governments...
Idyl and Ordeal. In any case, most Czechoslovaks are waiting uncomfortably for some sort of denouement. In the four months since the invasion, they have seen much of the excitement-and freedom-that was generated during Dubcek's early stewardship wither away under Soviet pressure. When TIME Correspondent Peter Forbath, who covered both the idyl and the ordeal, recently returned to Prague after an absence of two months, he found that the Russian presence was certainly the No. 1 reality in Czechoslovakia. Yet much of the country's mood, he found, remained resilient. For-bath's report...
...students, workers and intellectuals, who staged meetings, sit-ins and work stoppages to protest the Central Committee's announced intention of returning the country to stiff party rule. Not even optimists are convinced that, in the end, their pressure can reverse Russia's considerable success in crushing Dubcek's reforms. But for the time being, at least, the government has been compelled to acknowledge a second reality: the people...