Word: ek
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Last week the Communist Party Presidium issued a warning to the Czechoslovak people admonishing them to refrain from all forms of dissent against the regime or the Soviet occupiers. Otherwise, as Dubček declared, "The party will impose inevitable measures. They might seem undemocratic, but they will ensure that this republic is not driven by anarchistic tendencies." Not surprisingly, Dubček's popularity has declined sharply in Czechoslovakia. In fact, only 41 months after their tanks crashed into Czechoslovakia, the Soviets have, in effect, succeeded in destroying not only the liberal reforms but the reformer as well...
Measure of Autonomy. Since he is largely doing their bidding, the Soviets do not at present want to discredit Dubček entirely. Ironically, they allowed him last week to put into effect one of his original reforms. It has nothing to do with his innovations in press and political freedom, which have been quashed. The new measure establishes a federal system of government in Czechoslovakia, granting a large degree of autonomy to the country's two main ethnic groups, the Czechs and the Slovaks...
...ek, a Slovak, presented the scheme a year ago when he ousted from power President and Party Boss Antonin Novotny, a Czech. Historically, the more bucolic Slovaks have felt oppressed by the urbanized and sophisticated Czechs, who outnumber them by nearly 3 to 1. Hoping to enhance his support at home, Dubček proposed self-rule as a means of alleviating the old Slovak grievances. At first, the Soviets, who earlier had threatened to break off Slovakia and incorporate it into the Soviet Union, opposed the federal system. They changed their minds when they realized that the reorganization would...
...posts outright Stalinists from the Novotný regime; instead, they prefer respectable, obedient bureaucrats. In Prague's current political argot, these men are called "the realists." The new federal Premier, for example, is Oldřich Černík, who was also Premier during the Dubček period but has since shown his willingness to cooperate with the Soviet occupiers...
...FIREMEN'S BALL. From a slight and funny anecdote about a group of firemen who stage a party in honor of their retiring chief, Director Miloś Forman (Loves of a Blonde) has fashioned a delightful parody-fable of Communist bureaucracy in pre-Dubćek Czechoslovakia...