Word: ek
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While it has brought the euphoria of free expression and an undeniable sense of exciting evolution to Czechoslovakia liberalizing regime of Alexander Dubček has been unable so far to deliver much in the way of tangible reforms. One reason is that since he took over last January, Party Boss Dubček has had to move with caution while he measured Russian reactions. Another is the plain impossibility of dismantling overnight the barnacled apparatus of a hard-lining Communist state. Last week Dubček finally acted against the conservative Communists remaining in both the government...
Novotný's farewell performance was entirely in character. He reportedly tried to win votes by threatening to reveal stories about bribes taken by committee members in the past; then, when the committee debate went against him he broke into tears. Dubček had come armed with a batch of petitions from workers, students and other Czechoslovaks who called for the dismissal from the committee of Novotný's entire faction. He warned the committee that the party's capacity for action was threatened by "those forces who by words recognize the correctness...
...hated former Chief of Security, Miroslav Mamula, who was fired. He then got a job at a factory workbench, but when his fellow workers recognized him, they hounded him until he quit. In fact, the lash of public opinion has been harsher than that of Dubček. The suicides of 29 officials in recent weeks are attributed to TV and press exposés of their past roles in the Stalinist terror...
...into slowing the pace of liberalization. Radio Prague announced belatedly that the troop movements were part of Warsaw Pact maneuvers and that the Czechoslovak government had been notified in advance that they were to take place. But the hard-liners were clearly trying to put heat on Dubček...
After his earlier visit to Moscow, Pravda had pointedly published Dubček's own report on the meeting: "The Soviet comrades expressed anxiety that the democratization in our country should not be exploited against socialism." And Dubček had no sooner departed than the Kremlin summoned the leaders of East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria to Moscow for a quick discussion about what to do about the Czechoslovaks. Their problems are real. Every fresh liberalization emanating from Prague adds to the discontent in other Communist nations, whose people would like the taste of a little...