Word: gottwalds
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Slansky arranged the successful coup of 1948, supervised the purges that followed, used his power as secretary general to install his own people in vital jobs. He was also Moscow's watchdog, and even kept an eye on President Gottwald himself (who, when he has one drink too many, has a habit of talking sarcastically about Communist bigwigs). At Cominform meetings it was Slansky, not Gottwald, who represented Prague...
...Holy Truth. Czechoslovakia, with a higher standard of living than Russia's, is the Kremlin's prize capture. But even the Czech economy sagged under Moscow's insatiable demands for Czech machinery and industrial products. Looking around for higher & higher scapegoats, Slansky clapped into jail Gottwald's good friend, Foreign Minister Vladimir dementis and Slansky's own good friend Madame Marie Svermova, widow of a Czech Communist hero...
Still Czechoslovakia's performance displeased Moscow, and the people's discontent grew. At an emergency meeting of government officials and party leaders last September, President Gottwald complained that the blame was traceable to one man-Rudolf Slansky. "Comrade Gottwald speaks a holy truth," said Slansky dutifully, "when he says the blame is all with me." Slansky's job as secretary general was abolished, and the party was placed more firmly in Gottwald's control...
...History Unveiled. Then the script changed. Slansky did not disappear. He was "promoted" to Vice Premier and given control of all Czech economic affairs. He continued to get a big play in the Czech press. On his soth birthday last July 30, he got the Order of Socialism from Gottwald. Only last month the government unveiled with a flourish Slansky's two-volume history of Communism...
...first time in all the bloody postwar history of satellite purges that a 100% Muscovite had been picked as the victim. On the surface it looked as if Gottwald had eliminated a dangerous competitor, and there were even people ready to believe that Gottwald was proving himself a potential Tito. More likely, the Kremlin had decided to jolt Czechoslovakia's rulers into meeting Soviet demands by striking down the man who had seemed safest of alL If the most loyal of them all could be convicted of disloyalty, so might men charged with even greater responsibility-President Gottwald...