Word: lausman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Died. Bohumil Lausman, 55, chairman of Czechoslovakia's Social Democratic Party before the Communist coup of 1948, man of many-phased, sincere but confused cold-war loyalties; in Prague. In 1946 Lausman liked the Russians; in 1947 he denounced them, but became Deputy Premier of Czechoslovakia when the Reds assumed control the next year. In 1950 he fled to the West, soon turned up in Yugoslavia, disappeared (perhaps by kidnaping) in 1953 from a pension in Austria, reappeared in Prague with a "confession" of the "spiritual suffering" he had undergone in Western Europe...
Everybody's Spy. Lausman had never lacked physical courage. In 1940 he helped organize the Prague anti-Nazi underground, escaping to London just a jump ahead of the Gestapo; in 1944 he parachuted into Slovakia to lead the abortive Banska Bystrica partisan rising. But as the world split anew between Communism and the West, he lacked the intellectual courage to choose. In 1946 he praised the Russians; on Feb. 20, 1948 he turned about and said: "We are not naive enough to offer ourselves up to the Communists." But five days later, when the Reds kidnaped Czechoslovakia, he stood...
Finally, in 1950, Lausman seemed to make up his mind. He fled to the West and denounced Czechoslovakia as "the best Soviet arsenal in Europe." The Prague regime called him a disguised U.S. spy; Czech emigres called him a disguised Red spy. Bitter and unhappy, Lausman went off to Yugoslavia, where the West and Communism seem to meet...
...Glasses. One day late last year he got word that an old friend wanted to see him in Paris. On Nov. 17 Lausman and a companion went to the corner of Avenue Charles Floquet and the Rue Desaix and there confronted the old friend, Czech Ambassador Gustav Soucek. Said Soucek: "The political line at home will soon change to a more liberal line." Lausman was fascinated. He eagerly sought a second meeting...
Last January, Landlady Anna Rabinger of Salzburg, Austria hurried to the police to report that Lausman had been missing from her pension since Dec. 23. The police searched his furnished room; all was in order, but on the table stood a half-empty brandy bottle with two glasses, as though he had entertained a friend...