NEW
REGIME MAKES CONCESSIONS TO DISSIDENT CZECH WRITERS
By George Novack
One of the major factors in the removal of Antonin Novotny as head of the Czechoslovak Communist party on January 5 (see: "Dissatisfaction in Czechoslovakia Leads to Ouster of Novotny," World Out-— look, January 12, p. 8] was the widespread opposition among the writers, intellectuals, professionals and students to his regimented regime.
Their insistence upon greater freedom of thought and expression was so strong that, just before his eclipse, even Novotny had to make verbal obeisance to it. In his New Year's address, he declared that everything "progressive," including ideas originating in the West, would be permitted in Czechoslovakia as long as they proved useful. "I do not mean only in the economy, engineering and science," he added, "but also in progressive culture and art."
Before the people had a chance to find out what this promise in his political swan song really meant, Novotny was replaced as first secretary of the party by Alexander Dubcek in a drastic reshuffle of top personnel. The intellectual community then eagerly waited to see in what way the new team would seek to lessen the tension in the cultural atmosphere. The rebel writers had some ground for optimism since Dubcek had disagreed with the Central Committee majority last fall when it branded Literarny Noviny, the liberal weekly of the Czechoslovak Writer's Union, as "an organ of opposition political views," instigated by anti- Communist exile groups.
Last September, under Novotny and his cultural commissar, Jiri Hendrych, the editorial board of the union's magazine was reorganized and the publication Placed under the direct control of the Ministry of Culture. Four of the most outspoken critics among the Communist writers were expelled from the party and others who sympathized with their views in whole or in part or opposed harsh moves against them were deprived of their posts.
A significant test of the Dubcek government's attitude toward the dissident intellectuals came with the first meeting of the 45-man Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Union of Writers late in January. After two days of heated discussion and hard bargaining, the Committee took a set of decisions which represented a compromise between the moderate majority and the more radical wing. The committee is made up of a minority of hard "partyliners," a majority of "neutrals," and a vociferous group of "revisionists."
Professor Eduard Goldstuecker, a
rehabilitated victim of the Slansky purge
and an authority on Kafka, was elected
president. He had told the students at
a ten-hour protest meeting against police
brutality in the Faculty of Philosophy
auditorium at Charles University Noven-
ber 21 that the country was in an irre-
versible democratization in which the
students should have a role. However, he
cautioned that "wild demonstrations can
only slow down this trend."
The new vice-president is Jan
Prochazka who was expelled from the par-
ty's Central Committee last fall for
interceding on behalf of the most out-
spoken oppositionists among the Commu-
nist intellectuals. He had taken a defi-
ant stand against the party high command
in his closing address at the Writers'
Congress last July.
On that occasion Prochazka af-
firmed that writers would persevere in
their struggle for the right of expres-
sion "to the last writer, the last ruler
and the last reader in this world" and
would refuse to be subordinated “either
to doctrines or dogmas." Describing
literature as a "restless voice," he
urged his listeners not to worry about
what had been said, since "the useful
would last and the superfluous, vanish.
What had gone unsaid will find expres-
sion; ideas are indestructible forces."
In a reply to Hendrych's blasts,
Prochazka declared: "To pass any judgment
at the close of this congress is not only
beyond the power of a writer, it is be-
yond anyone's power, because our congress
now...is history and subject to deeper
and more lasting judgments."
Prochazka and his supporters were
partially vindicated. The organ of the
Writer's Union, it is reported, will be
allowed to appear under a new name,
Literni Listy, around March 1 and Dusan
Hamsik, its original chief editor, who
was ousted with the rest of the old board,
will resume the same post with the new
weekly.
In a further concession to liberal
sentiment, the union appealed for clemen-
cy for Jan Benes. He is a 3l-year-old
writer who was condemned to five years'
imprisonment for sending written material
to an exile organization in the West.
At the same time Jiri Hendrych,
who, on behalf of the party Presidiun,
initiated the punitive measures against
the rebellious writers, and who is thor-
oughly detested by them, is still kept in charge of cultural affairs.
These compromises in the literary field are a tip-off to the predicament of the post-Novotny regime. On one hand, it must make concessions to the pent-up forces of discontent in many areas which has put the new team in power. Yet its leaders hesitate to jettison all the discredited policies and personnel of the Old Guard for fear of doing irretrievable damage to the already shaken authority of the party.
It remains to be seen to what extent its temporizing course will succeed in appeasing the deep dissatisfaction among the intellectuals and the masses.
RESURGENCE OF GUERRILLA