CZECHS AND POLES EASTERN EUROPE FEELS THE WINDS OF CHANGE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31633, 20 March 1968, Page 12

CZECHS AND POLES EASTERN EUROPE FEELS THE WINDS OF CHANGE

(By

BRIAN BEEDHAM,

. Foreign Editor of the -Economist-)

Prevail” is a time-honoured national watchword in Czechoslovakia. It appeared on a banner carried by the students of Prague when they made pilgrimage on March 10 to the graves of Thomas and lan Masaryk, with the pointed addition of the words‘‘Even here” ° J

For 20 years the country’s Communist rulers had sought to obliterate the memory of the two Masaryks: the father who 50 years ago was the Czechoslovak Republic’s foun- I der and first President; the son who, as its post war Foreign Minister, struggled to hold open its doors to the West as well as to the East, I and died tragically on March < 10, 1948—pushed to his ' death from a high window (by : despair or by murderous 1 force) a few days after the ' Communist putsch. Men Never Seen The youngsters who marched through the snow to pay homage to the Masaryks had never seen either of them, and had been denied all opportunity of learning about them. Yet they knew. Their pilgrimage was a gesture of rejection of the blinkered life imposed on their nation for 20 years. It was an implicit demand for freedom and truth. As such, it went further than the shift in the official Communist party line has carried their country since the beginning of this year.

Since President Novotny was forced to hand over the party leadership to Mr Dubcek, and particularly since thj escape to America of General Sejna, truth has reemerged in Czechoslovakia to the extent that some of the Novotny regime’s worst excesses have been publicly exposed and assailed. But truth is still far from prevailing. Czechs may now speak more freely about what they know, but there is a lot more they still want to find out. And there have been many signs of Communist officials at various levels, terrified at the prospect of the new liberal trend going so far that their own power will be completely swept away, scurrying to devise ways of stopping it. Lead To Neighbours Yet Czechoslovakia has already given such a lead to its east European neighbours that its example was being hailed by the Polish students who marched through Warsaw calling for democracy and freedom, and were savagely beaten up by squads of steel-helmeted police. Polish writers have followed the Czech example in protesting against the official censorship.

The monopoly press, in Poland this week, was denouncing and smearing the reformists just as the Czechoslovak press was doing a few months ago. The police, in Czechoslovakia this week, publicly apologised for the brutality they had used against demonstrators a few months ago, which was just the brutality the Polish police were still using. If the Gomulka regime in Warsaw should look like yielding to popular indignation as much as the Commun-

sist leadership in Prague, the Russians might feel obliged to intervene. Poland lies across the Red Army’s lines of communication with its garrisons in the uneasy east German realm of Herr Ulbricht. It is no place for the Russians to take risks. The Polish and East German Communists have in fact been the most loyal supporters of Soviet leadership through all the recent strains and stresses in international Communist relations. They were as alarmed as the Russians by the independent tactics adopted by Communist Rumania particularly alarmed by the Rumanians’ insistence on forging close links with West Germany. But what about the Czechs? Stayed In Line So far it has been noteworthy that the internal changes in Czechoslovakia have not been accompanied by any Rumania-style gestures of deviation from Russia’s line in foreign policy. The Czechs stayed in line at both the recent inter-

national Communist conclaves, in Budapest and in Sofia. Paradoxically, it is from a Rumania unmarked by signs of internal liberalisation that the boldest defiances of Russia have come before and during these international meetings. Rumania’s refusal to go along with the RussoAmerica campaign for a nuclear non-proliferation treaty has nothing to do with any enthusiasm for domestic reforms. In criticising the nuclear treaty project, the Rumanian Communists have managed to express their sympathy not only for West Germany but also for China. To pull off tricks like these, you need to keep your own people under tight control. So, for the worried Russians, it is now a nice question whether they should be more worried by the new spontaneous drives for political reform in eastern Europe, or by the maverick tactics that have become possible for an unreformed and blatantly illiberal regime like Rumania’s.