Prague's 'Inner Exile'

...Rude Pravo and other Czech dailies are left unsold Margaret Reynolds, a young British free-lance journalist, is a new contributor to this magazine...

...the anonymous memo warned, "because the Russians are looking for provocation...

...There has been no word yet of any Soviet loan to modernize Czechoslovakia's ailing industries or to offset the nation's 20 per cent loss in foreign earnings this year...

...By American standards it was all very mild, yet before the next day was out their brief protest had tripped off the most sweeping emergency measures since the 1950s...

...1950s...

...This is partly due to deliberate slowdowns and flagging morale...

...In addition...

...Do not take any illegal action...

...Edward Goldstuecker...

...And in the Skoda car town of Mlada Boleslav in central Bohemia, anti-Russian feelings ran so high this spring-inflamed perhaps by the huge mural of Lenin on the former Czechoslovak Army barracks—that Soviet troops quartered there had to stop going to local shops, restaurants and movie houses...

...clubs or organizations that prepare "anti-Socialist propaganda" risk banning or suspension...

...The Czechoslovaks cannot easily boycott Eastern European goods, now that their Western trade has dropped drastically...

...Still, travel to East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Bulgaria-Warsaw Pact nations that participated in the August 1968 invasion-is off, generous holiday concessions and low-cost gasoline allowances notwithstanding...

...One young bus driver who dressed in black on August 21 is still sought by the police for offending public order under the new act...

...A man leaps onto a concert stage before the performance starts to deliver an impassioned appeal for reform...

...In the long run, it may reduce Czechoslovak opposition to a paralysis that paradoxically looks like conformity with the regime...

...But the latest program repudiated Vladimir Kadlecak, the man whose doubts forced open the affair in 1968, while the substantive question—did Masaryk jump from his window, or was he pushed?—remained untouched...

...Except for a brief news bulletin that "All is calm in the city," the eve of the 1968 invasion went unmarked on tv...

...Work starts early in the city—6 a.m...

...It is tempting to think what this country might become if East-West trade were pried wide open—tempting, but futile...

...There has been a drying-up of foreign papers in such tourist sanctuaries as the Hotel Alcron and the Esplanade, and a dearth and distortion of news on state radio and tv...

...Government funds have been withdrawn, but the organization survives on revenues from five profitable student enterprises...

...To be sure, they no longer gather at the "Speakers' Corner" of their Old Town Square, as in the spring of 1968, or air their views of democracy on the state television...

...The Dubcek regime had initiated an inquiry with two probing tv inquests, and more were promised as new evidence unfolded...

...Salaries generally have climbed some 15 per cent in the first four months of 1969...

...They nervously anticipate a more restrictive regime later this fall—possibly, even Husak's removal...

...Two trade unions have promised financial support when these run out...

...A young Prague theater director said to me, "Each person has the freedom he gives himself...

...The Czechoslovaks arc convinced the Soviet occupiers ship goods to the Russian black market...

...Yet every liberal knows that to the provocateur, passive or militant resistance makes little difference...

...The Czech Statistical Office reports that iron and steel production is down by 7 per cent, industrial and building activity in some sectors is "stagnant," and agricultural output has fallen well below the 1968 level...

...It was in this edgy atmosphere that preparations were made for the anniversary of the August 21 invasion...

...Many looked like students, back early from their holidays to take part in the demonstrations...

...From mid-August on, there were nightly tv showings of wartime partisan films, tributes to the Russian liberators, and pep talks to the People's Militia...

...At the Ceskomoravia-Kolben-Danek (ckd) locomotive plant in Prague, a strike was called when it was learned that the Union of University Students (svs) was to be banned following its convention last May...

...One economist explained...

...One visitor was surprised to see several fat and over-40 figures manning tanks outside Prague...

...A policeman confided that they were People's Militia, hurriedly switched into khaki and pressed into service...

...It was," one student recalls, "the opening cry in the revolution...

...for office staff—and the people stay up late...

...If an "incident" is needed, it will be produced...

...It is a remarkable fact that the Czechoslovak intelligentsia is virtually intact...

...Predictably, penalties and fines apply ex post facto...

...In the graphics field, native book designers continue to share a special finesse with the French in preparing art editions far superior to the "coffee-table books" familiar to Americans...

...On September 2, it was announced that further investigation would not "serve the cause of Socialism...

...Soviet-imposed trade restrictions coupled with internal conditions preclude extensive distribution of consumer goods abroad...

...Soon, perhaps, there will be a return to that "inner exile" of the its coffee (drunk Turkish style) remains unadulterated...

...The government, for its part, has concentrated this summer on two themes: the nation's debt to the Russians and, more and more openly, the "treachery" of Dubcek, Josef Smrkovsky and Frantisek Kriegl...

...At the recent "New Figuration" show in Prague, Alexander Dubcek's face was repeated in picture after picture, while a seemingly innocuous collage turned out to contain obituaries for painters and writers who disappeared in the 1950s...

...Many Pragers suspect that Soviet agents destroyed the Russian Aeroflot office after the hockey riots last winter and set the August 14 fire in the Skoda works, which has been blamed on "counterrevolutionaries...

...Jamming of Western broadcasts has begun once more, and after September 15 most travel abroad—for those who get permission—will be so costly as to be prohibitive...

...But inside the bookshops and coffeehouses, the taverns and vinarnas (wine bars) which dot the Old Quarter, something like the old bush telegraph is at work...

...Doors to the West arc being slammed quickly, and in their struggle against repression, Czechs and Slovaks know they cannot win...

...Where else would we get things...

...Keep to the generally agreed plan of passive resistance: Walk to work, stay out of shops and theaters, decorate the graves and memorials of Czechoslovak heroes...

...While there is the usual resentment of students and privileged intellectuals among workers—from whom, after all, the bulk of the People's Militia is recruited—in the Dubcek era, the two groups began to converge politically...

...Indeed, it is easy to understand the fascination Czechoslovak products hold for foreigners...

...Coming back after a year, I found the people untamed, outspoken and gritty as ever...

...A few militant trade unions have stiffened the backbone of national resistance...

...By 8:30 a wise housewife has done her day's shopping, especially if she hopes for meat, ever in shorter supply...

...for factory workers, 8 a.m...

...Where it has worked in the past, as in British India, there has always been a liberal tradition, no matter how obscured, to which it made an appeal...

...The old baroque buildings, being restored by slow stages, seem half-demolished rather than half-repaired and have mysterious earthworks around them...

...Western countries can sell goods for less than it costs us to produce them...

...It is the sudden scarcities that are most annoying, like the disappearance of winter boots from a provincial store after a supposed buying spree by Russian troops...

...one editor observed...

...Through a bluish haze, I could see the marquee of the Laterna Magika across the way...

...In the final analysis, passive resistance appears doomed to failure...

...Czechoslovakia produces two of Europe's best beers (Pilsener Urquell and Budwar) and "We have nothing to export...

...The resulting police brutality won many workers to their side...

...In their blue berets, they looked strangely like characters out of the Spanish Civil War, which on age alone they might have been...

...This time around one of the original interviewers, a journalist, again participated—according to a colleague, under governmental prodding and sizable sedation...

...In response to the insurgence of some Czechoslovak troops who refused to take part in the anniversary maneuvers, it was further announced soldiers or police who disobey commanding officers face stiffened penalties...

...Under a catchall act to remain in effect until December 31, anyone judged to be "anti-Socialist" may be expelled from his university, dismissed from his job...

...Despite the severance of one link after another with the outside, my friends knew almost everything reported in the Western press about Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe...

...Prices, however, have outstripped them, though by how much is hard to say...

...Another blur condensed, and the People's Militia appeared, bayonets drawn, marching toward the National Theater and the Moldau...

...Examining household utensils, electric appliances, cosmetics, and toiletries, one can see why this nation once had little difficulty capturing world markets...

...The "criminal elements and anti-Socialists" who were the quarry scattered inside doorways, then regrouped as the fumes drifted away...

...He guesses shrewdly that police and Party functionaries will be busy elsewhere...

...This collaboration between enlightened union leadership and the students is the most interesting aspect of the Czechoslovak opposition...

...Good behavior, then, is no insurance against provocation or reprisals...

...and hearsay evidence and anonymous informers are again being used...

...Men's clothing, shoes, canned goods, and fuel show rises of 20-30 per cent, whereas food staples cost much the same as before...

...In August 1968 it temporarily confused the Russians, but the events of this spring and summer have put an end to Soviet hesitations...

...The students, it should be remembered, helped topple Antonin No-votny's regime when they rebelled in November 1967 against repeated electric power failures at the Strhov dormitory...

...From packaging and window displays to the multimedia extravaganzas at the Latcrna Magika, Czechoslovak ingenuity sports a distinctive playfulness...

...This early-morning tempo—the restless faces, the hurrying young men with briefcases—makes the Czech capital decidedly upbeat...

...Thus August 29, which marks the 1944 Slovak uprising against the Nazis, came early this year...

...There are, however, two militant forces which will not be easily silenced ?the progressive trade unionists and the intellectuals...

...The Literamx Lisly staff is still a cohesive group, though that weekly has been disbanded, and the Writers' Union continues to battle against censorship, svs is presently lighting a legal battle to prevent dismemberment by the state...

...On the August 21 anniversary itself, viewers were treated to a replay of an old comedy about counterfeiting...

...Three thousand crowns, the new price for a visa, represents a tenfold increase, roughly two months' average wage...

...Protests are dogged, sometimes intrepid...

...by the stack (one I saw was three feet high) at newsstands where last year Pragers queued impatiently...

...Off-camera in Wenceslas Square, soldiers were tear-gasing young demonstrators...

...Western newspapers widely reported the refusal of aeronautics workers at the Avia plant outside the capital to let a Moscow delegate of the Communist party tour the factory last July...

...Das ist Kriegstrasse," murmured the owner of the antique shop I was standing in as he surveyed the scene outside his window...

...EACH PERSON HAS THE FREEDOM HE GIVES HIMSELF' Prague's 'Inner Exile' By Margaret Reynolds Prague Prague this year has a bulldozed look—but not, as one might expect, because of the massive Army turnout on August 20-21...

...Beneath the National Museum, they are digging a new subway to replace the trolleys that swerve along the cobbled streets...

...deprived of unemployment benefits—without appeal or recourse to a lawyer...

...And an underground bulletin circulated in Prague newspaper offices a few days earlier reflects the delicate position of the liberals...

...On August 18, the government also returned to the subject of Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk's death in 1948...

...As for the Soviet Union, Czechoslovaks today need an invitation to visit, a precautionary measure that suits both sides...

...Police detention without trial may now last as long as three weeks...

...vice rector of Charles University, whose return is hindered by the present regime and made the locus of anti-Semitism...

...Meanwhile, the economic situation continues to drift...

...And passive resistance, the course adopted over the past 12 months, offers scant hope...

...Unfortunately...

...but there is also a severe shortage of factory labor—at least 62,000, according to the government—with the bids of competing factory managers inflating wages...

...They cheered Dubcek and heckled Gustav Husak, neither of whom was present...

...Yet despite their determination, for the moment the people arc leaderless...

...There is nothing in Soviet history to make such an appeal intelligible to Czechoslovakia's conquerors...

...Even with an exodus of close to 30,000 people in the past year, almost all the country's writers and artists stayed at home or, if they left, have returned...

...Exceptions arc economist Ota Sik and Dr...