Trouble in Slovakia

...The Soviet aim is unmistakably clear...

...At the same time, his apparent need to create a power base in Slovakia is a reflection of the fact that there is no future here for a politician who relies solely upon the Soviets...

...Identified as a Soviet supporter in the first days of the occupation, Bilak was put on the postinvasion Czechoslovak Party Presidium and Secretariat at Moscow's insistence, even though the Slovaks had stripped him of all offices here because of his collaboration...

...The liberals have attempted to defend their policies...

...The competition has taken on an almost slapstick quality...

...Enraged at its disregard for his policies, he ordered the printing plates destroyed...

...Professor Miroslav Kusy, a member of the philosophy faculty at the Comenius University in Bratislava, declared in an interview with the Slovak journalists' weekly that ultraradical views are necessary even for the successful formulation of a moderate program: "Had it not been for the pressure of the radical and ultraradical forces, had they not presented their suggestions, often unacceptable to the leadership, the [Dubcek] Action Program would not have been drafted in the manner in which it was finally published, because there were attempts to make it much, much more modest from the beginning...

...Only his Soviet backing enables him to get away with it...

...But Husak apparently does not share this view...

...Once the national goal was achieved, the other liberties could follow...

...Since January, when the federal status backed by Slovak-born Alexander Dubcek went into effect, Slovakia has begun one of those rare interludes of autonomy in its thousand years of domination by Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Berlin...

...We consider work with the Communists and other workers in the press as political work...

...But if it is not going to be possible to reach an agreement with them politically, then some personnel changes will obviously be unavoidable...

...An official who was present said he had to be whisked out a side door for his own safety, because fist-fights had broken out between his supporters and opponents...

...For in their view, it may endanger many of the remaining benefits of Dubcekism, not only in Slovakia but in the nation as a whole...

...As secretary for relations with other Communist parties, he is now in effect foreign minister, and has recently vetoed some of the diplomatic appointments of the nominal foreign minister, Jan Marko...

...In Prague, the authors of the Action Program—Dubcek...

...And whatever the intentions of Husak and Bilak, their actions are being utilized by the Russian occupation authorities, who hope to be the eventual beneficiaries of both the rivalry and of Slovak nationalism...

...He has accused Kusy of taking a "Rightist, opportunist" line and fired him from his briefly held post as Central Committee secretary for ideological questions...

...There is another side to the resurgent nationalism, however, that is causing concern among the progressives...

...Actually, no one expects much from Bilak, who served in Bratislava as the unimaginative administrator of directives handed down from Prague by arch-Stalinist Antonin Novotny...

...But even today we cannot be content with the fact that some of the people misuse the freedom of the press to confuse ideas, to spread opinions and viewpoints that are at odds with the Party, or to evoke campaigns and high feelings which interrupt the process of consolidation...

...In Martin, a bleak industrial city in the Fatra mountains northeast of here, Bilak called a Party meeting in February without Husak's knowledge...

...In Bratislava, the occupation banned the radical Kulturny Zivot, and Husak has prevented the appearance of its successor, Literarny Zivot...

...Husak's case is much more complex...

...But they also wonder if the effective result of his policies is not the same as collaboration, particularly the abridgement of the two principal gains of reform: freedom of the press and discussion...

...Federation, after all, was one of the key points of Dubcek's program...

...In fact, while it would be easy to dismiss Husak as a willing tool of the Russians, differing only from Bilak in tactics, not even his most bitter radical opponents do so...

...This aspect of Slovak nationalism is supported by the reform Communists, here and in Prague...

...Yet now Husak can use nationalism as a means of curbing the other liberties...

...Slovakia was run from Prague, and Czechs controlled its economic as well as its political structure...

...The blueprints for the present tactics were drawn 30 years ago by the Germans, when they created a separate Slovak state and turned the Slovaks against the Czechs, instead of themselves...

...But by autumn, his behavior had disappointed and then angered liberals in Prague...

...Federation has always come first in Slovakia...

...But on the surface at least this seems to be shaping up as a competition for Soviet support...

...Since late winter, the black fishtail Tatra limousines of the two Slovak politicians have been touring the country roads in a contest reminiscent of election time in a backwoods U.S...

...In Prague, where censorship has been reinstated in the wake of Marshal Ivan Grechko's unexpected meeting with Czech leaders two weeks ago, the outspokenly progressive Liter-arm Listy was quickly replaced with Listy, which had the same views and nearly the same editorial staff...

...In a speech to the March plenum of the Slovak Party, Husak attacked both the conservatives and the progressives...

...Realism also means that as of this writing, Slovakia is without its own literary magazine...

...Local officials are again making local decisions, although the precise degree of their authority is still to be determined...

...The priorities of the reform program in the two states also differ...

...Bilak's anti-Husak barnstorming, of course, is "factionalism" and therefore illegal under Party statutes...

...There another Moscow collaborator, Alois Indra, has been taking Bilak's role, and the Parly secretary for Czech lands, Ludomil Strougal, has been playing the realist...

...Husak then had to hustle up to Martin a week later to address his own Party meeting and undo Bilak's activity...

...They concede that his errors stem from nationalism rather than collaboration...

...The radicals ask questions in a way that creates pressure under which it is much easier to formulate moderate or moderately progressive or centrist views...

...But there are differences...

...What disturbs the reformers is the rivalry between Gustav Husak, Slovakia's current Party chief, and Vasil Bilak, the man he replaced in the confusion following the Soviet invasion last August...

...Folk dances will alternate with speeches in the Slovak language...

...Most of his wrath, however, was directed at the liberals...

...President Ludvik Swoboda, and Prime Minister Oldrich Cernik— have been far more energetic than Husak in defending it...

...congressional district...

...As a result, Bratislava is starting to take on the air of a true capital, and the folk dances and speeches at the castle probably will be more fiery than usual...

...While Bilak and Husak have introduced an element of humor into the usual earnestness of Party infighting, their political views, particularly toward Moscow, evoke only gloom...

...Even before the Grechko visit, ideological disputes and power struggles were not confined to Slovakia...

...in the Czech lands a similar process has been under way...

...To achieve this, Moscow is willing to grant Slovakia a greater degree of autonomy than it permits its own federated states, including the neighboring Ukraine...

...One local writer said the first issue of the new magazine was set in type, ready for printing, when Husak read the proofs...

...The outcome of the Russian plan will depend on many factors: Dub-cek's success in preventing a wholesale capitulation on a national scale, the winner of the Bilak-Husak struggle and, finally, the ability of Husak to retain the political skill and control that have made it possible for him to survive charges of bourgeois nationalism as well as prison, reform, invasion, and occupation...

...A victim of the Stalinist trials against "bourgeois nationalists" in the '50s, he was welcomed by the reformers when he took over as Slovak Party secretary in August...

...He had become the leading advocate of "realism"—the policy of bowing before superior Russian armed force...

...We value highly the work of those Communists and non-Communists who help clarify the Party and state policy to millions of people through the mass information media...

...The Czechs find the four million Slovaks difficult to understand, but until this year that really had not mattered much...

...If anything, he went further than Novotny, particularly in cracking down on Slovak writers and journalists...

...Donald R. Shanor, a previous contributor, reports on East European affairs for the Chicago Daily News...

...At another gathering in Humenne, a town in the far reaches of Eastern Slovakia, near the Ukrainian border, an anti-Bilak majority crowded into a hall while the former Party secretary was speaking and booed him off the platform...

...And though Strougal's political views coincide with Husak's, his relative power position does not...

...THE MOSCOW PLAN Trouble in Slovakia By Donald R. Shanor Bratislava In a few weeks Slovaks will crowd the rocky hillside under Devin Castle, where the Morava flows into the Danube, to celebrate their annual national festival...

...The Slovak Party, legislature and government now have a measure of real power and are using it, above all, to help Slovakia's underdeveloped economy catch up with that of the Czech lands...