The Myth of Czech Pragmatism
MASTNY, VOJTECH
The Myth of Czech Pragmatism Czechoslovakia Since World War II By Tad Szulc Viking. 503 pp. $14.00. Reviewed by Vojtech Mastny Assistant Professor of History; Acting Director, Institute on...
...Many of the errors are trivial (the notorious statue of Stalin in Prague was made of granite, not bronze), others are important (the Right-wing General Prchala, who never returned to Prague after 1939, did not lead the Leftist revolt there in May 1945), but all of them are unworthy of a writer of Szulc's ability...
...Although Kremlinologists may take exception to some of his hypotheses, most readers will welcome the wealth of new information he presents here with force and lucidityIndeed, had Szulc confined himself to tracing the reform movement against the background of the past, his book would have been a considerable achievement...
...Szulc followed them closely and devotes a large portion of his book to a detailed discussion of the terror...
...His account, one of the best written so far, faithfully records the drama "blended with total incongruity in the day-to-day events...
...In fact, the period abounds in catastrophes fostered by a doctrinaire rigidity antithetical to pragmatism...
...After all, the leading crusaders are in exile, out of jobs, or realigned with the reactionaries...
...Not only the substance of their controversial model, but especially their self-righteous publicity infuriated the Soviet leadership, precipitating its decision to intervene...
...The result was a particularly vicious and degrading regime, leading ultimately to revulsion within its own ranks...
...Szulc is keenly aware of the critical role historical consciousness played in the 1968 reform movement...
...Some of Szulc's observations are excellent: "After all is said," he writes, "the heart, soul and mind of an apparatus Communist remain enigmas--a strange mystery in terms of human consistency, ethics, and self-respect...
...In choosing to antagonize rather than conciliate, they are neglecting to build a solid foundation for their power...
...Revelations about the scandals and atrocities of the Stalinist regime of the 1950s were a prominent feature of the 1968 scene...
...And the reactionaries who have regained control in Prague are behaving in their former style...
...Overall, however, the book leaves unexplained too many paradoxes in the history of postwar Czechoslovakia--a nation that within 25 years changed from an apparent democracy into a bulwark of Stalinism, then into a vanguard of reform and back again into a citadel of reaction...
...Szulc's numerous factual errors are partially explained by his bibliography, which lists some of the least reliable sources and omits most of the better ones...
...The "fulfillment" and "overcoming" of their national legacy has always been important to the Czechs, as it is to all East Europeans--and given their contradictory heritage of democracy and dictatorship, there was much of both to be done...
...Its analysis of the pre-Communist period (1945-48) is particularly sketchy and unconvincing, tainted with the "Sunday school" interpretation that pits well-meaning democrats against a sinister Communist conspiracy...
...Unfortunately, his ambition was to compile a history of Czechoslovakia Since World War II, and this volume is clearly neither a comprehensive nor an accurate historical study...
...He wisely refrains from predicting the future, except to observe that "the spirit of the Prague Spring is far from dead...
...Acting Director, Institute on East Central Europe, Columbia University Books about the Prague Spring of 1968 continue to roll off the presses and deservedly so...
...New York Times correspondent Tad Szulc, who was reporting from Czechoslovakia at the time, succeeds in recapturing the exuberant atmosphere of these heady months preceding the Red Army's August invasion...
...To be sure, the popular yearning for freedom persists, but the spirit of a crusade for communism with a "human face" is gone...
...Dogmatic Communist leaders were turning into would-be democrats, and a people long subdued by apathy and cynicism was bursting with renewed emotion and energy...
...For in that annus mirabilis--that year of widespread campus rebellion at home and students on the barricades in Paris--the events in Czechoslovakia surely set a record in unpredictability...
...The history of that quarter-century fails to sustain the widely accepted stereotype of Czech political pragmatism...
...While distressing, this outcome does not necessarily preclude further liberalization in Eastern Europe...
...In the '50s, the Czech Party chiefs who are now in charge of the government were determined to demonstrate the suitability of communism for their highly industrialized, Western-oriented nation...
...Szulc summarizes only briefly the events that followed his expulsion from Czechoslovakia in December 1968...
...For example, the advocacy of Soviet predominance in Central Europe--de rigueur for Czechoslovak politicians, Communist or not, in 1945--decisively weakened the nation's resistance to foreign pressure...
...And it benefits not only from a sense of immediacy but from the local flavor the author's numerous Czech friends helped to provide...
...The current pragmatic effort of the allegedly romantic Poles may yet succeed where the romantic attempt of the reputedly pragmatic Czechs has failed...
...Trying to exorcise the heresy with a missionary ardor, they delight in insulting and humiliating their defeated rivals...
...Regrettably, the reform movement of the late '60s was also dominated by zealots: this time for the cause of a "democratic communism" that would set an example to the world...
Vol. 54 • May 1971 • No. 9
