<►,! n. <<<" in in * •nu i ri„ unii    11, -, li, iMiii,: ii, iIk- ,.in- uiklii the lim ..r nMit li-iikiiij; like lads who've hern hahgrd
They nit off the hjir of ihi- htlle hlfV hi sees how it looks he mumn't mow he musí MX move on his chair of steel
Now he s in far it. Translated from Czeá by Jarmila Mifarnmi <uuf lan Múncr
XI
Meal" Socialism (1948-296^
Mi. . tin-. 1 unimmist victories in the elections of 1*46 and i^inewCucho-ilm .iki.m const iiution proclaimed on May 0. 1*48. a "people"* democra<iy," as
limned to the outgoing "bourgeois del 11 Ik r.i 1 v." Ilulcsl I. .Howid I he :iTigi
HéI ittio constitution, with parts inspired by iht- lyy^cimsiiiutionof (he Soviet I 'iiinn President Benci protested in vain againM its undemocratic cha raci en I |pwvcr, elections organized at the end uf May dt-mimsi rated the enormous I iii 111 '1 the communists. Only candidates of the National Front, now run ' 1 nmunists, were eligible, but the voters had a choice: they could submit "white (blank) ballots. In the ť!zrťh part of the republic, ordy »3 percent Mi Hed white"; among the Slovaks, 13.9 percent did so—a decided victory (or iIm- 11 immunisis.
When Bend resigned Tor reasons of health on July u, Klement Gottwald w«» rleucd president, first in a long line of presidents who were also heads 1-i 1 '-i- < ■ irrLiiiurnsi Marty. Gottwald wrote one of the darkest chapters in the lim niv nl' Czechs and Slovaks. In political show trials, 15 $ innocent people «. 11- mi in-in id K. Jc.nh by i'iiir.rwald's court, and 17B uf them were executed. Alum 1 iHa.ixMj people were condemned in rigged crials éúí entries such as
1......p.ms nationalism."
Milada t loráková, a prominent democratic politician bdorr ihv cinnritu-i.iki over, was the only woman executed In the political tn.iK m ihr com milium hloc, Gottwald insisted on unconditicjiial conformity to the Soviet mihlrl, and when Rudolf Slánský, at that lime general secretary of the Cim-
......iM Party of Czechoslovakia, opposed him, he otvhestfMtd a huge show
ln.il in 1952 Slánský and other high functii marie* "f the (jimmimm Party were accused of ~Trotskyit€-Tliúitt-/ionLsi conspiracy" and eiccuted.
Most of those persecuted were former entrepreneurs, members of demo-i ii 1 parties and clerics, but alsu soldiers of the Czechoslovak army in exile, especially pilots who had risked their lifes on the western front just a few wars earlier. En 1950 forced labor camps were established, where anyone could K- sent without trial; the decision of a national committee was sufficient.
umu
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pvenaitei years ol MiinilllMIIH lln' 1101 siHH'lV, 111 which culiurt
education would be accessible Id all by 'till nul "I mrIh. in the dutaner In'
stead of the promised paradise, there were rvri Inngei wailing lino in li of Mures. Czechoslovakia was threatened with bankruptcy ThiswumM by the monetary reform of June 1.1953, which the Western press justly miked "the great monetary mbhery'' The re-form, which followed upon ilie nalMtfl alization of real estate, killed two birds with one stone: communism ,n 1 umu lated badly needed financial reserves and they ruined the Czechoslovak hour geoisie. Antonín Zápotocký, at ttuit time president, assured all citirenH thai the currency was stable, but the next day everyone could exchange no mor* than three hundred Czech crowns, at a rate of five old (or one new; beyond that, old crowns became practically valueless—the higher ones deposm ilir more unfarvorablc the rates. Overnight, the entire life savings of many I.imm lies were irretrievably lost.
Culture in communist countries was markedly deformed, because ihi It nikis wanted not only social and political revolution but also revolutionary an. In the Soviet Union, socialist realism was the only style permitted fmm 19U through the mid i*sos. In architecture, it was academic classicism; in painting, sculpture, and literal u-r. nineteenth-century realism was o niibmrd with the romantic cult of heroes put into the service of communist propa ganda. In many Czech and Moravian cities one can still find vtarues or pawl ings of those fearless, handsome, and youthful heroes of the new communMH society, whose realistic features arc transported to a timeless world of ideal values. Architects, writers, painters, and other artists who rejected .uicialtM realism were not allowed to present their work publicly. Today, the majority of these creations are dismissed as being at best kitsch—but kitsch will alwayi find an audience.
After 14+1, publishing houses, theaters, and galleries in Czechoslovakia were nationalized and ihus entirely .state-controlled. One uf the most f.»m< mi authors in postwar Central Europe wasjifi Wed. but after 1941s he l<ist his job in a publishing house and in 1951 he was expelled from the Union of Czechoslovak Writers, which meant that officially he ceased to be a writer. Only members of newly ftmnded unions of artists and writers could earn ihrir living by selling their works. These associations were very selective; a limiird number of absolutely loyal intellectuals were privileged with membership. Catholics and liberal democrats were a priori exiled, as well as left-oriented writers like Halas, Kolář, and many others.
Works of art were interpreted politically, not only by communist auihori tics, who watched closely ibr ideological correctness, but also by their audience, who read political statements into the most innocent remarks. Art wu
Sulln monument in Prague, Letná Park Otakar Awe. sculptor; JihSturxi. architect;, mast-55: ai 15 S meters till and i i meters long, uirt wit the largest group statue in Europe. While all the figures look toward Prague, the soldier at the end looks watchfully back, in the direction of Berlin and capitalist Western Europe. The dwmjction of this, mi inument in rata marked the kmg-auaiTrd end ol the Stalinist era in Czechoslovakia IoJay 111 ill place stands a g,ianr kinetic sculpture of a metronome 1 Vratislav Karel Novak, 1991:1 with its obvious but complex allusion to the rhythmic cycles of Czech history, Photo by Leo* Nebor, used by permission of CTB.
in the limelight, closely watched by the whole nation, Because it was permanently endangered, it had a privileged position, and artists were able to influence society to a far greater degree than their colleagues in the West. The power of a single Czech or Slovak word was incomparably greater than in established democracies. It wu only logical that when communism finally fell, the first president of democratic Czechoslovakia would be a writer. There was, however, a long road to the end of European communism.
Gottwald died in to;;, in the same year as Stalin, but he was replaced
.is party brad by Autumn Nmvixriv, 4 hard llnr Sulinw  ( /i< hnslovaK ilr
pendente <in the Soviet Urnou w.i-. umiIkiu ,\ li\ ioim.il .illi.mn-s lit i Amu. membership in 111 t 'nniuil fur Mutual 1-Voimmvc Assistance, ami l.nci in tlw Wansaw Pitt, founded in 195$ to counter the nato alliance. In i<jls the big gesi Stalm monument in the- world was built in Prague's Letní Park. k> uniug above the entire city Only one year later, however, the entire communirt «*/»■ rem was shaken to hi foundations. In February at the twentieth congreM of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev started ■ process of de-Stalinization.
For some communist countries 1956 was a year of great hopes. In April, during the Second Czechoslovak Writers' Congrt.vs, many of those present, especially poets Jaroslav Seifert and František Hrubin, openly criticized of ficial literature and the persecution of "unapproved" wnters. In Poland, June protests brought moderate liberalization by October. That same month, the antkommunist Hungarian revolution erupted. 4 inly to be crushed on November lo by Soviet tanks Atrocities in the Budapest revolution shocked the population of Czechoslovakia and made any attempt at democratization extremely difficult. Any criticism of the patty line was labeled as an attack by "antisorialist forces," and it was soon silenced.
Neverthclev. in the mid-hfiies, books by contemporary foreign authors were beginning to be published, their plays appeared on theater stages, and American. Bntish, Italian, and French movies were shown in Czechoslovak cinemas. Since isolation f rom Western cultuiv had lasted for only a tew year*, the- connection could be quickly reestablished. In 195S Josef Škvorecky'* Zbahŕici (The cowards;, written in naa$>, could finally be published In the same year the first collection of poems by Miroslav 1 lolub. Dmut *Jujfna i.Day duty) appeared. Holub belonged to a group or pi wis around the literary journal Kvrtrn (May;, published i?v> 59, which fought for the poetry of the everyday, in sharp contrast to superficial rheioric of communist literature. This pro gram paralleled trends in other European poetry, as well as the neorralism of Italian cinema. Holub was a scientist whose matter-of-fact, unrhymed poetry was very popular in English speaking countries.
After J4J56. the Czechoslovak parry chief Novotný adopted the de-Stulim ration rhetoric, but the totalitarian regime was preserved intact. Lively djj-i-ussions in literary journals and publication of lung-silenced authors ended abruptly after liberalization was brought to a halt in the Soviet Union. The ro59 congress of Czechoslovak writers was again dominated by conservative communisiv but the new wave of repressions of writers was far less destructive
In the second hall <rf the liltu-i, there were signs of riorvomic recovery in CzechosUivaklj which allowed Novotný to continue his rigid authoritar-ian rule. Because war damages in Czechoslovak territory had been relatively small, the communists profited from the industrial potential of Masaryk's republic. Moreover, the communists Inherited a country with a highly educated populace. Professor Otto Wichterle, obsessed with his laboratory research, pn>duccdthe world's first serviceable contact lenses on Christmas Day, 1961— in bis home and with the help of hts children's Meccano ci instruction kit. To these advantages must be added a revolutionary novelty imported from Soviet Russia—a wry high percentage of female workers. Already in tustf Kamila Moučková, the world's first female newscaster, appeared on Czechoslovak TV screens.
In communist Czechoslovakia, changes in the Kremlin directly affected its economy: Soviet militarism, which nearly ruined the economy of the eastern bloc, eased up in 1956. Soviets gave up the idea of imminent military confrontation and started 10 promote peaceful coexistence with the West. Demands for armament production in Chechoslovakia w*rc radically reduced, and instead of tanks Czechoslovak factories could produce more and bcttrr consumer goods.
Nevertheless, at the beginmng of iht: 19605 the economic situation, in Czechoslovakia again became alarming and Novotný was urged toward reforms—by the Soviet Union as well as his own party. Novotnýrs regime responded not with reforms, but with an intensive propaganda campaign. The extravagant claim was that after Its necessary political and social transform* lion, ihc country was finally prepared to prove the superiority of socialism, and by 19B0 would overtake evm the most developed capitalist countries. To celebrate this bombastic plan, in njóo the Man- changed all its logos, from state symbols to currency The crown of the (.arch heraldic lion was replaced by a red star, and the state was renamed the Czechoslovak Sociabst Republic. According to Marxist ideology, socialism is the last stage before the final goal of the revolutionary movement, namely, communism.
Soviet Russia had proclaimed itself a socialist state already m hjJď; in belatedly following their example. Czechoslovakia was declaring symbolically that the most difficult stage of creating socialism was over. Acknowledging ihe communist power monopoly, which had existed de facto since ism*, the new constitution of July 11, i*fšo. established Czechoslovakia as a unitary state, curbing drastically the power of Slovak state organs. Notwithstanding the elevation of Czechoslovakia to a socialist state, the economic crisis persisivd. In Central liuropc, Czechoslovakia was outpaced by l-'ast Cermany and Aui-
-"§11
byprevtouily Ignorrdi|»•<h■  i,nh .....Iirvat Nulirmia .indrL iniu.pn (*•
riod. More important, Imioncal novel* wrrr um'd 1ii i oruniciil mi trcrnt |m litical history, a good example being Vaclav Kapličky s Kludtw na isn<*if)*iet (Witches' hammer) of n*S_t. dealing with seventeenth century Inquisition iri als in northern Moravia. In 1969, the director Otakar Vávra, who had begun his successful career in the 1940s, turned the hook utit* a successful film,
Among Czech Jewish authors reflecting on their war experience*, l.»d*#-lav Fuchs attracted the greatest aitentioti at home and abroad, pi-ihap* hr cause of his love of the ahsurd and fascination with the mysteries of life. Tin hero i»f his 1901 novel Pan Theodor Mvrubiůtk í M r '1 "heodorr Mu ndsiock) li M ordinary clerk who systematically prepares himself for life in a concentration camp. When he heads for the meeting place horn which hi- is to l>c ir.im ported, he stops in the middle of the street to follow his method of regularly changing hands holding his luggage. At this moment a German car hits him and Mr. Mundstock dies
In i«9 Jiri Suchý and Jih' Slitr founded the Theater Semafor, for which Suchý wrote scripts and Slitr the music. Performances, inspired by the Ctfl tral European tradition of cabarets and hy American slapstick, hud mi logu .il order. From 1962, Suchy always appeared on stage in a white Panama hat. a* a dreamy harum-scarum type; Sbor wore the characteristic black bowler of a slow pedant. Semafor was the most popular new kind of cheater, offering small informal scenarios with no other goal than to delight its audience with pix-iry and unlettered play of imagination. These largely improvised peri » mances. in the prewar tradition of the "liberated cheater" of Voskovrr and Werich, were immensely popular. Songs like "Klokočí" iBladdemuti iif h*m are the common property of Czech* of aU generations and are still often sung around camptircs.
The cultural explosion in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s featured three leg endary avant-garde rheatirrs in Prague People could choose between Semafor, Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo na zabradii), and che Theatre beyond the Gate (Divadlo za branou i, founded by the director Otomar Krejča and his colleagues: the playwright Josef Topol and the actors Jan Tfiska and Mark Tomášova. Krefca's theater was more traditional than the other two. staging classical plays and Chekhov. The hist Czech play in the Theatre beyond the Gate was Kočka na Mcjích (Cat on the Rails) by Josef Topol, in who h .1 banal situation become* a parable of the Creadon of life and its unavoidable destruction.
In the sixties, cinema exploded in the Czechoslovak new wavr as it was called after the French ncuvelk vwjjue. Among the first Czech eméma-vrrite films were Milos Forman's Auditům and Black Prttr (premier! in 19A.1). He
tore hitman emigi aicd <■> (In * lulled Suio. hr made two rticpt tonal lilum »11 li<mi (in ■Icssmnal mIin-, I .liJpv |. iÍki fi|,m>wi4i<lrv (Lows ol .1 hlottdr, lufts.1 and ffon. ttiit jiiotnikti illinium hall l^je-71. movies that moiked the pi-Ill in m .111.) stupidity ol ordinary ptoplr ,nul hltm.inists on both sides ol iIh-lion Curiam communion from Soviet Mosfilm as well as capitalists In mi America's Paramount In explaining Forman's 'misanthropy ' |imt Škvoin k\ 1 .11 1, .1 1 . • i'- i- -i-, |. i-.'- pan o:- were killed 11 .1 Viz .1 n. <• ilralion , .imp and that the experiences of Czech intellectuals in their St ah nisi Man- did not encourage them to idealize "the f^opic."1 Forman's colleagues also producrd ru rllrni films in which no actors dominated; Jaroslav Papoušek lor instance, givrx another penetrating analysis of Czech character in his movie MOf ifirmif WflWIOfl* (tpCp),
In iotts, Obchůii nit k«rz((The shop on Mam Street), a movie about ihc SI.. i .1 k Aryamzation program during ihe Second World War, won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. It was made by Elmar Klos from Brno and Jan Kadar, a Hungarian-speaking Slovak, the mam actress was a Pohih lew Two years later the Academy Award went 10 Jin Menzcl's Oak sitiicmnt vlitlry (Closely watched trains 1. based on I tribal's tragicomic talc of coming of age in German-occupied Czechoslovakia Menze! was a fresh gradual > 1 { 1'1 i.- 1 \ film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Aits 11 ami. 1. as were other Ci»fh new wave directors—Vera Chytilová, Jan Nfmec, and iňhers.
Ki-markable animated movies were produced, notably by JIH Trnka, founder of the modern puppet film. Karel Zeman was the originator of "spe-i tal effects." making bis name through movies like Crete do prowl™ (Journey to the beginning of rime; 1955), a precursor ot'IuriisjicRanV, and VynAltz xttúzv (Deadly invention; 1958} adapted from a Jules Verne novel Besides such i* pi-rimental Alms, Czechs al.vo tested daring combinations of theater and film, flic Magic Lantern Theatre (Laterna magical premiered triumphantly at the nrtH World Fair in Brussels, where it won a gold medal. In this highly cingina I 1 oration of director Alfred Radok and Josef Svoboda, the stage designer, the perfitrmartce of live actors and dancers was integrated into a film show Hi-.. .1 ijKL- oi its success. 3 permanent thi-nter for Interna Magica was opened in Prague. It also toured the world as a very lucrative export article. An interest ing variation on the Laterna Magica principle was Kinoautomat. opening at Montreal s lixpo '&;. in which the audience voted on how the movie would proceed Such creative enterprises came lo an ahnipi halt when Russian. But German. Polish, Bulgarian, and Hungarian tanks crossed the Czechoslovak border on the night ol August zo-zt, 7968,
,   I if nary lims. a Slovak. Alexander Dubčck. had replaced Novotm I ike
, i ( ll ll ll'i       . ■  1,1. I "ll
Mikhail Gorbachev he was young. eharismatU. and naive, bri any hr gen uincly believed that communism could be reformed I li h.im m malum * smiling face, people 1ovl-J turn, an J ihe iniellivt u.ils hj|^ih u-d him While m wouid have been impossible for people outside the Communist Party to nw throw the oppressive regime, it was at the same time foolish to expect CWM refi>rm communists to support the restoration of capitalism arid parliaiuen tary democracy. Socialism with a human laee w.as j 'inprnmive plaitorm Ex all those who wanted some change. With Dubeek's uaiirnn, Stalinist! began to be expelled (rum positions in the central, ir gn in a I. district ami local organizations. Nevertheless, they managed to hold on to key posts lor many years. Dubcek abolished censorship in hopes that the medi a would diw -ied.it NnviKTiy's "conservative" camp 'lb his great surprise, the media immediately ! became independent players in the political scene and began to determine its development. They were breaking one uboo after another, tin a dady basil, and the politicians were unable to keep the pace. The new era of mass medM had begun.
On March 12, Novoiny also resigned as president, and the whole n 1 mm welcomed his successor. General Ludvik Svobuda. The so-called Prague Spring began on April ;, with the publication of the Czechoslovak Communist Parry's Akcni program (Action program) It rejected Stalinism ami promised an economically effective and "democratic" socialism. To obligr the Slovaks it also promised federalization. Nevertheless, it reaffirmed the ascendance of the Communist Parry, affiliation with the Soviet Union, ami the ultimate goal of attaining a communist state. Communist reformers soon came into conflict not only with Stalinists, but also with those who wanted a plurality of political patties, freedom of press and association, and other basic human rights. At this point the powerful manifesto Ova ruier slav (Two thousand words), giving voice to workers, farmers, clerk*, artists, was initiated by .scientists from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and written by Ludvik Vaculiki a literary celebrity and also a reform communist. It was published on June 17, is*!*, in three dailies and fn Litfnlnu [uty (successor to Litcrdrni novitiy; which had been banned by Nrrvotny's regime).
The Czechoslovak attempt to implement "socialism with a human face" bet ame very topical worldwide and the events weit closely watched by politicians abroad. Nevertheless, in the context of student revolts in Franee and Germany, and—in the United States—the movement against the Vietnam War, one could not expect any support from the West. It would have been rejected anyway by reform-oriented politicians in Czechoslovakia, who could not imagine a world without "brotherly" communist states commanded by the mighty Soviet Union,
"lilriif" NiMwImti W7
In the Soviet bin. tin i.nnm..| 1 m hoOovak reform* < jusrd p.mn v\
pccially in ľant 1......mv and ľiilatul, whose leaden. Walter Ulhruhl and
Wladislaw Cnmulka * allrd foi tadual action. On July 15. igeifl. the Soviet Union. German I )rrmn 1 ,nu Republic, I lungary. and Poland, sent a collective Inter 10 the Central Committee t it the Czechoslovak Communist Parry in Prague, describing possible military intervention, tor which plans had existed since that June. The manifesto Twu ThinimnJ Wards is explicitly mentioned in tins letter Replying to the Warsaw Pact letter, Dubček rejected the criticism of Czechoslovakia as wholly unfounded, and condemned the idea of a con-fen-ncc in which one supposedly "fraternal" Communist Party is criticized in the absence of its delegates.
On August at, i<xHi, the endeavor to combine Marxism and democracy ended dramatically with the invasion of all the Warsaw Pact armies, excluding 1 mly the Romanians. About 750.000 soldiers moved into Czechoslovakia, in the largest military operation in Europe since the end of the Second World Wrar. The invasion was presented by the Soviet Union ax "helping" Czechoslovakia resist its internal counterrevolutionary movement. The official declaration of the Soviet Press Agency iaSs stated that the highest representatives nf Chechoslovakia had asked the Soviei Union and other states ol the eastern hi 10 r-,', j Ji- :he country. The alleged request, signed by five top Czech com' munist functionaries, was intended to legitimize the Soviet military occupa-lion nt" the country—but the plan failed totally. The signatories vehemently denied the existence of the letter, but in ig>ja the Russian president brought a copy to Prague, together with other secret documents, and gas* it to the Czech president, Vaclav Havel.
It could have appeared to the Russians that the Czechoslovak army would not oppose them, because it was in fact commanded by Soviet ruaishals. but they underestimated popular support for the reform movement In the Czechoslovak Communist Party, and among Czechs and Slovaks in general. 'The invasion was immediately condemned as a violation of international law -first by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which actually ruled the country, and then by the Czechoslovak government, by the Presidium of the National Assembly, and finally by a plenary vote of the National Assembly, the highest legislative body of the state.
Ounng the invasion, people attempted to stop heavily armed intruders with theiT bate hands, and nervous Soviet soldiers killed dozens of Czech* and Slovaks. Later, people avoided confrontations but unanimously rotvted the Soviet military presence in Czechoslovakia, which was covered with imaginative anti-invasion posters. On the other hand, traffic signposis -ind
rvrn sirrpl disappeared,     timluw (lir InvasiMii tump*  I'lin nenrral
irsiMamc lonrd the SmM'l linum lo < hangr ttctkft.
Since rcganJ lor world opinion did not allow them to lame t./ci hs and Mo v aks thnnigh force, the citmmmitstscomentraied on the leader*of ihr reform movement whom they had arrested alirady i*r\ August ±i, Duhcck, Smrktw-sky, Cernik, Kriegd, and other men of ihc Prapie Spimg were brought to the Kremlin. Supported by President Svoboda, who arrived in MOSCOW on his own. the Soviets put so much pressure on Dubcek and his delegation" that they capitulated in exchange for permission 10 return to their ofiVes. where they fondly imagined mntinuing their reforms. In reality Dubcek s Jail was only delayed for a few months. The "temporary" occupation by the Soviet army lasted twenty-three years; us mere presence helped the Czechoslovak Communist Party to effectively control the late of every rioaen.
Nate
i. Jonf SkvnrecVy; Ml tht Brighi Jo*Hg Mm and VUnocn.' A Pcntxwl liuivry of Czedt L'jiim*4 iToroiun: Peter Martin Associates, 11171.1, 67
XII
"Real" Socialism (1968-1989)
"(leal socialism" was the term used, in Soviet propaganda of ihc 1970s to distinguish the form nf Sóťlillšril itljT iU'[uu.lK LSinUrd ill lllllcllUllLil Countries [mm thi' final sUge < if siHiakšl uUVpb yel Mother stepping Stone jťLSCíled netwe*n the present ("ai'lunlly enSlirUi socialism," 'developed socialism,"' or "state si vuli.vm.." as il W3$ Lulled) an J [III- prumivd ulupu (j| liimmuilLiill. AnriCommUTiisls Li.vťJ I he sinir lerm in a Jillireni sense: iLhdesfiibe [he state, of affairs in communist countries, in which one pí rty controlled the ťultune,
ei."nomy. eseOLf.Vi' puwr, ihr law. and law en f< lament. A dermktálíť ia-
cade was preserved, but in reality the communists ran everything.
The only outcome of the ambitious plans of the Czethoskivak i.ommu nist reform movement was the formal federalization of the Czechoslovak state, declared in October 196ft. In the 1940s, the Slovak economy and cul' rure caught up more or less with the Czechs, and during the so-called Prajrue Spring, the Slovaks vehemently demanded greater autonomy. The Czechoslovak Socialist Federative Republic, as it was then called, was nominally lormed by rwo Largely autonomous states, Czech and Slovak, but in reality both were subjected to the stricdy centralist Czechoslovak Communist Part)'. iSrandiloqucnt renaming aside, everything remained exactly as it had been lit 1960, when, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was proclaimed. AH the cmavagant hopes of the Prague Spring went down the drain, and feelings of lu-Ipk-sMR-ss and apathy began co dominace '.he- country, which was tilled with 1-tu.wnu.n lanks. National solidarity which had seemed Invincible a[ the rime ní ihi Soviet invasion, began to evaporate.
In I ť-mhei 196ft an essay by Milan Kundera, "Český úděl" íCzcch des-tmy)appL-jTpd in i.iyiy. in which Kutidera priihLid the peaceful Czechoslovak
resislance lO the Russian i:<l upalmri js an L-pixhal l-v l - r i I in w,(irlú llislm v
encouraging hmpe for LmrnVks nrforms. Vidav Havel responded to Kundera in 10*1 arlidť with I he- .<.jme title, hut added a L]ueslmn mark.' It was a sharp critirisni id Kundera s defenjf of ihe. i^eL-h[>:il[jvak re.fiKrnl movement. Havel alst] irjrL'Icd any ^lorifiralinn nl'thr O.rchosli ivak ri'jrlui:i la [In- kus-
(ha   "Hraf" taioflfm
Snrulm education dau. L«nm«, If>gR. Duong the period ot rej wciilúmT communist instruction WH completely ritualized: rem, af etnpry KM Ad „ot deter the lecturer t m penWmnig hi> ideological duty. Audbcnce *itd letturex were prepil ,n |hr the wry iwunt the lecture ended; ch* instrumente dI pmpi^nda m front uf iht kciurer ipapen *.vJ wmt muk) ■» ready to be parked im.. h» briefrue. Phocn bv jindhdi Stretí
sian occupation that raked masking the gravity of he-, country 5 situation. Kundera answered Havel's criticism, and their differences KVGtkd the basic incompatibility of reform communists and the rest of the population, who no longer believed in socialist visions.
During the I 'i .i.cui- Spring, students formed the most radical group. On January 19, 196*. a student named Jan Palach immolated himself in a desperate effort to piovoke wmc sort of Czech resistance. The place he chose was one dcai to all C.V.echs, hetween the National Museum and the statue of .Sain I Vaclav on Wenceslas Square in Prague. The whole nation was in shock and Pilach received all funereal honors, but people were already too intimidated by brutal police repressions to respond to his drastic appeal. By that time, many people were already in jail, and half a million opponents of the regime had been sacked
In Mjnh ii>fig. the streets of Prague were once again filled with people, but this time to celebrate the victory of the Czechoslovak hockey team, whuh had twice defeated the Russians. Anti-Soviet protests included slogans such a\ They had no cannonballs and we senrrd two goals' iNemeti tarn
lanky, dostali dvéhrankv 1. Sovu 1 huilhiiy ■ .ill ■ *er the enunlry were .illai krd, and tlu- windi iws n| Acuillm, ihr Soviet navel agency on Wenceslas Square m Piague, wi-re destroyed ihiit pi<ih,ibl\ In agents of ihe sit tel police, lm-/.h nev dr. 1 Jed   1 use this .is piele.M co break with the C '.r.vvh reformers. In April.
I luhcek was replaced by Gustav Husák, a "reformer' who promptly switched shies and used this opportunity to make a brilliant political career. In 1075 he became president as well as party chief
On the Hrst anniversary of the Soviet invasion, people got a full taste of resurrected Stalinism. Demonstrators in Prague. Liberec, limo, and other iip\mi- win- attacked by Freshly trained antiriot units of the army, leaving several dead. Although I l-.is.il had himself been tortured and condemned to death as a Slovak "bourgeois nationalist'' m the 1950s, he came to endorse irprcssrvr measures that revis'td illegal practices from the time of his own imprisonment. Behind this rapid restoration of Stalinist dictatorship were two Moscow agents in the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. Vasal Bil'ak and Alois Indra
1. >i 1 August ia, 1469, a special law, A Legal Measure for Maintaining Public Peace and Order, was issued to back up arbitrary police brutality, It was a his-
Ii Miial irony that this law was signed by Alexander Dubček, by then relegated to the post of president of the parliament. A year later, he reached hottom .oui I vi .one J n ir.signtlic.anc official ut the rarest ry Stí -.ne ot Western Mus j-Via The law signed by Dubček allowed imprisonment of opponents of the regime without a court order, and prevention of any "subversive" activity by summanly banning a publication, dissolving a social organization, or firing individuals with an hour's notice Thousands of dissidents" were soon prosecuted cm the basii of tin- billystick lav*,'' as people called it.
The main document of the "normalisation" era was published on December ti, lyyo, with the awkward title Ltsiůns from the Crist* Deveiiiprafnts in ike Party itá Sooty after tht ijth Congress af the Communist Party of CzeclunUwikia, until 198$ rts interpretation of the Prague Spring as a counterrevolution was the official line. In 1971, during a writers' congress, the new head of the of Si iilly approved union of writers. Jan Kuzák. in all eamestneiS proclaimed a return to the Stalinist aesthetics of social realism as the only mode of literary expression "Normalization was the official term, a euphemiA-m for restoration of authoritarian Stalinism. This goal was achieved in 1v71, but "normalization" continued for two subsequent decades, in which the neo-Stalinist status quo was successfully defended.
When compared with the iwsos, however, the repressions of the «9eios and 1S170S were far le» bloody. On August 21. tofru. a group or Czech intellectuals protested against the antidemocratic measures of Czechoslovak government
in .1 (h-mitm mlcd JJwm Wh I'lrn piilntiiland on (>itubei 14, iuto. Mil mgnato lies, Vaclav I lavel, Ludvik Vaculik, and others, wrir wl 11» uaild tn.il imi the
charge of "subversion <jf the republic" H»i■<, . .mkl have km .i-mii'ihrI t, ■ .iv many as ten years in prison, but ai the but minute the tnal was postponed in definitely The order arrived in all probability from ihr Kremlin; at that time, the Soviet priority wax the reduction of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States, and Czech ivritm as martyrs for freedom was the last thing they wanted.
After Dubcck's "socialism with a human face' came 1 lusik's "Stalinism with a human face," as hi? era was aptly dubbed. While Gottwald h.iJ .li-m.uidcd enthusiastic and active support frum the pcupli, I lus.ik u>a> 1 imirnt il they merely abstained from active opposition. Unlike Gottwald'* repressions. I lu saks harassments were highly selective and concerned only well-chosen Individuals and a few groups. In ivtz. for instance, a series of trials of opponents of the regime resulted m sentences of up to six and a half years of imprisonment. It was cruel, but there were no life imprisonments, no death sentences.
In his struggle with opponents. Husák's chief and very effective weapon was social discrimination. Opponents of the regime were sacked, or their careers were curbed, and artists could not present their works to the public. A peculiarity of the normalization era was the existence of window cleaners, night watchmen, garbage collectors, and hoilermen with university degrees; the only consolation was that in socialist Czechoslovakia ihey did not receive significantly less compensation than m their former jobs. A very guileful tool was the punishment of children: you refuse to cease your "subversive" activities? Very well, but do nirt be surprised when your children are not accepted at the university. Thousands of young people were punished for the political stance* r>f their parents.
The average Czech and Slovak reacted to the restoration of Stalinism after njriS with passive resistance or escapism. But even escape was difficult. You could not travel abroad, and even if you had money, you could not buy real amusement. Therefore, townspeople began to buy cottages in the country whenr they could invest their surplus money and energy, and above all enjoy freedom out of sight of the omnipnrsent police. In these second homes they did hard manual work on weekends and returned to their jobs only to "re* up" for the neitt weekend. Many Czechs and Slovaks escaped literally; people emigrated in great numbers—mostly physicians, scientists, and writers. Ihe total number of Czech emigrants in the two decades of normalization was about loo.ůcKi, including almost the entire intellectual elite of the country.
Emigration was so massive that already In 1971 three Czech publishing
liaiiiii»£^5lnn,JirfkiTV. WJ Onr nf innrnnerihlr ideological on-the-job tTaininp in a 14xiperalnr farm, the raiKin d'etre of which wu not instruciioo. but forced attrnianire, wh«1i turned the rnrlre pmpiiLiTioii into iollahonHturs- Photo by lindrkh Sln-t
himsri were operating in exile. One of them. Sixty Eight Publishers (run by /■lena Salrvarnvi Skvorerki and Jtwef Skvorecky, in Toronto), published altogether more than two hundred titles, and Index, in Cologne (run by Adolf MuIU-t and lledrirh tJtitr;, ahout i?n. The print runs were modest, five hundred to two thousand copies, because the majority of emigrants quickly assimilated in their host country. The exile culture also had an impact at home, especially Pavel Tigrid < journal SvAJrcrvi (Testimony), founded after in the United States and later published in France, where Tigrid resettled. The Czechoslovak communists considered Tigrid the deadly enemy of their regime.
When the Czech writer Milan Kundei a emigrated in is>— i" l-rame, he in tended to inform Western intellectuals about his native land. Czechoslovakia was not a Russian satellite. Kundera stress J, hui helonged wholly m West crn Europe. In his book, iVeinesttrlnd Irfcfeiut fcyri (The unbearable lightness of being i an tntemaiuinal bestseller that came out in French and English trans-lai forts in u>«4, and in the C.2ech original in 1985. in Toronto—he tried to explain n> Western Intellectuals not only who Czechs were, but above all what .1 totalitarian regime is like tie compared it to kitsch, which is, exactly like a totalitarian regime, eaiehy, unambiguous, and easy to understand. This clever
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i-iiunlri.'s then WtdcspiiMd .lulling let! wui^ Wi .....intellei Inals From 199$.
Kundera ceased 10 write in Czech; he swindled to French, and Czech themei mostly disappeared from his work.
Other exiled Czech writers rook similar paths, but they never formed a homogeneous block. I.ibuie Monikovi, who died in imaft in Berlin, was 4 hrilliant Czech writer who published in German. Sometimes exiled writers ceased to write altogether, or found a completely diflereni vocation. After the fall of communism Jin Grusa became a diplomat and politician: Kami Sidon, who studied Judaism in his German exile, became a rabbi in Prague.
Not aLl the emigres were intellectuals. Martina NlavTatilova, the greatest female tennis star in the world tor four decades, lost the U S. Open in 1075 bin defected that year from Czechoslovakia. She always remained staunch in her opposition to Soviet-dominated ci m-imunist regime*. 1 lowevcr, since becoming a U.S. citizen in 1981. she ha* nut been uncritical of her adopted country. She has continuously supported gay and lesbian rights as well as ethical treatment of animals, and in ioai she criticized ion c.hin) what she saw as inceas ing government centralization and waning personal freedom m the United States. "I'm going to speak out because you can do that here," she said.2
Those Czechs and Slovaks who remained in their country Lived in a world of distorted moral values, opposed by only a few. Besides political opposition, there was also important cultural opposition. Independent underground publishing isamizdati was a new phenomenon; bound typescripts were sold tor no more than the cost of the paper, typing and binding. Even though authors received no royalties, samudat books were still several rimes more expensive than printed books. One typing with carbonsproduced a dojten copies, which then went from hand to hand, but it is estimated that only about i.jo to 150 people read each manuscript. Given their high price and limited circulation, samizdat was no competition tor the tens of thousands of eheap books from state publishing house^
In ton. Ludvik Vaculik founded the most successful series of samizdat literature called Mellice iLatch:. a humorous allusion to the official series of belles letucs called Klii iKeyj. Before the end of the communist regime. 410 titles were published by Pctlice works of Bohumil 1 ftabal, Ivan Klima. Pavel Kofiout, Oldfich Mikulasek, Kaiel Sidon, Jiri .^itola. Jan Trefulka, and Ludvik Vaculik himself. The most important centrr> of samizdat wnv Kv.in iQuartoi, directed by Jan Vladislav; and Vaclav Havel and Jan Lopatka s Ex-pedice (Dispatch! The growing self confidence of the alternative publishers was clear, all copies from Enpedieecontained toll hihliographic descriptions, the number of the copy, and ihc signature of Vaclav 1 lavel, usiilving 1 ■ > the
authenticity of th# im t uliutjl nvirws were also published in samizdat; 'In underground Vvktui > I lioxigli the window) was published in several hun-■.m .1- 11i nipic-s 11 nl 11 mjIw with oiiaviulial silent es caused by imprisonment of Us editors.
Unofficial cultural centers not only published books, journals, and (later) video journals, but also organized exhibitions, concerts, and lectures The unofficial culture collaborated with Czech exiles, who were thus informed about I ice culture's survival in their falherland: the exiles in their turn supported the Czech underground culture—morally and materially—by smuggling in trunks, computers, and copy machines. Abroad, several organizations were ..k-.ilcd M this end, the mosi importaril lieuiy. :he I'' r.:iKJ.iIi-:i:i Chalet —-and the Hus Foundation. Special prizes, named for Jaroslav Seitcrt, Jan Palach, ur hgon Hostovsky, were awarded to support Czech culture. In this "other" < i/.cctiosLovakia. religious lite was also rr-vived, especially Catholicism. A net-wi itU of unofficial churches was administered by secretly ordained priests.
I "he Iron Curtain fluttered open formuMi .which was especially difficult to censor when Radio Luxembourg, Voice of America, and other stations were broadcasting the latest music to every home in Czechoslovakia. Already in the late j<?6<». Prague and Bratislava pop music kept pace with London and New York—a morif of Tom Stoppard s hit 1006 play, Roc* 'it'KeN. Hippie cul-iiiti , which uncinate! in ihe Lie s:\ties in the United States and Western Europe, immediately found an audience in Czechoslovakia, where people had even mote reasons for hating the establishment. Young Czechs and Slirvaks distanced themselves from their parents in exactly the same way as in capitalist countries, by rejecting consumer culture and provocatively neglecting their appearance, and by enjoying free love, drugs, and above all, their loud rock music. In Miloi Forman's earliest films, rock music is already a form i>r rebellion for Czech youth.
The main representatives of the Czech underground were the PlasiH People of th* Universe, founded just a month after the Russian invasion in ojWS—although us members repeatedly denied political engagement. They pressed that they cared only about music, especially l-'rank Zappa, the Vel vet Underground, aivd the Fugs, not widely known in the United States. The manager and art director of the Plastic People band was I van Martin Jirous, ihr Czech Andy Warhol, and the band leader was Milan iMejla; Hlavsa. The group provoked with iheii nonconformism and vulgarity, and even with their religious fervor The collection of poems Magorovy labutipitni (Magor's swan .1 Ng-. . written during lima-'-- hu- yr.r miijh is>. mine-il. shuvw .1 l'.i.ii tell dein y io religious myslu isrr'..
The last public performance of "The Plastics,' as they were called, was
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announced lor March id, 1074 In a rrsuur.mi appn pi 1 <■ K > .illrj America,
in Rudolfov, near Ceskč Hudí|ovur in southern I St >l 11 1111.4. .. |.n k li >m il w.is
to be held, but heforc The Plastics timid appear onstagr. thr polně ended the show and assaulted the audience; large-scale arrests followed The group continued to perform covertly, at private wedding parties, but in ig?* all of the Mastic People of the Universe were arrested. In protest, Charter 7? wan founded—in a way a late development of Masaryks concept of "unpolitical politics,"
Charter 77 somehow united people of very diverse political persuasions and religious views, who had in common only a handful ot humanistic ideals and a strong will to oppose the degraded political regime. Activists of Charter 77. like the dramatist Vaclav Havel, enjoyed international renown and their actions managed to raise an international wave of solidarity with young artists from Czechoslovakia, who were still completely unknown abroad-The first action of organized opposition to Husák's regime was successful— the majority of those arrested were released, and those put on trial were punished for ' organized disturbance of the peace" with eighteen months of imprisonment.
In the initial document and the subsequent proclamations, the members of Charter 77 very carefully avoided any violation of the Czechoslovak law Since organized apposition W'as illegal in Czechoslovakia, the group charac terized itself as a "loose, informal, and open association of people" that "doe* not form the basis for any oppositional political activity" Nonetheless, Charter 77 began to criticize the Czechoslovak state openly for failing to implement the human rights provisions that were contained m documents 11 had pledged to respect. It systematically referred to the constitution of Czechoslovakia, and above all to the Helsinki Agreement duly signed by Husák on
AugUSt t. I07V
No wonder that this activity was furiously attacked in the Czechoslovak media, even though the test of die initial proclamation of Charter 77 was never published Czechs and Slovaks knew it onb/ from the foreign press or from Radio Free Europe and other foreign stations with transmissions in the Czech language On January 6,1977, it appeared in West German newspapers, but the rest was never made public in communist Czechoslovakia. .Signatories of Charter 77 were repeatedly interrogated by police; most of them lost their jobs, and their children were denied higher education. Several of them, including Václav Havel, were repeatedly jailed. In October 11*79. several leaders of the committee were anr-stcd and sentenced to as long as fivr years in prison. Charter 77 managed to survive, thanks to support from the emir community of Czechs and Slovaks, wlmh garnered » w-mldwide puliln n\
and, perhaps even unite lni|x>i l.nil Mippnncd signal ones (inaru ullv In corn periutc tor their initial prisrtu(n>ll
ITir harsh treat mrni of the signers of Charter 77 by the communist authorities led m 107K to iIn-1 natnm of voNS, Vvlvrnd obranu netptwrJlM jiiluirmft 1 Committee for the defense ot the unjustly persecuted) Its mission wax to alert people to any state measures against individual signatories of Charter — In jn attempt tit discredit Charter 77. Husák organized a meeting in the National Theatre where famous Czech artists, writers and actors signed a .livumrni .-ondrmrimi: .1 Ivovonc knew that :ln isr who did 11,11 <ign would be silenced, and only a few dared to refuse One week later, a similar meeting was organized for popular singers; the main speeches were by popular stars loved by the whole country, ETC Pilařova and Karel Gon.
Husák's Czechoslovakia was not exactly culturally inspiring. It was a coun try in which politically motivated manipulations by the state and moonlighting and bnbery among the citizenry wen- absolutely normal. Theft or damage of public property was a heron- deed; as lbe popular saying went. "Who docs not steal from the state, takes from his own family'' In desperation, the whole nation launched into "consumerism," even though shops abounded only with long lines. There were chronic shortages of everything, toilet paper included. Still, Husák was perfectly aware that as long as at least something was in the shops, his regime would survive, So he exported weapons, heavy industry products, and engineers or doctors to the Middle East or South Amenta in order to be able to import bananas and coffee. The return to ccn-tT.al planning was moderately successful, as was renewed orient.iimr. inwaid the Soviet bloc, with which about 80 percent of foreign trade was conducted. AftfT the initial revival, the Czechoslovak economy stalled between lyyft and iDhi. but again it revived, and in 19S3 and 1985 achieved an impressive annual average growth of more than .} percent.
This relative economic prosperity was based on cheap exports of Czechoslovak machinery and arms to Soviet bloc countries, which could not afford the superior but more costly products from Western European countries, The state also invested in the electronic, chemical, and pharmaceutical in dustries Husák profited from the state monopobes, and Czechs and Slovaks were forced to buy the pom ipialm products of local light industry because there was no other choice in state shops Czechoslovakia also benefited from a steady supply of millions of tons of Russian crude oil. imported for a small fraction of the price on the world market but Husák's regime profited from It only until 10*14. when Russia dramatically raised the price. Nevertheless, after the mid-eighties, nuclear power began to be produced in Czechoslovakia and eventually supplied about 10 percent of ihe country's electricity. Czecho-
vi4   "KrtiI" >iMiiri>m
Slovakia was an imponani pinducii ol ni allium .nul mule .11 powci w-rmcd j r.nji nul i hoice.
In the seventies, lhofessor Otto Wuhtcríc, mentioned carlu-i, lili il i ries of lawsuits against American firms that had violated his rights .mm in ing conuct lenses, illegally depriving him and the Czechoslovak stale ■ jI tens of millions of U.S. dollars in royalties. In the U.S. court in l.os Angeles confirmed Wkhterle as sole inventor of contact lenses, but Czechoslovak authorities forced Wichtcrlc t<i drop the case. They simply could not endure the idea of a politically unreliable man. a signatory of Charter 77, becoming a millionaire.
During Husák s era. passive loyalty was rewarded with moderate material well-being and stupefying amusements; like ancient Roman emperors before htm, I lusák bribed Czechs and Slovaks with hread and diversions The dominant figure of popular culture in the seventies was Jaroslav Dietl. author of screenplays for popular 'l~V serials that conformed to communist ideology and at the same rime offered people characters who seemingly coped with du s.imc problems experienced by everybody in work, family, or erotic life. The first scries was released in 197S-79. and the second in i«JU. Every Sunday evening. Dietl's serial Wfrntxitice na kraji mť.itó 1 Hospual at the end of the city) glued the whole nation to their TV sets. The semi was shown also on West Herman TV, and its success on both sides of the Iron Curtain was due to the fact that u represented a charming idyll Dietl's source of inspiration was not so much I lusak's Czechoslovakia as American soap opera, the poetics of which he thoroughly appropriated and adapted to Central Huropcan tastes.
Czechoslovakia of the normalization period was full of paradoxes. The culture of this state that preached fundamental Marxism and absolute loyalty to ihe Soviet Union was to a surprising degree Americanized The American influence was visible everywhere, from clothing to the immense populanty of ubiquitous bands with Stetsons on their heads playing Amencan country music. Nowhere in Itnrope was this music as popular as in the Czcchoslo' vak Socialist Federative Republic. While Czech enthusiasm for country music went hat k to the local "tramping" movement of the early twentieth century, its populanty in Husák's Czechoslovakia was an explicit manifestation of prr> Amcncan feelings -the United States representing above all the opposite of Soviet Russia and communism.
In 1970, a country music band called The Rangers, who had first appeared in 1964, sold their first million records The following year, an otherwise sympathetic reviewer raised the question of why this excellent band was named after the "American killers in Vietnam " The state agency Pi-agokonccrt. on which all bands were absolutely dependent, reacted ptomptly and limed The
WnilJ" SiMilhjM |U1
Rangers to adnpl ,M .■• . I...........llict bewail In pi-ilnrrii as Plavri iMwim
men). Anothri Cmh icnmiiv music hand had the same experience The 1 fft'cnhorns, who had be^un in mfis, had to translate their name into Czech /clenaiii. Change ol name iiotwithstaihling, ZelenicH continued to per form, and their country songs from the early seventies are still immensely popular in the Czech Republic. American blucgrass had arrived in the .sixties in Czechoslovakia, and il v. as ::u juJim: thai :n u>ra the wry first Kuropean Icstival of this music grim- was organized in Kopidlnn, Knhrmia. Ihe most popular blucgrass band was—and still is—Poutnici (Wanderers), founded in n   Iiv Robert Krvstan, who ninv make annual lours of the United States.
Officially approved Czech and Slovak literary culture, on the other hand, came to a standstill. Only loyal authors were allowed to publish, but most of ihrm offered only the most routine works; those who were allowed to write could confront actual issues only through allusions. In 1969JiM Sotola's Tmvirys'rtvp Jtii&ovo (The Company of Jesusl' appeared. This historical novel describes Jesuits fighting with heretics in eastern Bohemia, but is actually about the inevitable decline of any victorious ideology. It was read as an analogy of the tragic fate of an honest intellectual who enters into the service of political power; his good intentions notwithstanding, sooner or later he becomes a criminal. Karcl Stcigerwalds 19H0 play. Diifw tana iPcriod dances) was a biting satire on Czech patriotism. Set in 1852, its plot concerns Austrian persecution of Czech patriots after the failed revolution of 1H4B; everyone in the audience knew that it was actually about Czech cowardice m normalized Czechoslovakia, and that is why the play was such a success.
In the exalted period 1967-09, the traditional conception of the artist as the "voice of the nation" had revived and was reaching its absolute height, literary News had taken ovci the role of a political tnbune, actors like Jan Wench had become political commentators, and all engaged Czech inteller tuals acquired enormous authority. By the seventies this attitude had changed dramatically, and in the eighties an entirely different mindsei prevailed, espe dally 111 the younger generation: the new view was that artists had a duty to engage in political life, but exclusively as citizens, never through their work. These two spheres were to be kept apart; far from being "voices of the nation." writers and artists should defer in their work to an enlightened public. A typical case is the famous surrealist filmmaker lan Svartkmajer. Earlier, he bad also worked in the theater, including the Scmafor and Laterna Magika, but he is known above all for haunting animated films such as Moinosti didfo/ru 1 Dimensions of dialogue. 1981) starring two mutating globs of clay. He also made a surrealist feature film, Alice rtoiH*>.
The struggle nl the writer Bohumil Hrabal with Husak's regime was
On Wfekends Ciect» immd welcome eKapc in private collagci mile* frorrt MXtauiK realit}. Same tW to collect in cr»T7. Amencanlndun «ttkmenu in ihe Bídy farem-repllcar.ngprehistnn,: garmemi was botli an enjoyable hobby and a protest afinit dle regime. Photo laken in DubHs. W*. by Jan víalý ťrnm ihc series Cza* ífeíplt Df .,Hi 06, by Jin Malý. JiH PaLieek. and Ivan Unterer. Photo usrd by permisskm oí Jwi Maly.
rmcruinnal, like rvrrythmg .iIidui this author. After 1970. although he was already internationally famous. Hrabal was not allowed to publish hi* works. I'hen in January 1975, an interview with htm appeared in Twrbu. at that time the only literary journal. Hrabal spoke about soccer, but also said in passing ihai 111 the coming elections he would vote for candidates of the National iŤimi, as the forced coalition of all parties was euphemistically called. This uip was sufficient; his loyalty declaration could be manipulated, but he did not protest, and his books reappeared in bookshops/
I Iraba) 5 new books were published only in heavily censored and mutilated form, but his older works could appear in reprints—and most important, two films were made from his novel* by Jiff Mcnzel, which everybody in the coun-1 iv saw several times. In 10B1, Pwtfiriny (Cutting it short} was released, based on I Irabal's gentle comedy about his paientv set in Austria-} Iungary (1976}; another book. -Slmiosfi snéientV ('1 nc Snowdrop Festival; samizdat 1974, officially 19781 was turned into a movie; this time the plot was set in the present, in Kersko, Hrabal's summer home.
Of equal importance for citizens ot Husák's Czechoslovakia were the comedies, sometimes alarmingly sweet, written by Zdenek Svěrák and Ladislav Smol jak. The mest successful of these were also directed by Jiti Mcnzel, Na tiinwu m Urmi '.Secluded dwelling near forest; 1070; and WmnhTw nui iiřtiiislurvá (My sweet little village; 19*5}, which won various awards and was nominated for an Oscar. To this we might add a kind of melancholic comedy, from Svěrák's script of KtiJevý blesk [Ball Lightning), directed by Smoljak and Zdenek Podskalský iigrSi. and many other films thai cheered people in de pressing times of ubiquitous hypocrisy, lies, and superficiality.
Svěrák and Smoljak were also behind the promotion of Jára Cimrman, a singular Czech genius from the rime of the Austro-Hunganan Empue. e* istnig only rti the twisted minds of his creators. Cimrman, a Czech with a (in man name, excelled in every imaginable discipline, but the world outside the Czechoslovak borders did not give him due credit. This caricature of a C.nech luminary, the "unforgettable Czech who fell into oblivion." In 1.inn immensely popular. He Is in fact the funniest literary figure since Haick's Svejk, and no wonder ihai the J'hejitcTtf/'/dm Cimnmin, begun in 19**!, ahei more than ten thousand performances is still sold out, Inc format remains the same as in the beginning, in the first half there is a "scientific" lecture ("cimr-manologucs") and, after a pause, a reconstruction of one of Cimrman'* "lost plays." In 2005, when Czech TV asked people to choose the greatest Cizech among its kings, politicians, artists and other notables, Jára Cimrman received 1 he most votes.
During the Husák era, mystification and parody were omnipresent m
ailiun- .itii-l <rini.il Iili-; everybody wji ready In |'Uy any game with a stone
liiťi. A I.' win i-xn-ltently named for il, bi> ,ium ivi is 1» «dy muk p.irl in empty ntuals at school, in offices, m workshops, or on public' squares during state holidays. People were accustomed to nonsensical speeches, stupid May t parades, superfluous ckcrtons, hyrxicrirical ovations Then, in igisa, 1 lusak's regime fell, and with him disappeared its absurd world, almost overnight. I low was this possible? No doubt family played a key role in it In Czechoslovakia everyone understood from childhood that he or she would live in ai leant two worlds with incompatible norms of behavior It was normal lhal bel. m you went to bed you knell with your grandmother to say prayers, while in the morning your mother wrapped you in the red scarf of the Communist Pioneers and sent you to an atheist school.
What you heard from your relatives was often diametrically opposed to what teachers or media told you In your education, a pivoial role was played by grandparents, who remcnihered not only Masaryk's repuhlic, hut also Emperor Franz Josef and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These grandparent! were as a rule anttcommunistsand Catholics. In Czechoslovakia, children and their grandparents were very close, because most mothers we-rc employed and the help of grandparents was vital. An equally import ant factor was ihe chronic housing shortage, whkh resulted m eirended-family households, sometimes including even great-grandpaients. Additionally, the number of divorces more than doubled between the seventies and eighties, and in house holds without father or mother (or both) the role of grandparents of course increased. In any event, at the end of 198a. Czech and Slovaks brushed off the communist dust and cheerfully returned to the way of life thai thev had been forced 10 renounce fořt)1 years earlier.
Notes
1 Vaclav rtaveL "Český údťLV Twiř (Face) 11069s.
2. U>mir CIihi^ Ti-nýní, CNJf.July 17, aooa.
y Published in Czerh .samizdat, 14*5; nňicia! publication, i<n>o:-.
4. When the banned writer Jin Ledem «kcd other banned authors what they (hun^hl about Hrabal's "collaboration" with 1 hisjVs regime, 1 lie maiuriiv said chul the wurk jkmr nutters, not tne Actions nt its author This was the new conception of tilcratuir that formed during the normalisation era. Cf. Jifc Lederer. Czech CYiHWMtvui. concerning the case of Htabal ipublished in Csech, samizdat tsr*. under the tide C-eikcmzJ&voryt.