PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON CZECHOSLOVAKIA

CZECHOSLOVAKIA, the little country that is trying the difficult and perhaps impossible task of combining Communism with freedom, is continuing to stir up resentment and alarm in its Communist neighbors. Russia and the more orthodox Communist states of Eastern Europe, in turn, are putting enormous pressure on the Czechoslovaks to restrain their liberating zeal. It is a conflict that could lead to tragedy.

Two of the men who rule the Soviet Union, Communist Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev and President Nikolai Podgorny, flew into Warsaw last week for an emergency conference. Their troika partner, Aleksei Kosygin, cut short a state visit to Sweden to join them there for talks with party leaders from Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and East Germany. The Communist summit, the third of its kind in four months, was the Soviet response to the onrush of reform in Czechoslovakia, and its convening was the climax of a week of ominous moves against the Czechoslovaks. It was also proof of an increasingly apparent fact: however tolerant it may seem to be in its relations with other Communist states--and in spite of considerable liberalization at home-Russia still cannot abide real dissent or genuine expressions of freedom.

Brezhnev and the other party bosses had summoned Czechoslovak Party Leader Alexander Dubcek to Warsaw to explain his policies, but Dubcek politely declined. Instead, he offered to meet separately in Prague with each one of the Communist leaders. Dubcek feared going to any meeting where the other leaders might join in browbeating him, was especially wary of being lured out of the country at a time when his reformist regime seemed in peril. After Dubcek's refusal, the other bosses obviously decided that they had reason enough to meet by themselves.

The Elite Sign. The Kremlin's pressure on Czechoslovakia ranged from attacks on the most liberal proponents of reform to an ill-concealed attempt to intimidate the government by delaying the departure of Soviet troops, which had been conducting maneuvers on Czechoslovak soil. The most ominous Russian warning came from the official Communist Party newspaper Pravda, which for the first time compared the Czechoslovak situation to the Hungarian uprising of 1956. It spoke of Czechoslovakia's "counterrevolutionary activity"--the worst swear word in the Communist lexicon--and charged that the progressives in Prague were "more treacherous and sinister" than the Hungarian rebels. Pravda pointedly concluded: "Our society cannot remain indifferent at a time when the foundations of socialism in a friendly, fraternal country are under attack."

What so excited the Russians was a growing number of democratic measures in Czechoslovakia that are unheard of in most other Communist countries (see following story). The Russians apparently decided that matters had got out of hand when Prague newspapers printed a manifesto demanding that hard-line and usually pro-Soviet Communists be driven from high government and party posts, and urging the public to use strikes, boycotts and demonstrations to force them out. Known as "the 2,000 words," the manifesto was originally signed by 70 members of the country's elite, including artists, film directors and athletes; later, more than 30,000 more Czechoslovaks signed up. The document is designed to build up sentiment for a purge of hard-liners at a special party Congress to be held on Sept. 9, when Dubcek's reformers hope to sack most of the remaining followers of deposed, pro-Stalinist President Antonin Novotny.

On the Phone. Evidently the Russians had hoped to give the hard-liners a boost by the presence of their tanks and troops, variously numbered between 3,000 and 10,000 men. Dubcek had invited the Warsaw Pact forces to the country for "staff exercises" as proof of his loyalty to the Communist bloc; they were supposed to withdraw by the end of June, but did not. Throughout the week, Dubcek was reportedly on the phone to Moscow to find out why. One report had Brezhnev bluntly telling him that the Soviet troops were needed to prevent the overthrow of Communism in Czechoslovakia.

At week's end, both the Prague and Moscow governments announced that the Soviet troops were beginning to leave. No one knew, however, how long it would take for them to clear out. Many worried Czechoslovaks recalled that Soviet tanks had begun leaving Hungary, then suddenly turned around and come back to crush the rebels in the streets of Budapest.

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