Purge in Prague

The scene was poignantly reminiscent of happier days in Czechoslovakia. As Alexander Dubcek walked toward a waiting jetliner in Prague last week, a mechanic and an air hostess rushed forward to request his autograph--just as throngs of admirers used to do in early months of 1968, when Dubcek's democratic reforms brought a Springtime of Freedom to the country. But this time, as another hostess and Mrs. Dubcek wept openly, the former party leader turned the autograph seekers away. Then the man who had sought in vain to liberalize Czechoslovak Communism helped his sobbing wife aboard the plane and flew off to diplomatic exile as Ambassador to Turkey.

Dubcek paid a political price for his departure, as well as a human one. Before he left, he wrote a letter announcing his resignation from the Central Committee of the Communist Party, his last important political post. Two days later, the 135-member committee opened its first meeting in four months with the announcement that "at the proposal of the Presidium" Dubcek had quit. His removal was only the first of many. During the conference at Hradcany Castle atop Prague's highest hill, the committee ousted from office the last remaining moderates from the Dubcek days. Their places were taken either by orthodox Communist conservatives or by the ultraconservative extremists, who demand a return to political arrests and show trials. Czechoslovakia, suffering its worst winter in decades (see box next page), appeared headed for an even bleaker political future.

Winning and Losing. The three-day Central Committee meeting was regarded by Czechoslovaks as a test of strength. It pitted Gustav Husak, who nine months ago replaced Dubcek as party first secretary, against his archrival, Lubomir Strougal, the deputy party boss and leader of the ultraconservatives. Apparently, Strougal not only retained his No. 2 post in the party hierarchy but also replaced the wily Oldfich Cernik as Premier. Cernik's undisputed managerial skills and political agility had enabled him to serve as Deputy Premier in the Stalinist regime of Antonin Novotny and as Premier under Dubcek and Husak.

Overall, Husak's position appears to have been considerably weakened. The purge affected many "realists" who, like Husak, initially supported Dubcek but quickly adjusted to the Soviet occupation. Ultras, who recently took control of the party organization in Prague, moved into positions of power in the trade-union movement and perhaps even the Interior Ministry, which controls the secret police. Josef Korcak, who became premier of the Czech lands, threatened a crackdown on Czechoslovakia's associations of artists and writers. There was also the threat of new purges among newsmen. "The mass media must ensure that there is only one line of thought in the country," Strougal declared recently. "There is no place for individual opinion."

Card Game. During the Central Committee's debate on economic policy, the extremists also won the day, though their plans are certain only to worsen the already chaotic situation. Echoing the hard-line view, Planning Minister Vaclav Hula denounced the decentralization reforms effected by Dubcek's chief economist Ota Sik, who last week asked for political asylum in Switzerland. "The economic crisis," Hula declared, "can only be overcome by radical centralization. We shall have to reestablish party control over the upper echelons of industry."

It was still too early to predict the outcome of perhaps the most important topic of all--the reorganization of Czechoslovakia's 1,500,000-member Communist Party (in a population of 14 million). According to present plans, all membership cards will be withdrawn and, after a gigantic review of every member's behavior during the Dubcek era, new ones issued. Who will get the new cards? The ultraconservatives argue that the party should expel anyone who supported Dubcek. That, of course, would reduce the party to a skeleton. Echoing Huaak, the party paper Rude Pravo declared last week that there should be a distinction "between those who were misled and those who did the misleading." Similarly, Radio Prague promised that the screening process would be "neither a police raid nor a penal expedition nor a general revenge." Yet no one can be too certain. The screening committee includes Alois Indra and Vasil Bilak, two of Czechoslovakia's most notorious collaborators with the Russians.

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