The paper Večerní Praha (Evening Prague) was, at the beginning of the month, discussing the question of where a quarter of million of Praguers disappear to during the holiday. Already at that time they were leaving to 70 000 cottages, mainly in the Central Bohemian region. The most favourite holiday areas were much the same as today – around the rivers Vltava, Berounka and Sázava. The biggest problem of these areas was lack of grocery shops
On 9th July a double murder was committed in Prokopské Valley. The victims were two fourteen year old girls Anna Unčovská and Jana Kamenovová. In contrast to how it would be at present, at that time the shocking news didn’t appear as a headline.
Journalists were also interested in the development of the Pankrác bridge construction. Parts of the bridge, which were composed of seventeen concrete lamellas, were already towering above Nuselské Valley and had a rather unnerving effect on pedestrians walking along Jaromírova Street.
The building of Motol hospital was delayed. The legendary fifth pavilion of the Czech children’s hospital in Sokolska Street was intended to be pulled down already in August to make a way for north-south arterial road. The young patients would have been moved to a new place. This was originally a quiet area, where since 1966 the terminal of tram n.6 was located by the Church of Our Lady and Charlemagne. Citizens living in the district at this time didn’t suspect what an unpleasant and noisy place it would become after the changes took effect.
On 24th July the committee of Prague’s national board of representatives received escalators from French company OTIS and first citizens had the opportunity to sample them at the Wenceslas Square subway.
Ludvík Vaculík’s apology
On 11th July the headline of Literární listy (Literary Paper) contained, among others, an article written by Ludvík Vaculík, called Apology for 992 Words. At the beginning he makes humorous comments explaining why it is not sure if his “famous” 2000 Words text really contains 2000 words. Afterwards he ponders over the attitude of ÚV KSS (Slovakian Communist Party) towards the question of federalisation. Even after I thought it over, I am still of the same opinion. I really think that next to federalisation, our first common target is to achieve the removal of politicians who created a regime in which all sensible steps such as federalisation, were delayed for twenty years.“
Publicist A.J.Liehm in his editorial with the title War of Nerves pondered over various interpretations of Vaculík’s 2000 Words. “Those, for whom the text was written for, misunderstood it in a rather nervous way. That resulted in a new wave of international correspondence, which is currently a topic of many discussions…
What about Dikobraz?
The satirical and humoristic weekly paper Dikobraz had been by1968 available for 24 years. It had eight pages and cost 80 tellers. Antonín Růžička was its editor in chief and his assistant was Zdeněk Jirotka.
One of the members of the body of editors was Professor at FAMU Ivan Osvald, who was also a scriptwriter of movies Hudba z Marsu (Music from Mars), Cirkus bude (The circus will be) or Rodiné trampoty oficiála Třísky (The family affairs of the official Tříska), he also worked in the radio. The editor’s office had its seat in Florenc 3.
On 30th July the paper published a cartoon made by Josef Žemlička and Václav Zeman on the Dikobraz’s front page. The joke was inspired by the current political event– the letter of five parties. It was published 15 days after the representatives of five countries (USSR, Poland, DDR, Bulgaria and Hungary) had in the Open letter, which was addressed to the Communist Party’s management, sharply criticised Czechoslovakia, saying that “reactionary forces” were forming themselves in the country. They were also giving ultimatums such as the prohibition of all new associations, restoration of censorship, adherence to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and fight against internal enemies.
President of ÚV KSČ (Central Committee of Czech Communist Party) didn’t want the public to know about the content of the letter. In spite of that, it was published by the media that also printed the response of Czechoslovakian reformists, in which they stated that “return to undemocratic pre-January ways of governing is not possible”, and they absolutely refused to being pressurised.
This issue of Dikobraz brought six Jan Vyčítal’s cartoons, seven cartoons made by Vladimír Renčín and Adolf Born contributed by three cartoons. There were also cartoons made by Stanislav Holý, Neprakta, Jiří Lochman, Ludvík Báča, Josef Brožek, Jan Bernát, cartoons marked with a symbol Bape that belonged to the couple Jiří Bartoš and Vladimír Pergler etc.
Berta Štenclová