Curiously enough, it was the annual celebration of the so called October Revolution that provided the first occasion for people to demonstrate their disapproval of the August occupation.
Before and after 1968, Czechoslovakian media was full of reports related to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. By the way, on 7th November, the traditional festival of Soviet cinematography started in Czech cinemas and many Soviet movies, often with revolutionary themes, were also shown on TV.
For ordinary citizens living in towns and bigger villages the day also meant an annual torchlight procession that took place in the evening. Similarly, on 7th November 1968, people took to the streets. They didn’t hold any torchlights though, but were chanting anti-Soviet slogans and pulling Soviet flags down from public buildings. The police intervened and arrested 167 people. Some of them were charged, others were reported to employers and colleges with the likelihood of being expelled from school, or a ruined career…normalisation methods were enforced.
Not everyone was in opposition
The majority of society hoped that some reforms could still be salvaged, in spite of the occupation and the official approval of the “temporary stay” of army troops. There were, however, quite a few of those who welcomed the post-August development.
These weren’t only top politicians and those who had been removed from their posts after January 1968. Many Communists, especially the long-term ones, were also against the reforms of Prague Spring. Suddenly the country was swarming with meetings of these “old-school Party members”, supporters of proletarian internationalism. In November conservative forces were reinforcing their positions. The top party brass showed them support at the November general meeting of ÚV KSČ. At this meeting ÚV (the Central Committee), on one hand, stood up for after-January politics but, on the other hand, they distanced themselves from its allegedly negative aspects. It was also there that the need for the so called normalisation of the situation was openly declared.
Students on strike
On the eve of the celebration of the October Revolution, University students in České Budějovice went on strike. The Academic committee of university students in Česke Budějovice appealed to other student organisation to show their support for the Prague Spring representatives and, as a result, on 17th November, other universities joined in as well. In all university towns students occupied their faculties to demonstrate 10 statements that demanded for the promises of after-January program to be implemented.
Workers also showed their support to the strike. The government negotiated with students for the sake of pacifying the situation and because they wanted to prevent the strike from spreading. It was typical of this time that Hungarian and Bulgarian press labelled the strike as a conspiracy of anti-socialistic powers. It comes as no surprise that these arguments were used during the subsequent repression against organisers of the strike.
Talking about the international press, we should also add that it was during the last November days that the much hated radio station Vltava stopped broadcasting. Vltava, which was operated by the Soviet occupational army, nevertheless, was replaced by the magazine Zprávy. This magazine was under Soviet control, even though it was issued in what was then the German Democratic Republic. Its content offended all decent people. Some factories’ workers even issued resolutions demanding for its publishing to be stopped. Even though the magazine was breaking the Czechoslovakian law, it wasn’t in power of Czechoslovakian authorities to put an end to it.
If this wasn’t enough, the government tried hard to gain control over local press as well as television and radio broadcasting. The new Department of Press and Information took over the responsibility of press monitoring from the police. Reliable people were sent to publishing houses and after training were promoted to the posts of editors-in chief.
It was also at this time that some of the most significant newspapers stopped being published, such as Listy, Reportér, Politika etc. Not even the numerous resolutions criticising the situation helped to change it. You can find out more about this issue in an independent article.
Intellectuals still rebelling
Between 22nd and 26th November, about five hundred representatives of scientists, theatre, film and television artists, writers, composers, journalists, artists, architects, and entertainers met in Slavic House in Prague to demonstrate against the way the general meeting of ÚV KSČ (the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party) was developing. The meeting was moderated by the secretary of creative unions, Ludvík Pacovský.
From the extensive discussion we have chosen a small fragment from the speech by Elmar Klos: What to do if we can’t trust people the government trusts? …I have the right not to work with people I don’t trust. Nobody can take this right from me, and nobody can take this right from a writer, an actor, a director. Those who refuse to work with certain people have one option left – not to work. This takes us to the second important issue. Freedom primarily means a freedom of choice; and this is what we are always left with.
The main motto of Václav Havel’s speech was not to give up on our own common sense, express the will of the majority of the nation and make politicians respect it also.
This meeting was diametrically different from the meeting of ÚV KSČ. Dubček didn’t wish for disagreement with scientists and creative people. Therefore he invited their delegation to a meeting that took place on 25th November. Many years later Jiří Lederer wrote in his memoirs that both Dubček and Černík shared the concerns of creative unions and promised not to allow for the return to the situation in the 1950s. They said that nobody was going to be prosecuted for his/her opinion, and kept repeating that there is still room left to accommodate the after-January reforms. The whole meeting was marked with the emphasis on need of decency in politics.
In an effort not to radicalize the situation and to allow for future negotiations, the meeting finally issued an amended version of to the original standpoint. It was published on 26th November, and it stated in the conclusion, We scientists, artists, journalists and workers in media, feel an urgent need to participate in the painful and difficult search for solutions of the current situation. After workers and students, also we decided to step forward to clearly demonstrate that we have to be taken into account as a social group of a certain importance and influence. We wish to exercise this influence in order to participate on the preservation of unity of socialistic countries, which is a guarantee of humane principles of life also in our country.
Apart from this Declaration, the meeting also approved the text of a letter that was sent to the Chairmen of the National Assembly, the National Front, and to Alexandr Dubček. The letter demanded for the names of those who invited Soviet troops to be published. Another requirement was that there should be flat rebuttal of negative opinions regarding after-January 1968 development. They also asked for the ban on political journalism to be lifted, and that basic rights and freedom be respected.
Daily press published just excerpts from the declaration, which were lifted out of context. The whole text was published only in Listy, and its copies circulated among people.
Source: period press, totalita.cz etc.
