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Czechoslovakia POPULAR POLITICAL EXPRESSION
Evaluating public opinion within such a rigid and closed
political climate is difficult. Following the 1968 invasion,
information emanated largely from Czechoslovak emigres and
Western visitors to Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak citizens risked
official retaliation by speaking openly about political matters.
Such sources were remarkably consistent, nevertheless, in
reporting that the Husak government held the active support of
some 10 percent of the population. One study conducted by a group
of "former" sociologists in 1974 found that active support
existed among 10 to 15 percent of the population. This group,
according to the study, consisted of persons involved in the
Stalinist repression who feared that a liberal regime would force
them to account for their crimes, as well as paid party
bureaucrats, old-age pensioners, careerists, "parasites" who
would serve any regime, and a handful of extremist communist
ideologues. One observer noted that "there has not been such a
gap between the ruler and the ruled since the Nazi occupation."
Data as of August 1987
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