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Czechoslovakia Dissent and Independent Activity
Through the 1970s and 1980s, the regime's emphasis on
obedience, conformity, and the preservation of the status quo was
challenged by individuals and organized groups aspiring to
independent thinking and activity. Although only a few such
activities could be deemed political by Western standards, the
regime viewed any independent action, no matter how innocuous, as
a defiance of the party's control over all aspects of
Czechoslovak life. The regime's response to such activity was
harassment, persecution, and, in some instances, imprisonment.
The first organized opposition emerged under the umbrella of
Charter 77. On January 6, 1977, a manifesto called Charter 77
appeared in West German newspapers. The document was immediately
translated and reprinted throughout the world
(see Appendix D).
The original manifesto reportedly was signed by 243 persons;
among them were artists, former public officials, and other
prominent figures, such as Zdenek Mlynar, secretary of the KSC
Central Committee in 1968; Vaclav Slavik, a Central Committee
member in 1968; and Vaculik, author of "Two Thousand Words."
Charter 77 defined itself as "a loose, informal, and open
community of people" concerned with the protection of civil and
human rights. It denied oppositional intent and based its defense
of rights on legally binding international documents signed by
the Czechoslovak government and on guarantees of civil rights
contained in the Czechoslovak Constitution.
In the context of international detente, Czechoslovakia had
signed the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in
1968. In 1975 these were ratified by the Federal Assembly, which,
according to the Constitution of 1960, is the highest legislative
organization. The Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe's Final Act (also known as the Helsinki Accords),
signed by Czechoslovakia in 1975, also included guarantees of
human rights
(see Popular Political Expression
, ch. 4).
The Charter 77 group declared its objectives to be the
following: to draw attention to individual cases of human rights
infringements; to suggest remedies; to make general proposals to
strengthen rights and freedoms and the mechanisms designed to
protect them; and to act as intermediary in situations of
conflict. The Charter had over 800 signatures by the end of 1977,
including workers and youth; by 1985 nearly 1,200 Czechoslovaks
had signed the Charter.
The Husak regime, which claimed that all rights derive from
the state and that international covenants are subject to the
internal jurisdiction of the state, responded with fury to the
Charter. The text was never published in the official media.
Signatories were arrested and interrogated; dismissal from
employment often followed. The Czechoslovak press launched
vicious attacks against the Charter. The public was mobilized to
sign either individual condemnations or various forms of
"anti-Charters."
Closely associated with Charter 77, the Committee for the
Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted (Vybor na obranu nespravedlive
stihanych--VONS) was formed in 1978 with the specific goal of
documenting individual cases of government persecution and human
rights violations. Between 1978 and 1984, VONS issued 409
communiques concerning individuals prosecuted or harassed.
On a larger scale, independent activity was expressed through
underground writing and publishing. Because of the decentralized
nature of underground writing, it is difficult to estimate its
extent or impact. Some observers state that hundreds of books,
journals, essays, and short stories were published and
distributed. In the mid-1980s, several samizdat publishing houses
were in operation. The best known was Edice Petlice (Padlock
Editions), which had published more than 250 volumes. There were
a number of clandestine religious publishing houses that
published journals in photocopy or printed form.
The production and distribution of underground literature was
difficult. In most cases, manuscripts had to be typed and retyped
without the aid of modern publishing equipment. Publication and
distribution were also dangerous. Mere possession of samizdat
materials could be the basis for harassment, loss of employment,
and arrest and imprisonment.
Independent activity also extended to music. The regime was
particularly concerned about the impact of Western popular music
on Czechoslovak youth. The persecution of rock musicians and
their fans led a number of musicians to sign Charter 77. In the
forefront of the struggle for independent music was the Jazz
Section of the Union of Musicians. Initially organized to promote
jazz, in the late 1970s it became a protector of various kinds of
nonconformist music. The widely popular Jazz Section had a
membership of approximately 7,000 and received no official funds.
It published music and promoted concerts and festivals. The
regime condemned the Jazz Section for spreading "unacceptable
views" among the youth and moved against its leadership. In March
1985, the Jazz Section was dissolved under a 1968 statute banning
"counterrevolutionary activities." The Jazz Section continued to
operate, however, and in 1986 the government arrested the members
of its steering committee.
Because religion offered possibilities for thought and
activities independent of the state, it too was severely
restricted and controlled. Clergymen were required to be
licensed. In attempting to manipulate the number and kind of
clergy, the state even sponsored a pro-regime organization of
Catholic priests, the Czechoslovak Association of Catholic Clergy
(more commonly known as Pacem in Terris). Nevertheless, there was
religious opposition, including a lively Catholic samizdat. In
the 1980s, Frantisek Cardinal Tomasek, the Czech primate, adopted
a more independent stand. In 1984 he invited the pope to come to
Czechoslovakia for the 1,100th anniversary of the death of
Methodius, the missionary to the Slavs. The pope accepted, but
the trip was blocked by the government. The cardinal's invitation
and the pope's acceptance were widely circulated in samizdat. A
petition requesting the government to permit the papal visit had
17,000 signatories. The Catholic Church did have a massive
commemoration of the 1,100th anniversary in 1985. At Velehrad
(the site of Methodius's tomb) more than 150,000 pilgrims
attended a commemorative mass, and another 100,000 came to a
ceremony at Levoca (in eastern Slovakia).
Unlike in Poland, dissent, opposition to the government, and
independent activity were limited in Czechoslovakia to a fairly
small segment of the populace. Even the dissenters saw scant
prospect for fundamental reforms. In this sense, the Husak regime
was successful in preserving the status quo in "normalized"
Czechoslovakia.
The selection of Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on March 11, 1985,
presented the Husak regime with a new and unexpected challenge to
the status quo. Soon after assuming office, Gorbachev began a
policy of "restructuring" (perestroika) the Soviet economy
and advocated "openness" (glasnost') in the discussion of
economic, social, and, to some extent, political questions. Up to
this time, the Husak regime had dutifully adopted the programs
and slogans that had emanated from Moscow. But, for a government
wholly dedicated to the preservation of the status quo, subjects
such as "openness," economic "restructuring," and "reform" had
been taboo. Czechoslovakia's future course would depend, to a
large extent, on the Husak regime's response to the Gorbachev
program
(see A Climate of Orthodoxy
, ch. 4).
* * *
Concise and readable accounts of the history of the Czech and
Slovak lands through World War I may be found in Kamil Krofta's
A Short History of Czechoslovakia, Harrison S. Thomson's
Czechoslovakia in European History, and J.F.N. Bradley's
Czechoslovakia: A Short History. A History of the
Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1948, edited by Victor S. Mamatey
and Radomir Luza, is a collection of excellent essays treating
the First Republic, Munich, and the German occupation. The
Sudeten German minority problem is more fully discussed by
Radomir Luza in The Transfer of the Sudeten Germans. The
Slovaks are discussed by Jozef Lettrich in History of Modern
Slovakia, Eugen Steiner in The Slovak Dilemma, and
Owen V. Johnson in Slovakia, 1918-1938. The Ruthenians
(Ukranians) are covered by Paul R. Magocsi in The Shaping of a
National Identity. The history of the KSC up to the February
1948 coup is elaborated in Paul E. Zinner's Communist Strategy
and Tactics in Czechoslovakia, 1918-48. In Communism in
Czechoslovakia, 1948-1960, Edward Taborsky discusses
political and economic integration into the Soviet system. H.
Gordon Skilling's Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution
and Galia Golan's The Czechoslovak Reform Movement offer
expansive analysis of the Prague Spring, which is also treated
with understandable passion in Zdenek Ml'ynar's Nightfrost in
Prague. The reform movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s
and the Soviet intervention are also amply treated in Golan's amd
Ml'ynar's studies. Vladimir V. Kusin's From Dubcek to Charter
77 sets the scene for contemporary Czechoslovakia. (For
further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of August 1987
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