And Now, the Czechs

Czechoslovakia had been spared longer than most of her neighbors. This week it seemed to be the Czechs' turn. Communist Premier Klement Gottwald was getting set to turn the country into a one-party state. In Prague, Czechoslovakia's ailing, tenacious little President Eduard Benes backed into what might be the last-ditch fight of his life.

After a weekend of sustained government crisis, Gottwald acted. Police of Communist Vaclav Nosek's Interior Ministry, armed with tommy guns and bayoneted rifles, surrounded most government offices and the Prague radio station. The Czech radio announced that the border was closed to all except those with new police visas on their passports.

Armed police raided and sacked headquarters of the National Socialist Party, seeking the party's secretary general, Vladimir Krajina. But Krajina, who still had parliamentary immunity, was not arrested just yet. He was greeted by followers with cries of "Long live democracy without machine guns." But police rounded up many who were not immune.

The Police & General Svoboda. The National Socialist was one of four non-Communist parties which had brought on the crisis. Fortnight before, its leaders, together with those of the Slovakian Democrat, Catholic People's and Social Democrat parties, had caused a showdown. They caught Police Boss Nosek firing non-Communist policemen and replacing them with Reds. When Nosek refused to reinstate the men, 15 non-Communist cabinet members boycotted the cabinet.

Tension mounted. Nosek raised a cry which, for all its dull repetition in eastern Europe, has cost many a man his head in Communism's march to power. He "discovered" a plot against the state. Equally ominous was the act of General Ludvik Svoboda. As Minister of National Defense he was listed as a man of no party, but in the pinch his advice to the troops read: "The Army must seek a stronger brotherhood with the Soviet Union."

The Form & the Spirit. Most of last week Benes remained aloof. Since war's end his country's foreign policy has been made in Moscow, but the republic has maintained the forms, and most of the freedoms, of a parliamentary democracy --even with a Red Premier. The Communists got only the 38% voice in government their 38% of the vote allotted them. But at week's end the non-Communist cabinet ministers, having failed to budge Nosek with their boycott, had laid the crisis in Benes' lap by resigning their posts.

It was a brave show of resistance, but it was also the opening for which Gottwald had long been preparing. Months before, he had said: "We intend to win a 51% majority in the next election." Most Czechs had not expected the crisis before April. But last week's development handed Gottwald an early opportunity. He at once demanded that he be allowed to form a new cabinet from among leaders of half a dozen Communist stooge groups. Benes refused. But he also refused to accept the resignations of the non-Communist ministers. Said he: "I have my duty to convince the politicians and the political parties to work together. . . ."

While Nosek's police carried out raids and arrests, President Benes stuck to his desk, conferring with all leaders and seeking a way out. Technically there was one: early general elections. But with Gottwald's weapons, it was pretty clear now that Czech elections would come out Gottwald's way.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.