Out of the Shadows

Czechoslovakia was straddled by a new boss. His name was Antonin Zapotocky. At 64 he was the closest approach to an Old Bolshevik that new Czechoslovakia could produce.

Zapotocky's way to power had been paved by the resignation of Czechoslovakia's ailing, good-willed President Eduard Benes (TIME, June 14). While the headlines shouted the news, the Czech Communist central committee met in Prague and shuffled its front men. Into Benes' job went brash, Moscow-trained Klement Gottwald. For Gottwald it was a boot upstairs. As Premier, he had wielded real power, but the presidency was largely a figurehead's job. Zapotocky moved into the premiership.

Zapotocky's history was the standard success story of the Communist who works in the shadows, waiting for his moment. In the days of the Habsburgs he was a stonecutter and a Social Democrat. When, after World War I, Lenin changed the name of Russian Bolshevism from Social Democracy to Communism, Zapotocky changed his label too. He became one of the first Communist deputies in free Czechoslovakia's politically tolerant Parliament. After Hitler came, Zapotocky spent six years behind barbed wires at Sachsenhausen, moved from there into the presidency of the Czechoslovak Revolutionary Trade Union Movement and resumed his seat in Parliament. His contribution to last February's Communist coup was vital: he had organized and armed the factory "action committees" which subjugated non-Communist workers.

Czechs heard of Zapotocky's rise with no joy. Gottwald had been tough. Zapotocky looked tougher.

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