The Ordeal of A. Du

Two of the most extraordinary men in the history of Communism last week commanded the attention of their countrymen. One of them led his country into a period of terror and repression so traumatic that his own people denounced him after his death, overturning his statues and pulling down his pictures. The other, who tried to blend socialism with Western-style personal liberties, won the deep respect of his countrymen. As history so often does, it reversed the roles of the two men. The represser was resuscitated, the reformer repudiated.

The political tragedy of Czechoslovakia has turned into an intensely human drama that centers on Alexander Dubcek, the architect of the country's short-lived "springtime of freedom." As one of the few courageous reformers in Communist history, Dubcek sought, in his words, to give Communism "a human face."

After he engineered the ouster of longtime President and Party Boss Antonin Novotny in early 1968, Dubcek launched a series of reforms that evoked the cheers not only of Czechoslovaks but of people throughout the rest of the East Bloc as well. Among other things, he ended press censorship, encouraged artistic freedom in films and literature, drew up plans to make the National Assembly a truly representative body, and allowed criticism within the party. He also started to liberalize the country's calcified economy. "Since the party cannot change the people," Dubcek declared, "it must itself change."

Sad-Eyed and Aged. The East Bloc's orthodox leaders, notably East Germany's Walter Ulbricht, felt otherwise. Fearful that Dubcek's reforms would ignite a liberal movement throughout the bloc, the Kremlin sent tanks to crush Prague's experiment. Because of his strong popular backing in Czechoslovakia, the Soviets for a time allowed Dubcek to continue as party first secretary while compelling him to dismantle the very reforms that he had enacted.

Then in April 1969, Dubcek was shunted aside in favor of Gustav Husak, who publicly thanked the Soviets for rescuing Czechoslovakia from the danger of Dubcek's liberalism. Nonetheless, Husak, who in Czechoslovak terms is a moderate, refused to accede to demands of ultraconservatives who wanted Dubcek punished for his sins. Instead, Husak managed to send Dubcek and his wife Anna into the relative safety of political exile as ambassador to Turkey. Sad-eyed and aged far beyond his 48 years, Dubcek kept mostly to himself in Ankara, brushed up on his English and at diplomatic receptions made small talk about his interest in farming.

Last month Dubcek suddenly left Ankara for Prague, ostensibly to visit his 80-year-old mother, who is hospitalized with a serious heart ailment. There was another reason for his recall. Dubcek was spotted as he slipped into the party's massive brownstone quarters overlooking the Vltava River in Prague. He was reportedly subjected to grilling by a purge commission, and asked to recant his role in the 1968 reforms. He refused. Then he was asked to resign from the party. Again he refused. For Dubcek, who remains a loyal Communist, the ordeal was punishing. Last week he was said to be under heavy guard in Prague's Sanops Clinic, undergoing treatment for severe nervous depression.

In Prague's ornate Hradcany castle, the eleven-man Party Presidium, which is now dominated by the ultras, last week fired Dubcek as ambassador. The news of his ouster reached Ankara through the Soviet communications network. The Czechoslovak charge d'affaires was summoned to the Russian embassy to learn of Dubcek's dismissal. Late last week a far heavier blow fell on Dubcek. The Central Committee expelled him from his 32-year membership in the Communist Party, an act that relegated him to the limbo status of an unperson.

Unfortunately, Dubcek's ordeal may not yet be ended. An ominous press campaign is now accusing him of having accepted bribes, ruined the economy and undermined the military's morale. In Czechoslovak newspapers, he is now referred to only as A. Dubcek, a stylistic form that in recent weeks has been applied to prominent persons already charged with crimes against the state. Some Czechoslovaks fear that Dubcek may yet be subjected to the first East Bloc show trials since the Stalinist purge of 1952, when two Czechoslovak Politburo members went to the dock in Prague.

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