INSIDE EASTERN EUROPE
'68 AND AFTER
The obvious aim of the political trials in Czechoslovakia is
to silence all opposition and avenge the fear inspired by 1968 of some
members of the Party Presidium that they would be deprived of the
power to which they had become accustomed for twenty years. But it
is unlikely that the trials will succeed. At best, the ruling oligarchy
may suppress open, active resistance for a time, but they will never
get the support of the population. Given the present state and mood
of society, they will not solve current political, economic and social
problems, the very problems that led to 1968. The trials are, in short,
proof of the weakness, not the strength, of Husak's regime. The critical,
and at the moment unanswerable, question is its life expectancy.
Despite Husak's pledge on taking office, people began to be sen–
tenced for political "crimes" soon after he came to power. During the
summer of 1972, in several major trials, the defendants, all accused of
subversion (specifically of duplicating and distributing leaflets, clan–
destine broadsheets, foreign literature and journals published abroad
by Czechoslovak emigres) , received harsh sentences. Some were Com–
munist intellectuals: Milan Hubl, historian, former Rector of the Party
college and member of the Party Central Committee, who canvassed
for Husak in April 1969 (612 years ) ; Dr. Jaroslav Sabata, psychologist,
former member of the CC and secretary of the Brno Party committee,
one of the main ideologists of the reform movement in Moravia
(6Y2
years ) ; Dr. Jan Te!>aI, historian (6 years ) . The others were non- Com–
munist socialists: Jiri Muller, former radical student leader who holds
New Left views and is known for initiating large-scale student-worker
cooperation in 1969 and for having taken an uncompromising stand
against the abuse of power since 1964
(5Y2
years ); Dr. Milan Silhan,
psychologist, secretary of the Socialist Party in Brno in 1968 (5 years );
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