PARTISAN REVIEW
557
resulting from the deprivation of intellectual stimuli. The general de–
cline in morale has led to widespread corruption and alcoholism
(Suet
prace,
the trade union paper, March
1, 1972).
Roughly seven percent
of its national income provides the sea of drink in which the nation
drowns its sorrows.
Out of this soil sprang an organized underground movement, made
up of left-wing (in the Western sense ) workers and intellectuals. This
inspired minority set out to combat the passivity into which the na–
tion had fallen. Lack of information disorients and demoralizes a peo–
ple. Apparently realizing this, Novotny kept the whole population–
apart from a small elite - in ignorance of the economic situation, the
military and security set-up, and, as the experience of 1968 so pain–
fully demonstrated, of the rela tions between their country and others.
In 1968 the people were taken into the leadership's confidence in all
matters. But Husak reverted to the old methods. The underground,
therefore, used information as a weapon of resistance. Several clan–
destine monthlies are put out. These give hard facts , leaked by
screened party members, about developments both inside the country
and out; they also provide expert analyses of current trends as well as
new ideas, thereby preparing the ground for eventual public participa–
tion in formulating a new political program. The underground press
has thus politicized again the population, whose political awareness was
being gradually blunted by Husak's regime.
The underground press has boosted morale enormously. Despite
the risk of imprisonment for distributing
samizdat
papers, the circula–
tion of the monthlies ran into tens of thousands, and they continued
to appear even after the arrest of their main writers and organizers.
In fact, a new monthly,
Narodni Nouiny,
came out after the arrests.
Besides regular broadsheets, the underground issues leaflets con–
nected with specific campaigns. Last November, for example, a leaflet
was produced in hundreds of thousands of copies, reminding the elec–
torate of their right not to vote and urging the public to boycott the
undemocratic elections or cast a protest vote against the official list
of candidates. Tremendous pressure was exerted to secure a maximum
vote, yet thousands stayed away, including Dubcek, Smrkovsky, Krie–
gel, Hiibl, Pavel (Minister of the Interior in
1968 )
and many others.
The number of abstentions in Prague was subsequently revealed as
10 percent of the electorate and in the factory districts of Vysocany
and Liben 11 percent, mostly young workers having abstained . Thou–
sands risked reprisals by deleting candidates. In one way or another,
one-fifth of the capital's voters said
110
to the Party leader. These facts,
