Stopgap

Klement Gottwald's Red-style Horatio Alger story had taken him from a Moravian carpenter's shop to Hradcany Castle and power over all Czechoslovakia. Last week his body lay in state in the castle's mirrored Spanish Hall, where Habsburgs had danced in a brighter time. The foreign source of his climb to power was never more apparent than in his funeral: the bands played Russian music; the troops used the Russian parade step and carried Russian machine pistols. The most notable mourners were Russia's Marshal Bulganin and Red China's Chou Enlai.

Prime Minister Antonin Zapotocky (rhymes with Trotsky), a gaunt old man of 69 with stainless-steel teeth, delivered the longest funeral oration (27 minutes). An Old Bolshevik and longtime trades unionist, Zapotocky had once been popular with the Czech workers, but had alienated them by harsh complaints and horny-handed methods of spurring production.

Two days later, Prague's rubber-stamp Parliament voted Antonin Zapotocky into the presidency, by a vote of 271 to ). On instructions from the central committee new President Zapotocky appointed as Prime Minister Viliam Siroky, boss of the Slovak party, and, as leader of the party secretariat, another party hack, Antonin Novotny. Since none of the three had any real stature, this seemed to be a stopgap arrangement. It was also a rebuff to Gottwald's ruthless, ambitious, unpopular son-in-law, Alexei Cepicka, Defense Minister who failed to move up an inch. But perhaps Cepicka was a sleeper--he might get a boost later on.

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