Outcry in Purgatory

Suddenly, Czechs in Prague and other cities have been snatching up news papers as if they were priceless manu scripts. The normally routine and propagandistic Rude Pravo is usually sold out by midmorning; people regularly besiege kiosks for the livelier afternoon papers. Others have taken to telephoning government agencies, radio and TV stations for information. Cafes are packed as customers argue over their foamy beer. The cause of the excitement is the transformation that is occurring in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubcek, 46, who only in January ousted Antonin Novotny as boss of the country's Communist Party. Last week Czechoslovakia's 14,300,000 people were reading news that was as unfamiliar as it was welcome.

Banishing the Censors. Dubcek is swiftly putting into action a program that his supporters promise will shrink the role of the Communist Party and bring a semblance of democracy to Czechoslovak public life. Among the reforms currently being debated in the party Presidium is one that would make the Czechoslovak National Assembly a representative body rather than a party rubber stamp. Dubcek, who has heavy backing among white-collar workers and young technicians, is also expected to further free the economy from bureaucratic controls.

As proof of his intentions, Dubcek has removed almost every restraint on the press and other media. He has banished the party censors from the Central Publications Administration, which oversees the printing of everything from books to streetcar tickets. He has released for production four movie scripts that had been gathering dust in the censors' office, even allowed TV newsmen into--of all places--a meeting of the Presidium. As reassurance to Czechoslovakia's writers and intellectuals, whose clamor for change led to his takeover, Dubcek has approved publication of a new liberal journal entitled Literarni Listy. Last week he fired the man who was widely despised for making writers toe the party line, Jiri Hendrych, 55. Replacing Hendrych as Party Secretary for Ideology, Dubcek appointed Josef Spacek, 41, who immediately announced that the party "cannot set the tasks for art."

"Unique Moment." With the floodgates thus open, the long-dammed tides are rushing in every direction. In a catharsis similar to Russia's destalinization, Czechoslovakia's newspapers splash examples of past brutality across their pages and defend men disgraced by Novotny. Trade unions are agitating for an end to party interference in their affairs, and student organizations vow to run candidates in the spring elections for the National Assembly. Officials in the Justice Ministry are demanding greater independence for judges and genuine legal safeguards for the people. Professor Ota Sik, architect of the country's economic reform, has taken to making TV appearances, insisting that the reform cannot be really effective until the oldtime conservatives are cleaned out of the top ministries. "We must seize the unique nature of the moment," says the new head of the Writers Union, Edward Goldstucker. In a bit of emotional hyperbole, he adds: "Let us combine two things that belong together: freedom and socialism." Tough old fighter that he is, Novotny, 63, has not abandoned all hopes of a comeback. He is still Czechoslovakia's President and, as if canvassing for votes, has gone around to factories asking workers to back him. He seems also to have had a less savory plan to restore his power. The Czechoslovak press reported last week that loyal Novotnyites in the Interior and Defense Ministries had attempted to organize a coup to prevent Dubcek from taking over in January. One commissar linked to the plot, Security Chief Miroslav Mamula, has already been purged. Last week a Mamula subordinate and fellow plotter on Novotny's behalf, Major General Jan Sejna, defected to the U.S.

Sejna, 40, left Czechoslovakia late last month with his son and a young woman who was described in his own country as his girl friend and by the U.S. Government as his son's fiancee. Traveling on his diplomatic passport, he went to Yugoslavia, then Italy, before entering the U.S. and asking for asylum. The Dubcek government, claiming that he embezzled $20,000 through illegal sales of state animal fodder and clover, has demanded Sejna's extradition. The U.S. is unlikely to return him, on the ground that his flight was mostly for political reasons. Another reason for the U.S. refusal: as the party's watchdog in the Defense Ministry, Sejna knows a lot about Czechoslovakia's military establishment.

The Coming Overhaul. The defection pushed Antonin Novotny closer to outright dismissal as President. Dubcek men interviewed in the press argued that Czechoslovakia could not embark on a fresh course without a thorough overhaul of the leadership. General staff officers of the army, blaming Novotny for Sejna's defection, called for his immediate resignation. Said Author Jan Prochaska: "To keep the same set of guides and leaders for hell, purgatory and paradise is too costly even for a nation as small as ours." Most Czecho slovaks identify Novotny as the one who guided them through the first two of those stages; but, despite the removal of small obstacles, the gates of the third are not yet nearly in sight.

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