Un demi-siècle de saignée

Abstract

Fifty Years of Bleeding. In the last fifty years the democratic tradition in Czechoslovakia has been exposed to three waves of repression : the Nazi (as a result of the Munich Agreement in 1938), the Stalinist (after the February communist putch in 1948) and the "normalization" (after the supression of the Prague Spring in 1968). In all three cases it was first and foremost the legacy of the philosopher and humanist, the first president of the Czechoslovak republic, T.G. Masaryk, which was to be annihilated. The Nazi repression was motivated by racial and nationalistic hatred and was marked by extraordinary cruelty tending towards physical liquidation of the representatives of the national spirit. The Stalinist repression was fuelled by class-based hatred and ideological self-righteousness ; its main aim was to manipulate intellectual life reducing it to one direction only ; but judicial homicide was also in its portfolio of repressive measures. The third wave of repression which is still going on is an expression of political rivalry. It does not aim at physical liquidation but deprives the nonconformists of work in the field of their intellectual capacity and often of a decent existence in general ; they are subjected to various kinds of harassment. In spite of all these repressions free thought could not be fully suppressed. Even in the most affected branches of Czechoslovak culture such as philosophy, sociology and historiography, the power of resistance is remarkable. Every period of relaxation, however short it might have been, such as the 1945-48 period or the late 1960s, brought an upsurge of free creative activity. In the last ten years independent intellectual activity has found its most effective means of expression in the "samizdat" literature. The unnatural situation requires uncustomary measures in order to cope with it. The Charter 77, a loosely knit association daring to voice alternative views and valuations within the frame of law, has become the beacon in what still can be described with Arthur Koestler as the Darkness at noon.