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citizen is involved in some way in the elaborate network of political, economic, and cultural mass organizations.
The most important of these organizations have been the Czechoslovak National Front (NF), the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement (ROH), and the Czechoslovak Youth Union (succeeded in 1970 by the Socialist Youth Union—SSM). The National Front is politically the most influential organization in Czechoslovakia aside from the Communist Party, on whose behalf the Front is charged with mobilizing the energies of both the Communist and the non-Communist members of society through control of all other political and social organizations. In short, it is an umbrella organization, encompassing all political parties and most major specialized mass organizations, dominated by the Communist Party, and designed to assure the Communist monopoly of power. The National Front supervises national and local elections and serves as the party's vehicle for appointing or nominating candidates to the Federal Assembly and other government organs. In 1969 the Front took on a liaison role with the military for coordinating civil defense and paramilitary training. Dubcek sought to reorganize the National Front, enabling it to supervise the activities of its constituent organs free of interference by the Communist Party. Husak has reaffirmed the traditional role of the National Front and, by having himself elected chairman, has restored party supervision of its activities.
There are four theoretically non-Communist political parties in Czechoslovakia—the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, the Czechoslovak People's Party, the Slovak Revival Party, and the Slovak Freedom Party. The regime has permitted these parties to survive 22 years of Communist rule primarily to enhance the facade of a multiparty democracy, as well as to provide Czechoslovaks who in conscience cannot become Communist Party members with a vehicle for permissible political activity. These parties are totally subservient to the Communist Party, however, and offer no challenge to its authority.
It is testimony to the democratic political impulses of the Czechoslovaks that the minor parties energetically sought to increase their influence in 1968 prior to the invasion. Encouraged by the concessions granted by the Dubcek regime, such as lifting restrictions on recruiting and publishing, the smaller parties openly stressed the importance of non-Communist political organizations and even challenged the "leading role" of the Communist Party. Membership in the parties swelled, with the Czechoslovak People's Party and the Czechoslovak Socialist Party reporting an increase of more than 50% to 40,000 and 16,000, respectively. Since the advent of the Husak regime, however, the non-Communist parties have taken their cue from the purge conducted by the Communist Party, expelling the liberals from their own ranks and proclaiming loyalty to the program of the National Front, that is, to the Communists' program. As a result, these parties have resumed their marginal existence on the periphery of national political life.
5. Exile groups (C)
Prior to 1968 Czech and Slovak exile groups domiciled in the West consisted almost entirely of anti-Communist intellectuals or former politicians who either chose a life of intellectual freedom or were forced by threat of reprisals to remain outside the country. Loosely organized, such groups have limited their activities to antiregime propaganda and have posed no significant challenge to the Communist regime in Prague, although their condemnations occasionally have been troublesome for the leadership. The Dubcek regime had sought to woo some of the emigres back to Czechoslovakia by promising full rehabilitation and remuneration for losses suffered when they left the country. This process was abruptly halted by the Soviet-led invasion of 1968, however.
The invasion resulted in a new exodus of refugees, many of whom were fearful of retribution for having supported the reform movement. The large majority have remained in Western Europe and for the most part have avoided involvement in political activity. Some of the leading intellectuals behind the liberalization movement, such as former TV director Jiri Pelikan, economist Ota Sik, and literary critic Antonin Liehm, have expressed interest in trying to bring together the exiles for the purpose of continuing the struggle for reform in Czechoslovakia. Pelikan, from his residence in Rome, has spearheaded an exile periodical, Listy (Papers). Unlike earlier emigre groups, the post-1968 refugees consider themselves dedicated Communists who wish to reform the party's leadership rather than to end Communist rule. As a result, the regime has been much more sensitive to their activities, especially inasmuch as they have contributed to keeping alive the resentment within many major Western European Communist parties toward the Soviet crushing of the Dubcek experiment.
Gustav Husar has made a considerable effort to persuade the postinvasion emigres to return by reducing their fear of punitive measures. Immediately after going to power, the Husak regime declared an amnesty which expired in October 1969. Few of those who returned appear to have been arrested or
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
