APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
administrators who advocated liberalization of the educational system and has made it emphatically clear that employment in the system depends primarily on subservience to party orders. Teachers are supervised to insure that they give proper emphasis to political indoctrination. Exchange programs with Soviet pedagogical institutions are again emphasized. Czechoslovak students are herded into the party-dominated Socialist Youth Union to insure their compliance with regime policies.
This rigid approach has made it more difficult to find solutions to the urgent problems confronting the entire educational system. The quality of teachers has remained low in spite of government efforts to improve their training, nor are the professional qualifications of university graduates expected to improve significantly. Since 1971, there have been some signs that the regime would gradually imbue the educational system with some flexibility, if only to obtain the qualified professionals that the country needs to replace those who have gone voluntarily or been forced into exile or domestic isolation. The signs of such a course, however, have been almost as checkered and contradictory as those characterizing the regime's approach to the intellectual community.
The Husak regime has shown little sympathy for the religious aspirations of the people—both among the Roman Catholic majority and the strong Protestant minority—and has deflated much of the hope inspired by Dubcek that a more compatible church-state relationship would be established. The more outspoken liberal priests and pastors have been expelled from office, while restrictions on religious education have been reimposed. The party has abolished the reformist clerical organization that was set up under Dubcek and has organized its own puppet organization to keep tabs on religious activities. Government propagandists have attacked the Christian churches on ideological grounds, expounding on the virtues of atheism. Apparently realizing that a compromise must eventually be made with the Roman Catholic Church, however, the regime in October 1970 opened exploratory talks with the Vatican—the first since 1963. Agreement has been reached for the naming of bishops to long-vacant sees, but a meaningful accommodation that could lead to some form of Prague-Vatican relations seems distant. Indeed, the Holy See's general efforts to improve the situation of the Catholic Church in East Europe as a whole are reportedly making the least headway in Prague.
Husak's most urgent and complicated domestic problem remains the one that plagued his predecessors—the need to reduce the waste and obsolescence that had accompanied the forced growth of the economy, and to make output more responsive to consumers' needs and to the foreign market. The economic policy of the Czechoslovak Communist Party is again based on classic Marxist precepts: planned production based on state ownership of the means of production. It was the failure of such economic plans, including a severe recession in the early 1960's, that led to Novotny's political demise. Recognizing the need for drastic economic liberalization, Dubcek tried to innovate, but his "revolutionary approach" did little for the economy. In fact, inflationary pressures rose, and the foreign trade deficit grew. Husak has dealt with these problems, but he has still to show that he can make the economy work better, given the bad habits of Czechoslovak managers and workers and political restraints that narrowly restrict what he can do.
Husak has successfully carried out two major economic tasks he set for himself—placing the economy under stronger central control and increasing the supply of consumer goods. The leadership, however, does seem to be debating the introduction of some mild reforms during the Sixth Five Year Plan (1976-80).
Stability, not change, has been the watchword. Husak's first act was to strengthen control over planning and direction in the economy. Inflationary pressures forced him to raise retail prices, halt planned wage increases, and cut back new investment projects. Inflation was brought under control by the end of 1970. At this point Husak unveiled a new Five Year Plan (1971-75), which turned out to be the most conservative among the bloc countries, and the most closely attuned to Soviet desires. The plan basically called for a renewed stress on heavy industry, closer cooperation with the U.S.S.R. and other Communist countries, and increased attention to the immediate needs of the consumer.
A number of significant steps have been taken in pursuit of improved consumer welfare. The diet, already one of the best in Eastern Europe, has been steadily improved through increased output of milk and meat and imports of previously scarce fruits and vegetables. The supply of consumer durables has steadily increased, and while still far short of Western standards, Czechoslovakia is the only East European country that has no waiting list to buy a car. In 1972, when the domestic supply of consumer goods was threatened by a spending spree by East German tourists, Prague acted quickly, placing strict quotas on purchases by the tourists. Finally, Husak's regime has
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
