Evening star., 1951-03-18

tended also to the Communists so
that there are two separate parties
in the country: The Czechoslovak
Communist Party with headquar-
ters in Prague and the Slovak
Communist Party with its main
Offices in Bratislava. =,
One of the main objectives CT
the purge is to crack down hard
on the Slovak Communist Farty,
which has been too independent.
too nationalist, too reluctant to
impose the collectivization pro-
gram on the predominantly peas
ant and intensely Catholic popula-
ton of Slovakia. Thus it is not
surprising that of the top Commu-
nists denounced and arrested all
but two lotto Sling and Maria
Svermova are Slovaks: Vladimir
Clements, ex-Foreign Minister:
Daniel Okali, ex-Minister of the
Interior for Slovakia; vladimir
Oudek, former delegate to the y.
NJ; Ladislav Novomesky, Slovak
commissioner for education; Lad
islav Holdos, Slovak commissioner
for church affairs; Josef Soltesz.
commissioner of light industries In
Slovakia; Karol Smidka, former
president of the Slovak National
Council; Gustav Husak, former
chairman of the Board of Commits
sioners.
Practically the entire old guard
of the Slovak Communist Party Is
being wiped out. charged, among
other things, with bourgeois ma
tionalism" and slackness in carry
ing out the policy of "liquidating
the Kulaks." The Slovak Commu-
mist Party, or what is left of it,
seems fated to come under the di-
rect control of Prague, and Prague
under the more vigilant control Of
Moscow.
Economic Opposition
Besides its national Communists,
Slovakia confronts the Kremlin
with another, and far more vig-
orous, type of opposition. This is
the partisan movement in the
Tatra Mountains which has fought
pitched battle with government
troops and is said to be in contact
with -anti-Soviet resistance groups
in Poland and the Russian Uk-
raine. Clashes are reported to
have occurred January 10, January
% and February 4, this year.
On the economic front, opposi-
ton has developed on a broad
scale to discomfort over the de-
cline of living standards brought
on by Russia's draining away Of
the country's resources. OF all
the countries dominated by Mos
cow. Czechoslovakia has the
strongest social and economic ties
with the West. The workers were
among the best off in Europe and
most peasants owned their land
when the February, 194S, coup
came. -7'
Even Communists in high places
felt impelled to resist the coun-
try's drift toward a slum economy,
an inevitable consequence of SUBJ
Servience to Moscow. It Is inter-
esting to recall that when Mar
shall Plan aid was offered to Eu-
rope, Czechoslovakia made a bid
for it and then, at Moscow's in
stigation. brusquely withdrew it's
request. To a great extent the
current crisis in Czechoslovakia is
a consequence of the Czech re-
gime's endeavors to maintain
enough trade relations with the
West to keep the country's stand
ard of living from slumping too
badly. This policy caused sched-
uled deliveries of industrial prod
ucts to the Soviet Union to lag.
Moscow cracked the whip by sus-
pending deliveries of grain so that
now bread and flour rationing
have had to be reimposed on the
country.
Ironic Sidelight
Czech attempts to trade with
the West directly, without passing
through Moscow, explain the
charges against the Communist
leaders. Otto Sling and Maria
Svermova: "Plot to dominate the
party. change its political line and
revert to capitalism, a policy
which leads to alliance with the
camp" These Com
munists, and others, will be served
up to the public as scapegoats for
Czechoslovakia's growing eco.
nomic misery.
An ironie sidelight to Czecho-
slovakia's endeavors to maintain
direct trade relations with West
ern Europe and Soviet, Russia's
resultant breakdown is that in re-
cent weeks at least 10 shipments
of gold bullion have been flown
from Moscow to London, an oper-
alton explained by Russia's need
to replenish its stocks of hard
currency with which to pay for
goods purchased in the West.
The Soviet Union can go shopping
outside the iron curtain, but it's
satellites cannot go out and do the
same on their own-they have to
get clearance from Moscow first,
This is one of the things the
Kremlin-directed purge is de-
signed to impress upon the Czechs.
Another is that henceforth the
Czechs are to eat less and work
more. Completion of the five-
year plan in three years, that is.
by the end Of 1853, has just been
approved with alacrity by the nom
purged members of the Executive
Committee of the Czechoslovak
Communist Party. The big item
of the plan is development of the
steel industry, which means. ac-
cording to official pronounce,
u.