Evening star., 1951-11-27
R
Czech Custer
0fVicePrerrlier
Laid 10 P|oftinq
Moscow-Truined Red
Held for Activities
Against Stote'
BY the Associated Press

LONDON, Nov. 27.-Moscow-
trained Rudolf Slansky, one-time
hatchet man of Czechoslovak
communism. has been fired as Vice
Premier and arrested for "activi-
ties against the state" the Prague
radio announced today.
The arrest was ordered by Com
munist President Klement Gott-
wald at the suggestion of Premier
Antonin Zapotocky, the an
nouncement said. because "inves-
legations into activities of subver-
sive groups" brought out facts
that convict Slansky.
Slanksy was removed from his
Job as secretary general of the
CZechoslovak Communist Party
last September in a move tied by
Western observers to Moscow Or
ders to the Czech Communists to
tighten their ranks against in
roads of ''Titoism.'
Resistance Stirred Up.
The announcement at that time
said Slansky would get another
important state post" but did not
say what the post was to be.
The Czech government shakeup
was believed to have been linked
with growing unrest in Czecho-
slovakia at the rising demands
of the ruling Communists for
greater production to feed the
Soviet war machine. The demands
On Czech economy created critical
shortages and passive resistance
among some of the workers.
An underground source reported
from Czechoslovakia last month
that the Slansky custer came De-
cause the Oats case backflred.
The Czech Communists impris-
oned and convicted Associated
Press Correspondent William N.
Oats as spy" sentencing him
to 10 years. The trial was de-
nounced throughout the nom
Communist world.
Fled to Moscow in 1885,.
Slansky, editor of the Prague
Communist newspaper Rude Pra-
vo for Is years, fled to Moscow
when World War II started IN
1899. President Gottwald went
with him. The two were considered
Moscow Communists"
Gottwald himself took over the
job of secretary general-party
boss-when Slansky gave it up in
September. Slansky became just
one of number of vice premiers.
AS vice premier, Slansky was to
have the job of co-ordinating the
nations economic plans, report
ing back to the Czechoslovak
Politburo.
Slansky had been considered
an international Communist, like
Gottwald, more interested in the
spread of world communism than
in the welfare of his own coun-
try. But Slansky and Gottwald
were reported to be at odds as far
back as 1948. Soon after Yugo-
slavia's Communist Party was
expelled from the Cominform,
Slarsky called a meeting of the
secretariat. in Gottwald's absence,
to look into the dangers of Tito
ism in Czechoslovakia. There was
a hint that Gottwald himself was
suspected Of Titoist tendencies.
However. Gottwald won out, ap-
parently with Moscow support.
Minister Jailed for Months.
Slansky rose to prominence
among Czech Communists in 1945
when he took over the secretary
generalship, which had been held
by GottWald. 1t was he who went
to the founding meeting of the
Cominform-the Communist In
ternational Information Bureau
in Poland. After the Communist
coup of February, 1948, seizing
power in Czechoslovakia, Slansky
appeared to be the boss.
Haunted by economic troubles,
the Czech Communists also feared
the rise of nationalist deviation"
in their NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of
Moscow. vladimir Clements,
former foreign minister, was i'm
prisoned, along with other high
(See CZECHS. Page A-3.)