Essay: Dogmatists and Fanatics, p. 491
12
At a meeting of the General Assembly of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a resolution was passed concerning ideological work. As usual they were trying to resuscitate old phrases with new words. I never read party resolutions of this type — probably, neither did most people. This time, however, someone decided that it would be necessary to explain the significance of the resolution to members of the party throughout the country, and hundreds of activists were supposed to go out into the “field” at the beginning of 1964. As a young writer (that is, a worker on the “ideological front” in the eyes of party functionaries), I now had to take my turn. This time they sent me, not to eastern Slovakia, a place I at least knew something about, but to Moravia.
They put up the entire group of agitators in the Grand Hotel, one of Brno’s most luxurious hotels.
Our group was led by Prebsl, the secretary of the ideological department of the Central Committee. He was a worker by trade — apparently he’d been trained as a stove fitter — which is why he held the position he did. I came to understand that it was party policy that the less someone understood what he was in charge of, the more obediently he carried out the instructions of his superiors.
We gathered in Prebsl’s apartment, where he handed out our agitprop brochures, which we were to read immediately, because the first meetings were to take place that very evening, and we would always be working with two local functionaries. He distributed our food allowances — nine hundred crowns for the week — and expressed his conviction that we would not let him down.
I opened the brochure when I got back to my room and read that in Czechoslovakia, new societal conditions are supporting and stimulating an unprecedented development of culture, imprinting Socialist features onto its face, creating the conditions for the broad development of culture and the overall advancement of the cultural level. All cultural politics in Czechoslovakia, the development of culture, education, and enlightenment, are being led by the spirit of scientific worldwide Marxism-Leninism in close conjunction with the life and work of the people.
I couldn’t imagine repeating such gibberish, in which conditions were creating conditions and culture possessed a face with features. Most likely I would say it was necessary to correct previous crimes and that much of what was now taking place was problematic. Whoever did not want to admit this should not hold office. I tossed the brochure into the trash and devoted myself to reading some short stories by Heinrich Böll.
At about 7 p.m. my provisional superior knocked on my door and delivered some news he found depressing: The meetings planned for this evening were not going to take place. Owing to an unfortunate error, the meetings would not be taking place for another three weeks, and we, of course, would no longer be here. He went on to inform me of the schedule for the rest of the week. Today, Monday, was a free day. For Tuesday, a meeting had been scheduled at the Integrated Agricultural Co-Op in the Blansko District. Wednesday, a meeting at the Industrial Construction Company of Gottwald; Thursday was a free day for the same reasons as today. Friday there were three meetings scheduled at the Integrated Agricultural Co-Op in Jihlavsko. On Saturday and Sunday we would probably not have any work again. Then he asked if I played Mariáš.
The next day those who knew Mariáš started playing right after lunch. The others took off somewhere, most likely to chase women. The boss brought in a few bottles of beer, and because his cards were going well he was in a good mood.
Toward evening, a frost descended on the city. Two cars were waiting for us in front of the hotel, and we were all dressed in sweaters and winter coats ready to take off wherever we were summoned. But there was no place to take off to because the meeting in Blansko also had been canceled. Our stove fitter grew angry, cursed the local functionaries, and considered how he would put this into his activity report. I started to realize that this was the way these things usually went — groups of functionaries travel across the country pretending to work. For this they are paid and receive an ample food allowance, but in reality they’re simply enjoying some time off, chasing women, or, at the very least, playing cards. Every now and then they write a report in which they praise their own activities. Anything could be put into these reports. Those who are supposed to read them never do because they themselves are out either chasing women or playing cards.
*
Shortly thereafter, the members of the Writers’ Committee were invited to meet with President Novotný. I’d met several high functionaries before and was always surprised at the immodesty with which they voiced their platitudes and catchphrases. What kind of man stood at the head of the entire country and determined almost everything? What could he actually determine in a country so dependent on the Soviet Union?
The meeting took place in a large boardroom on the second floor of the Central Committee of the party and was supposed to start at three in the afternoon.
The president arrived exactly on time. He went around the entire room and shook everyone’s hand in turn. Then he sat down and placed in front of him a bundle of white paper along with four perfectly sharpened pencils (three of them were for some reason red) and said he would not speak for long. He’d come primarily to hear the opinions of the workers of the soul and the pen. Despite this promise or resolution, his oration was a lengthy one. I had to admit that he spoke quite fluently and engagingly and without any notes. But his speech wallowed in a general deluge of figures, statistics, and economic results along with anecdotes that seemed to come from real life. The anecdotes were obviously meant to illustrate that his life was just like everyone else’s. For example, once he was riding the tram with his son and overheard two men exchanging information about him and his speech at a session of the presidium. So you see, comrades, this was something that was supposed to be secret! A moment later he pulled out another anecdote. He and his wife had gone to a shop on Wenceslaus Square to buy a watch, and he was shocked to discover that the prices of some watches were reduced. How could the economy and commerce continue to function if some goods were sold at a low price and others at a needlessly high one? He wandered from topic to topic and even touched upon the problem of churchgoers. Personally he was for tolerance. He knew, for example, the chair of a cooperative who was a member of the People’s Party. An outstanding worker with excellent results. He sends his children to church and stops by himself as well. And why wouldn’t he, comrades, since he’s a believer? But he no longer, he informed us triumphantly, prays every evening.
Was this naive, stupid, or shameless? Most likely all three.
He also returned to the topic of the executed members of the Communist Party and assured us that Slánský—he’d known him personally — had been a genuine fiend who had on his conscience a number of villainous blunders and the arrest and persecution of innocent people. He said he would never agree to the rehabilitation of Slánský‘s name and raised his finger as if threatening anyone who would try.