POPULAR ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00046R000400230006-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2013
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: January 5, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
This material contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defensis of the United States within the mean-
ing of the Nspionage Laws, Title 18. U.S.C. Secs. 793
and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in
any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law.
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?11XIMEMZIAL._
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia REPORT NO.
SUBJECT Popular Attitudes md 0)inions DATE DISTR.
5 January 1955
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NO. OF PAGES 11
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DATE OF INFO.
REQUIREMENT NO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
REFERENCES
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THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
STATE
LIBRARY SUBJECT AND AREA CODES
3-02-0406
890.02
832.1
1 35 . 1 1
832.
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834.22
86i.3
831..5
107.4
893.31
890.2
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893.2
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753.636
U90.4
134
ARMY #X NAVY
1/55
27M
27M
27M
27M
27M ( LL )
27M
2714
2714
2714
2714
V ( ZM )
2214 ( ZM )
2714 (V)(GM)
2714
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AIR
(NOTE: Washington distribution indicated by "X", Field 4001.16404n by
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74'
011.01.101.MIIIMPWREaN111116.
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CONFIDENTIAL
REPORT NO.
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia
SUBJECT
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Popular lAtitudes and Opinions
DATE OF INFORMATION
PLACE ACQUIRED
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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DATE DISTR. 30 Nov 1954
NO. OF PAGES 10
REFERENCES:
Communism and Youth
1. The communist effort to indoctrinate Czech youth has largely been
a failure. Children absorbed a great deal of communist doctrine,
but as soon as they begin to have ideas of their own, at the age
of 14 or 15, they quickly throw off the communist indoctrination.
In source's school at Prerov (N 49-271 E '.7-27), not more than
three to five per cent of the high-school age children were convinced
communists. In the 1954 graduating class of about 40, 17-and 18-
year-old boys and girls, only one or two students were convinced
communists. The proportion of convinced communists among university
students and young apprentices was probably no greater than in the
secondary school. She thought, though, that perhaps more of the
older students had learned the value of conformity, and so had come
to pretend to be convinced communists, than was true of the younger
students.
2.
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student. In February 1951, a 17-year-old girl of working-class
origin complained to the district secretariat of the Czechoslovak
League Of Youth(CSM)that a non-communist teacher, in handing out some
newly issued students' records and grade books, had referred to the
book as a "viekschein" (cattle certificate). The secretary of the
youth organization went to the principal of the school and demanded
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that the teacher be discharged. The head of the education section
of the national committee in Olomouc was also brought into the case.
After an investigation, details of which are not known to Source,
the teacher was cleared and allowed to continue teaching at the school.
The incident became known to the other students, who demonstrated
their disapproval of the girl's behavior by more or less putting her
in coventry for the remaining 18 months the girl was at the school.
The girl was sent to the Soviet Union in October 1952 to study
political science and has not returned to Prerov.
3. Though denunciations were thus quite unusual in the school, the
fear of them was great enough so that both teachers and students
generally were careful to avoid provocative remarks. Anti-communist
sentiments were mainly expressed by the use of an ironical tone of
voice when talking about the virtues of communism and the Soviet
Union. The teachers and students pretended not to notice the irony
in the voices. When more open remarks against the regime were made,
the teacher would always insist that he had not heard them,
4. At the weekly meetings of the teachers, everyone was urged to report
any behavior which could call for correction. Sometimes teachers
would feel obliged to report anti-regime remarks by students lest
50:00 the remarks be reported independently by someone else,
recalled that in 1951 one of the teachers had informed the meeting
that a student in a social sciences class discussion of the govern-
ment had openly asked, "Why do we have to talk about such stupid
people?" When called to the principal, the student explained that
he had been misunderstood; he had been thinking of the Slansky gang.
The other students in the class testified that they had all understood
the remark in this sense, so the student's explanation was accepted.
5. Membership in the CSM was actually though not officially, compulsory
and roll was taken at the CSM general meetings held during or just
after school hours once or twice a month. Until 1953 only
from 50 to 60% of the students had belonged to CSM, but in fall 1953
the principal promised the secretariat of CSM that all of the students
would be signed up. This was apparently done. Everyone realized
that the active of the CSM could cost a student his chances
of admission to a university. It was thus easier to join, attend .
the meetings, and ignore the communist message than to refuse to
take part. Membership was entirely a passive affair for almost all
students. Active participation in CSM activities was not a
condition of membership in school sports teams, did not affect the
grades received for course work and examinations, played little or
no part in assignment to brigades during vacation time, and was not
a requirement for admission to the universities.
6. Every year in May and June a committee sat at each school to make
recommendations on the future of the students in that year's
graduating class. The members were the school principal, another
principal from elsewhere who was usually chairman of the committee,
the class (American-style "home room") teacher, a member of the
local national committee, a member of the CSM secretariat in Prerov,
and one so-called public member who was usually an employee of the
trade union central URO. A statement on the student by CSM was a
part of each student's file. Until 1952 this committee was fairly
strict; in that year three or four students out of 40 were not
recommended for advanced education on political or class grounds.
In 1953 and 1954, however, all of the students who wanted to continue
their studies were approved. Until 1953 the committee interviewed
the students on political topics, but in 1954 the interview was
dispensed with on orders from the Ministry of Education. The change
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was greeted with relief by all eoncerned, paeticularly the students,
as the question period, which might last for up to an aearin
difficult cases, was felt to be an especially troubleseme ordeal.
Source did not know why the oral examination was dropped, but
supposed that the authorities felt that the written and oral
entrance examinations were a sufficient barrier to undesirable
elements seeking admission to the universities.
On the general question of admission to the university, source's
information was almost entirely second-band. .She knew that the
number of places open in the universities was limited, so that in
some subjects there were always some students who were not admitted.
In suebeircumstances, children of kulaks tended to be put at the
bottom of the list, along with those who received low grades in the
written (mainly non-political) entrance examinations. A number of
students from Prerov, for example, were denied admission to medical
schools in 1953 and 1954, though all had been recommended by
source's school committee and though some of them at least had
probably done well enough in the written examinatione.
8? hours with
a fifteen minute period of political indoctrination. The students
were obliged to spend this period reading and discussing news tr.erlp
printed in the youth paper, Mlada Fronta. There were generally
Joint subscriptions of one copy for di-ery three students. The
discussion and other joint activities of the class were conducted by
a chairman and a class committee selected by the students themselves
at the beginning of each school year. Until 1952 the nominations had
been made by the CSM leadership in the school. After 1952 the matter
was left to the students. CSM activists may sometimes have arranged
to restrict nominations from the floor to their own numbers but source
thought that this was usually not necessary. The work of clasp leader
involved BO many unpleasant chores that the non-communist students
preferred to let a communist fill the job. In one of the classes in
1953, however, the students selected as clase leader someone; whose
non-communist views were well known in the school.
9.
young people were more attracted
to the Organization for Cooperation with the Armed Forces (Svazarm)
than to CSL. About half of the students belonged to a section of
Svazarm which offered students the chance to become amateur glider
pilots, radio operators, and the like, while CSM appeared to offer
little besides politics. During the 1952-1953 school year, CSM
sponsored a series Of so-called "Dancing Wednesdays", afternoon ,
functions at the community hall including amateur theatricals,
dancing, and light refreshments. These affairs were not continued
in fall 1953, however, as the students had Mischievously chosen to
perform partsfrom a number of older plays by the well-known Prague
dramatic teamof Voskovele and Wench, which the principal thought
might be held to have an anti-communist content,
10. About 15 or 20 percent of the
50O money grants of from 50 to 200 crowns per month to stay in school;
this money was paid directly +0 the parents. Children of communists
received some preferenee ii the allocation of such help which was
handled by the principal and one of the teachers who acted as part-
timesocial referent tiat CSM apparently did not have any direct
connection with thit.-selection of students who could receive this
help. About half of the atudenta actually applied for it.
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11. Juvenile delinquency was not much of a problem in Prerov. No
students at the Eleven-Year School had been arrested or been the
subject of police investigations for disorderly behavior since
she came there in 1950; One girl became pregnant in 1953 by a.
student at the industrial school in Prerov, but this sort of
delinquOncy was nothing new,
young apprentices in factories often behaved very rudely. She:
thought that most complaints of juvenile delinquency involved young
people who had left school and gone to work in factories where
conditions of work were very poor and morale and morals very bad.
About half of the young people who finished the elementary school
in Prerov at the age of about fourteen became apprentices in
factories or shops. The other half was spread among the various
so-called schools of tit/4 tisird degree in Prerov-the eleven-year
the.industrial school-, the higher
egon0M10 school, the agricultural school, and the pedagogical
school. The long-range plan was for all students to continue their
studies through the eleventh grade at one of those schools.
12. There were five or six young North Koreans, aged 16 to 18, two girls
and three or four boys, studying at the industrial school in Prerov,
They came there in 1952 or 1953 4n4 were taking a four-year course.
Source did not *now anyone who knew them, but she heard one of the
students give a talk in Czech on geography at the Eleven-Year School
gymnasium. The North Koreans apparently associated very little with
the Czechs in the town. There were no Chinese in Prerov.
13. Sixteen Of the I
50X1 but not more thin sour ortheise were convinced communists. Twenty
of the 25 had entered the teackinvprofession.before 1948. Only
one of the five post-1948 teachers was a party member. To the: best
of source's knowledge, -none of the persons teaching at Prerov before
1948 had been arrested or thrown out of the profession, though
several had transferred to other schools. The Czech school system
was thus still mainly staffed with, though not necessarily directed
by, persons already in the profession before the communist seizure
of power. Perhaps half of the old teachers compromised with the
regime to the extent of accepting Party membership, but this had
little effect on their innermost,00nvictions. With the exception
of the very few convinced communists, there was not any important
difference in the teaching behavior of the Party and the non-Party
teachers. Both gave only lip service to the regime. Since none
50X1 of the there:
seemed so ye a tacit understanding that no one would make trouble for
the students or the fellow teachers ir it could be avoided. At the
weekly teachers' meeting on Wednesday afternoons, for example, the
teachers took turns reading the political address for that week. The
fifteen-minute or so discussion period following the reading, say,
of some editorials of that week's issues of Rude Pravo was an
entirely lifeless affair. Simple questions were asked and simple
answers were given. At the end, the principal invariably praised
the teacher who had read that day's leason. The meeting then
passed on to other business, to Ministry of Education announcements
about vacation periods, about changes in curricula, and so on. A
part of the meeting was given over to discussion of the students'
progress and problems - whether a good basketball player who did
poorly in his studies should be allowed to stay on the school team
and the like. There, too, troublesome political considerations were
usually avoided where possible. The teachers generally tried to
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protect the students by glossing over or finding exouses for such
political shortcomings of the students as might come up for dis-
cussion at the teachers' meetings.
14. Source conceded that perhaps conditions were not so satisfactory it
other schools, but it was her general impression that communism had
had much less success in the schools than anxious adults feared.
She supposed that the authorities were aware of this but could do
nothing about it. The shortage of trained personnel in all fields
was so great that the communists could not dispense with the existing
staffs of teachers without having to close the schools. Neyertheless,
teaching standards were lower than in 1948. The textbooks were often
translations of Soviet texts which, in the sciences, were too heavily
loaded with facts. The .teachers had to follow such texts literally,
even though the material was too much for the students to absorb in
the time alloted. The. mania for planning also hurt teaching standards.
The yearly plan for the school called for the passing of all students
to the next higher grade, even the... it could obviously be expected
that some students would not do enough work to merit passing
grades. In 1954, to be sure, one particularly stupid student was
finally held over for another year, but this was regarded as a most
exceptional necessity. New tailobers entering the profession are
also less well trained than in the past. Young people of eighteen
? who failed to gain admittance to the university were assigned to
primary school teaching, with the requirement that later on they
take follow-up courses in vacation time. Persons training to be
high school teachers were obliged to begin teaching after three
years at the teachers' colleges, even though they might not yet have
? finished all of their courses or taken their degrees.
15. had held closed meetlngs
50X1 with the school committee of CSM, at which the student committee.
members were permitted to discuss the work of their teachers, the
grades they' gave, and so on. After 1952, these meetings were
dropped, apparently on orders from the Ministry of Education. The
Ministry's ruling was supposedly taken to strengthen the authority
of the teachers. The Czech equivalent of the Parent-Teacher
Aosoolation, (Sdruzeni rodiou a pratel skoly SRPS)held
50X1 meetings once a month during the school season.
nearly all of the parents of the children in the primary school
came to these meetings, about half of the parents of children from
11 to 14 years, and about a quarter of the parents of the 14 to 17
year group. The meetings usually avoided political subjects, and
were confined to disoussions of school activities,plans for school
50X1 ski outings in the winter vacation, and the like. I
she never heard any parents complain about the course?) of instruction
the children were receiving, but that large turn-outs of parents
Stalling to meet the teachers perhaps was caused by the desire of
the parents to know that the children were in reasorably good hands.
16. The only occasion when politics entered the meetings was when the
parent-teacher meeting would be held in conjunction with a meeting
of the Czeohoslovak-Soviet Friendship Society. Then one of the
teachers might talk on some subject such as the meaning of friend-
ship with the Soviet Union. The Friendship Society meetings were
held once a month. All teachers were required to belong. The
Society's activities were not especially troublesome to the teachers,
as 'the meetings of the teachers' section of the Socifiy were usually
staged simultaneously with one of the weekly teachers' pedagogical
meetings on a weekday afternoon.
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17. French and English. As
nussian was a compulsory subject, so much of her time was used up
with that language that she gave no instruction in English or
French. The students were required to study one foreign language
besides Russian, either French, German.wor English. In September
1953 &puree star to teach a class in English to the ninth grade
as a voluntary subject after two o'clock in the afternoon. In
October, however, the regional national committee in Olomouc
ordered the class discontinued on the grounds that, as the children
were simultaneously starting to study German, it was too difficult
to try to learn two new foreign languages at the same time. In
effect, therefore, no English or French was taught then though
both languages remained on the list of permitted subjects. The
young people learned Russian fairly well though they took no interest
in it, and for fun often pretended not to know any better than to
speak Russian by using Czech words with Russian endings.
18. Language teachers in Prerov were compulsorily organized in an
Institute of Modern Languages. The 50 members of the Slavonio
section met one afternoon a week for two hours to discuss teaching
methods, to listen from the back of the room to teachers giving
their lessomand to hear lectures.
19. The money for the schools of the third degree (claws 9-11) came
from the budgets of the regional national committee(104% of the
second degree (classes 6-8) from the district national uommittee
(ONV) and of the ,first degree (classes 1-5) from the municipal
national committee (MNV).
4141113."
20.
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21,
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22.
23.
young people went to church on Sundays than
in the past. Church-going was regarded as a relatively safe way
of demonstrating one's anti-communism, so that even people who were
not particularly religious now sometimes went to church in a spirit
of anti-communist solidarity that ohurob-going
had tnereased because religious training within the family circle
was now mare widespread than hitherto.
organizaDional questions. sne had the impression that there haa
been no relaxation in state controls on religion, though she had
also not noticed any increase in state pressure on the churches
in the last year or two. She felt that the ostensible acquiescence
in government controls on religion was only apparent and that the
people remained as devoted to religion as ever.
No religious instruction was given at the Eleven-Year Seoondary
School (Ages 14 to 17). She did not know if such instruction was
allowed for the lower grades, but thought perhaps it might have been
as mothers sometimes came to the Eleven-Year School at the opening
of the school year to ask that their children be allowed to receive
religious instruction at the school. The mothers were always
received by the principal individually, never in groups, and tact-
fully told that their request could not be granted.
The rules for the younger children were evidently more lenient, as
source recalled from a discussion during 1953-1954 or a girl in the
eighth grade (last year of the primary school) who was an Adventist
and for that reason never attended classes on Saturday. This gi141
had been allowed to prepare her Saturdar lessons at home on Sundays.
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She was a very intelligent child, and so had no trouble keeping up
with her classmates. In the teachers' meeting where her case was
discussed, the principal explained that the standing rules of the
Ministry of Education obliged the elementary school to permit the
child to stay away from her studies on Saturdays, but that in the
Eleven-Year School such absences would not be allowed. The child
was accepted for admission to the Eleven-Year School, but source
left Czechoslovakia too soon to know whether the girl or the
school ultimately gave way.
24. On religious holidays which did not coincide with state holidays
children were not excused from class to attend church, but it
frequently happened that on such days four or five of the 4o children
in the class stayed away from school and reported the next day with
signed excuses from their parents that they had been ill that day.
These four or five were usually from peasant families living some
distance outside the town.
25.
themselves. She said that even the teachers who were not personally
believers usually tried to protect students who were criticized for
attending church. At the committee meetings held in June to pass
on the records of the students leaving the school, the teachers could
explain that the one girl really went to church because she liked
to sing in the choir, another went to avoid trouble with her old
mother, and so on. Though these explanations were usually accepted
and, as we have seen, such children were recommended for admission
to the universities, it must be added that the fact of church
attendance was undoubtedly harmful to the children=i careers; the
authorities always gave the non-church-goer priority over the church-
goer. She thought that perhaps half of the teachers attended church
services fairly frequently.
Leaflets
26. In June or July 1954, while walking on a country road on the outskirts
of Uhersky Brod in eastern Moravia, source picked up an anti-communist
leaflet in the Czech language. It urged the peasants to hold back
grain for their own needs and not to turn over the full amounts
demanded by the state collecting agency. The leaflet also reminded
its readers not to forget the ten points. She read the leaflet and
gave it to the manager of the resort hotel near Uhersky Brod where
her husband worked, for passing on to the police. This was the
only anti-communist leaflet source ever saw. She disposed of it
as above because she was afraid someone might have seen her pick it
up on the road. Some of her students had seen and told her of the
"Hunger Crowns" they had found in Prerov. She was certain that
everybody in the country knew of the leaflets and had seen a leaflet
at one time or another.
27. She had no knowledge on the actions taken by the authorities to
prevent circulation of the leaflets. She assumed that only the
police, looked for the leaflets. There was no official discussion
of the leaflets in the school and no effort to organize parties of
children to search for the leaflets.
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28. Most people who found leaflets read them, showed them to intimate
friends, and then turned them over to the local police. She never
heard of anybody mailing the leaflets to the communist authorities
or putting a leaflet in the balloting boxes. She is certain, however,
that many people wrote the number ten on the ballots. She herself
did this, after first carefully crossing off all of the names ,of the
candidates. She did this in accordance with the advice heard on the
political broadcasts of Radio Free Europe. The gossip in Czecho-
slovakia was that so many people had marked their ballots in this
way that the authorities felt obliged to count as valid even those
ballots carrying the number ten when the voters had neglected to
cross out all of the names of all the candidates.
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of persons possessing the
printed material but she took it for granted that there had been
such cases and supposed that a,person arrested on such a charge
would receive approximately a six months sentence.
30. The leaflets were generally welcomed by all segments of society.
Source did not think there were any differences on this subject in
the opinions of any of the occupational or age groups in the
population. The ten demands were very popular. She never heard
any criticism of their formulation. The figure "ten" has become
a popular symbol of opposition to the regime but she never heard
of its use elsewhere than in the election booth.
Attitude Toward the Government's Promises of a Better Future
31.
now. better. Price reductions had generally been confined to the
lowest-quality items only. She was sure that conditions would never
improve under the present government because it would continue to
export everything possible to the Soviet Union.
32. Political pressure was now lighter than a year or two ago. She
thought that the pressure had been taken off a bit to pacify people
before the spring 1954 elections, but that sooner or later a harder
line would be resumed. She added, however, that people felt a bit
freer also because, in her opinion, nearly everyone believed that
time and experience had shown that communism was an economic and
political failure. She put particular importance on the growing
disillusionment of the working class with communism, as shown by
the strike0,of June 1953. Hardly anyone, even members of the Party.
believed any longer that communism was succeeding in winning any
converts in Czechoslovakia or was meeting the people's economic
needs. Consequently,
openly because they felt that the hold of the Party was weakening.
Radio Listening
33. Source listened to BBC news broadcasts in the Czech language nearly
every day at 1845 hours Czech time. She liked news broadcasts best,
though she also praised the variety of items on VOA, including the
humorous little news items never heard on BBC. VOA was hardest
to receive in her experience. There was gossip that a jamming station
had been set up in Prerov in 1953.
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34. From 1951 to 1954 she sometimes listened to broadcaEt6 in the company
of three or four 17-year-old girl students who frequently came to
visit her in the late afternoon after school. She warned the
students not to tell anyone what they had done, but she thought that
in fact the word had quickly gone about that she was anti-communist.
She recalled that on the following day she felt from the glowing
eyes of the great majority of her students that nearly all:of themC:
knew of what she had done and loved her for thus having proved that
at heart she shared their detestation of communism.
35. Many students listened to the American Army station in Germany (AFN)
because they liked the jazz. These broadcasts were not jammed in
Czechoslovakia.
Views on Czech-Exiles and Escapees
36.
50X1 activities of the Czech exiles but thought theywere not doing their
work well enough. They hoped and expected that the exiles and the
diplomats of the free world would devise some means of forcing the
Soviets to withdraw from the satellite countries. Peroutka was .
well spoken of, but people did not care much for Dr. Zenkl. The
general view was that the latter had not taken an active enough
anti-communist role in 1948, and was now too old to be able to do
much more.
37.
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that escapees received help from the
American Government, but had no details on the President's Escapee
Program. She said that practically everyone in Czechoslovakia
agreed that, regardless of what communist newspapers said, conditions
in the displaced persons camps were probably better than conditions
in Czechoslovakia itself.
Reactions to the American Offer of Flood Relief
38.
been made to East Germany, that the East German authorities had
first rejected the offer, and that they had finally accepted it
under orders from Moscow. She thought that the offer was a good
idea. She was certain that conditions were so poor everywhere in
eastern Europe that aid would be gratefully received by everyone.
She explained her lack of knowledge of the food offers to Czecho-
slovakia and Hungary by saying that during the six weeks prior
to her escape in mid-August she had been travelling, and visiting
relatives, and so was not able to keep up with the news very well.
Attitudes toward the United States
39. PeOple still had hope in the United States and saw America as the
source of their rescue. They were impatient that this rescue was
taking so long, but many of them reasoned that, just as America
didn't enter the first and second World Wars until late in the
day, so America would somehow, in the darkest moment, intervene
to save the day. Communist propaganda had no success in alienating
good will toward the United States, as nobody was willing to
believe anything he heard from a communist source. Communist
propaganda about American help to Germany had also been without
influence. People placed their hopes in the idea of a federal
Europe. In a federal framework they would have no objection to
close cooperation with the Germans. An anti-communist German was
more popular than a communist Czech. The fear of a rearmed Germany
is and will remain a dead issue BO long as the claims of the Sudeten
Germans in West Germany do not receive any more official support
than they have to date from Bonn or Washington.
CONFIDENTIAL
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/26: CIA-RDP82-00046R000400230006-6
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Miscellaneous
40. was some deliberate sabotage by anti-
communist elements, but could cite only one example she had heard
of. That was a rumor that in 1952 or 1953 a train carrying chemicals
or petroleum to the Soviet Union had been held up at the Prerov
railway station for several days because some unknown saboteur had
in some way blocked the track in the station or near Prerov.
41. .She did not believe that there was any corruption in the Ministry
of Education or in the schools generally. She also never heard ?of
any instances of deliberate neglect of duty by members of the police
42. She did not believe the charges against Slansky, and she also did
not credit any of the reports in the press about espionage agents
sent to Czechoslovakia by the Americans. The accounts about the
above had been released by t?he communist authorities and publicized
in the communist press and radio. This was enough to make source
arid most Czechs believe that such reports were very probably not
true.
43.
50x1 44.
of the prize-winning Czech film 'The
imperial Baker"(Cisaruv pekar),one of the characters is heard to
says "Dobrou nod a pevnou nadeji " (Good night and solid hope).
When source heard this in the motion picture, she at once recognized
it as a phrase used by Bruck Lockhart in concluding his broadcasts
from London. She said that everyone in the audience drew his breath
in, exchanged glances with his neighbor, and smiled to himself with
satisfaction. The film was apparently directed or written by
Wench, the dramatist, and the Czechs in the audience assumed that
Wench was responsible for inserting this anti-communist sldgan
into the film.
seven novels in the Lanny Budd series
L Upton Sinclair. She said that the books were very popular.
For a time they were officially promoted by the communists, but it
was believed that later volumes in the series would not be translated
and were banned because the later stages of Lanny Budd's career
had disappointed the communists' expectations. People in Czecho-
slovakia believe that the recent official revival of Capek is
caused by the fact that the Russians had translated some of Capek's
books, and so made it permissable for the Czech communists to read
him.
45. There was no interest in Soviet literature. Most people wanted to
read Czech classics or translations of Western books, but nineteenth-
century Russian classics were sometimes *pad by people who could
not find the Czech or Western books they wanted. Banned books
circulated quite widely among intimate friends.
CONFIDENTIAL
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