The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
tabletmag.com
The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#2> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948;
Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia.
People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true). Few knew what stalinism brings, without exceptions and those few either were quiet or didn't matter enough.
As soon as they got full power, democracy was effectively disbanded, political opponents either executed or jailed, and things like 'famous' uranium mines in Jachymov started operating like execution camps for undesired (something like soviet siberian gulags with added benefit of handling radioactive material without any protection). Ironically all this uranium was given to Soviet union for free AFAIK, and it was worth billions even back then (I guess some sort of ransom for very active 'protection' from evil capitalism).
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#3> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
Czechoslovak-born here. This is not completely correct either.
Communists won the election in 1946 and formed a coalition government in which they were the strongest force, but not completely dominant. There were other "bourgeoise" ministers. Unfortunately, Communists controlled the ministry of the interior and cleansed the police of "reactionary elements", thus cementing their control over the civilian law enforcement. Not over the army yet, though.
There were regular elections scheduled for May 1948 and opinion polls were indicating that Communist share of vote is actually going to diminish. So they preempted them by staging a coup supported by People's Militias (a completely illegal armed militia of the party) on February 25, 1948. After that, the democracy was toast and it was full speed towards Stalinism, show trials etc.
Some of the army generals wanted to suppress the coup militarily, but the aging President (Beneš) did not allow that. IDK if it would have been better or worse. Civil wars tend to leave a very toxic legacy.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#4> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
Czechoslovak-born here. This is not completely correct either. Communists won the election in 1946 and formed a coalition government in which they were the strongest force, but not completely dominant. There were other "bourgeoise" ministers. Unfortunately, Communists controlled the ministry of the interior and cleansed the police of "reactionary elements", thus cementing their control over the civilian law enforceme…
> IDK if it would have been better or worse. Civil wars tend to leave a very toxic legacy.
Had it done so, it's very likely that the USSR would have intervened.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
Czechoslovak-born here. This is not completely correct either. Communists won the election in 1946 and formed a coalition government in which they were the strongest force, but not completely dominant. There were other "bourgeoise" ministers. Unfortunately, Communists controlled the ministry of the interior and cleansed the police of "reactionary elements", thus cementing their control over the civilian law enforceme…
> IDK if it would have been better or worse. Civil wars tend to leave a very toxic legacy. Had it done so, it's very likely that the USSR would have intervened.
So might the Western powers. That was still the moment when Americans had the only working nuclear weapons on Earth.
The width of the possible scenarios is unsettling, one of them may be Prague turning into European Hiroshima.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#6> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
> communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia.
This is actually so wrong as to be an outright lie. The 1948 elections took place on May 30, after the Communists took power in the coup of February 25 (this was not the only important event - they took over power gradually before that). The 1948 elections featured only one party. From that it should be completely clear these were not really elections as there was nothing to choose from and in any case the Communists didn't really care, they already had all the power they needed.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#7> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
Czechoslovak-born here. This is not completely correct either. Communists won the election in 1946 and formed a coalition government in which they were the strongest force, but not completely dominant. There were other "bourgeoise" ministers. Unfortunately, Communists controlled the ministry of the interior and cleansed the police of "reactionary elements", thus cementing their control over the civilian law enforceme…
As somebody born after 1993 (thus into Czech Republic, not Czechoslovakia) who (thankfully?) didn't experience that period, thanks for the writeup.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#8> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
Jachymov had strategic importance for survival of the Soviet Union. Soviets invested into building mine and provided initial workforce. Jachymov was not some siberian gulag for wood choping. Soviets also paid for uranium. Mine was closed as too expensive.
How Czech communist party ran the mine, and what it did to its citizens is something else.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294280450_Vyvoz_ces...
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#9> as a teenager, he watched as the Soviet-backed communist party secured its coup d’état in 1948; Good read describing as things really were, but this part is not fully correct - communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. People were naive, uninformed and generally saw soviets mainly as liberators from nazi occupation (which was true)…
> communists got to the power legally by winning the elections, in 1946 in Czech part of Czechoslovakia and in 1948 in Slovakia. This is actually so wrong as to be an outright lie. The 1948 elections took place on May 30, after the Communists took power in the coup of February 25 (this was not the only important event - they took over power gradually before that). The 1948 elections featured only one party. From that…
I will rephrase it since I see what causes a friction - in 1946 Communists won in Czech part of Czechoslovakia, in Slovakia it was Democratic party with over 60% (Demokraticka strana). Still, Slovakia was only 1/3 of whole republic, so communists won the elections overall, especially in Czech border regions with Germany, where arguably a still-unacknowledged atrocity happened after WWII - brutal forced removal of hundreds of thousands of Sudet Germans.
Its true that in 1948 the elections were a sham since there was only a single party to vote for - communist one, hence their total victory in both Czech and Slovak part of the republic. But the true rise to power was in 1946 that enabled all that came later, and was done via those democratic elections.
Coup d'etat sounds like there was a democratic government overthrown by some communist fringe movement outside government, which isn't true. They got to power and got majority, and used it to remove everybody else. Maybe my idea of coup d'etat is incorrect and this whole discussion is kind of pointless.
Re: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB File
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Czechoslovak-born here. This is not completely correct either. Communists won the election in 1946 and formed a coalition government in which they were the strongest force, but not completely dominant. There were other "bourgeoise" ministers. Unfortunately, Communists controlled the ministry of the interior and cleansed the police of "reactionary elements", thus cementing their control over the civilian law enforceme…
As somebody born after 1993 (thus into Czech Republic, not Czechoslovakia) who (thankfully?) didn't experience that period, thanks for the writeup.
As another Czechoslovak (born 1981 under socialism), I was eagerly awaiting inglor_cz's response the moment I saw this article on HN :-)