[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
most important is the vehement position that Gomulka has Rigo, Barbirek, J. Piller, and Kapek. Not to mention Bil ak
adopted toward our leadership. himself. After that I asked him: Why haven t you been
It is of the utmost importance to hold a bilateral meeting making a greater effort? Bil ak thought a bit and said:
with you, the Soviet Union. If there isn t one in the near We re afraid that they ll accuse us of betraying the mother-
future, this might lead to the final rupture and the departure land, with all the consequences that implies. We re prepared
of the KSC from our common line, which means it will to support you with all possible means, but we don t know
collapse. We and I have in mind here my comrades are what we need to do. I said to Bil ak: We need a letter from
speaking in favor of the soonest possible meeting with you. you containing your request for assistance. We give a full
But you are correct in insisting that you don t want to come to guarantee that neither the letter nor its authors will be
Prague for such a meeting and negotiations. If you were to revealed in public. To this, Bil ak responded: You must
come to Prague, these Schweikists would think they had understand our position; we are ashamed that, having done
triumphed. nothing in our country, we are appealing to you for help.
I think that they won t come to bilateral negotiations with What must you think about us?
you with the full membership of the Presidium they re Bil ak continued: We have certain measures in place,
afraid. Indeed, Cernik, Smrkovsky, Kriegel, and Dubcek are and our devoted, pro-Soviet party activists are mobilized.
afraid to travel to the Soviet Union at all for a meeting with The Workers Militia and many military officers support us
you: They re afraid that they won t be permitted to go back to and, in the event of danger, will come to our defense.48 Our
Czechoslovakia.44 If a bilateral meeting with you is to be program and declaration are all ready to go. (When he was
held, the issues must be discussed sharply, precisely, and saying all this, I sensed that he was speaking with a degree of
concretely, a timeframe must be set for rectifying the situation ambivalence, and it seemed to me that he was conflating what
in the country, and they must be warned about the possible he wished with what was actually the case.) I said to V.
serious consequences. Undoubtedly, a demand must be put Bil ak that they are clearly letting the chance slip away to put
forth to seal off all of Czechoslovakia s borders on the West. up an active struggle. No, said Bil ak firmly, we won t
Continuing his line of thought, Bil ak said: I say to you permit this. We simply don t have enough forces on our own.
personally and directly that you must shield us with your We will appeal to you for help. But wouldn t it be better if
umbrella against the acrimonious attacks of the leaders of your group now wrote us a letter requesting help? For you,
Poland and the GDR. These attacks have provoked well- won t this provide a guarantee that you will be bolder and
founded annoyance and indignation, since they say a lot that more organized in your struggle against the nefarious
is non-objective. 45 Bil ak further said: Our economy is activities of the rightists, and won t it strengthen your
stretched to the limit; you must give give us help through solid actions? Yes, this would strengthen our cohesion and our
credits. Preparations for the 14th KSC Congress are going resolute actions. I openly raised a question with Bil ak:
badly, and we re not sure that we ll be able to win out at this Perhaps we could act through Slovakia? 49 Bil ak said:
congress; although A. Dubcek is placing all his hopes on We ll see; if there s an absolute necessity for that, we can
victory, there is no basis for such hopes. The KSC statutes proceed without the Czechs in order to save Czechoslovakia.
are revisionist; rightist elements helped draft them. If we Bil ak further said that they had frittered away time, includ-
publish these statutes, all the Communist and workers parties ing the moment when they could have put up a resolute
will criticize us and not one of them will come to our con- struggle against the rightists with their 2000 Words Plat-
gress. 46 form. In response to this I said to Bil ak: You made a
I asked Bil ak to express his opinion about Smrkovsky. mistake; you let the moment slip away when you could have
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]