Czech Professor On the Crisis: Optimism and No Fear of Russia

Only one perspective on the current Czech crisis is popular in the United States. According to this view, Czechoslovakia, a stubbornly courageous nation determined to escape communism, waits tensely in the shadow of annihilation cast by her oppressor of the last 20 years, Russia. Violence might erupt any moment.

Hanus Papousek, a Czech, sees things differently, just as he sees communism differently, and American democracy.

"People ask me, why have you been so optimistic?" says Papousek. "But really, Russia could have done nothing else but back down from her threats. She is too clever to make the mistake the United States made in Vietnam. The situations are very similar, and world reaction would be the same."

Pediatrician

Papousek is a pediatrician. He serves on the staff of the Research Institute for Mother and Child Care, which is operated in Prague by the Czechoslovakian Ministry of Health. This summer he is teaching and researching at Harvard at the invitation of Jerome Bruner, professor of Psychology here.

Papousek speaks quietly, and does not strike a listener as a man of passionate political beliefs; after all, he is expert only on children. But his nationalism runs strong; he gets proud and excited talking of the Czechs, while he shakes his head in admiration.

His lack of bitterness towards Russia is therefore surprising, and from the stories he tells, his countrymen seem to feel the same way. Americans don't realize, says Papousek, that Czechoslovakia and Russia have been friendly for centuries.

For 300 years, up to 1918, his country was dominated by a Western power, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Czechs' only hope was that a strong nation of similar Slavic culture, sensitive to Slav desires for self-determination, would help her drive for independence. The Russian Bolsheviks during the crucial years of World War I, became her champion.

During the 30's, newly-independent Czechoslovakia turned her face westward as well; to meet the Fascist threat she signed mutual defense pacts with England and France. Then Munich happened, in 1938, and once again Russia became the only recourse. Russian troops liberated Papousek's nation in 1945, and three years later the Czechs democratically elected a communist president.

Even today, he is not angry at recent Russian actions, says Papousek. In this age of the Cold War, Russia must be expected to try to hold her alliances together.

Papousek claims the Czechs are mostly angry with themselves. They allowed Antonin Novotny, who was First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party before the current reformer Dubcek, to exploit the socialist system for personal power. "We should have acted against the misuses of socialism a long time ago," he said.

More Freedom

Papousek feels sure of the Czechs' future goals. His people want to profit from the inter-action between socialism and democracy, combining the advantages of both. "And we want more freedom than we have had up to now. In fact, we want more freedom than Americans have."

The level of information in most American newspapers is insufficient, he explains. He says that "here, you have as perfect a system of secret control of your citizens as the Soviets have. It might be more sophisticated, but my people will not stand wire-tapping by a group like the FBI, in the future."

Hanus Papousek stopped and thought for a moment, before he continued.

"If you are a person who desires to consume, then you won't mind so much the social differences between classes, and you can live easily with the free enterprise system. But there's a comfort in being free of the constant exposure to economic competition, to the struggle to earn money. Not everyone likes this atmosphere.

Socialist Principles

"I am a pediatrician, and I am able to do much for children in my country. I wouldn't be able to do as much in any other country but Sweden. Socialist principles are responsible."

Papousek stopped again. His knowledge of English is good, but he worries about choosing the right words to express his feelings.

"If you are a man who can live for one ideal, for a special cause, then you will prefer the nation that allows you to follow that ideal," he said slowly. "That is why I am happy in Czechoslovakia. It is a very personal thing.