C P S U C C

On 27 August, Radio Liberty broadcast a Ukrainian-language appeal from the Czech writer Miroslav Zikmund to the Soviet public. This appeal reportedly had been disseminated earlier by the underground “Brno” radio station.
“In these tragic times for my native land,” the appeal says, “I, Miroslav Zikmund, appeal to the public of the Soviet Union. . . . You always referred to us [Czechoslovakia] as the most loyal country in the entire socialist camp. Can you really now believe that we are counterrevolutionaries?

“I firmly appeal to you: Demand from your leaders— from Leonid Brezhnev, Kosygin, Suslov, and other Politburo members as well as from the directors of factories, research institutes, and editorial boards—that the occupation of my homeland cease immediately. Demand an explanation of this unsurpassed treachery by your state officials, who have sacrificed the idea of socialism for great-power interests, caused a split in the international Communist movement, and besmirched the honor of the Soviet peoples.”

Radio Liberty emphasized that Zikmund is speaking not only for himself, but also on behalf of his friend and fellow writer, Jirí Hanzelka, who has traveled many times to the USSR.

In the final part of his statement, Zikmund specifically appealed to his friends in the Soviet Union, saying: “I
request that you, Zhenya Evtushenko, not remain silent. Although I am speaking with you today on my own, without Yurii Fedorovych, this does not mean that he is of a different view. On the contrary, how could he feel differently when NKVD agents are riding all around our country, just as they did in your country during the Stalinist terror, to arrest thousands of our people who are guilty only of having sought true socialism—socialism with a human face – and of having yearned for freedom, independence, and sovereignty for nations throughout the world, including Czechoslovakia? I request that you not remain silent in the face of this terrible aggression!”


Reported for informational purposes.

SECRETARY OF THE CC, CP OF UKRAINE
P. SHELEST

30 August 1968
No. 1/95