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Clandestine radio station announced August 26 that Prague
“was ruined and burning ...’’ This was taken the same
day in Prague.

The following interview with Vasil Bilak, member of
the Presidium and Secretary of the Central Committee of the

Czechoslovak Communist Party, was conducted for World .

Magazine by Margrit Pittman.

Q: Czechoslovakia has experienced many advances
since the effort of counter-revolutionaries to lead the coun-
try out of the socialist community in 1968. What are the
most important ones and how were they achieved? —

A: I would divide your question into two parts, that of
domestic policy and that of foreign policy.

It is no secret that there are a lot of distortions and
misrepresentations about Czechoslovakia in the United
States. Many do not know that Czechoslovakia today is
a beautiful, highly developed, free and cultured country
sheltered from the many hardships experienced by the
advanced capitalist countries.

Czechoslovakia has, indeed accomplished significant
achievements. If we compare with the situation 5-6 years
ago, we may say with pride that we have achieved great
progress in all spheres of social life as well as in the ma-
terial and cultural standard of working people. We have
overcome not only the consequences of the political and
economic disruption caused by the counter-revolution,
but we have also started to tackle many problems which
accumulated in Czechoslovakia in the course of the six-
ties. .

leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
This made it necessary to eli ninate all opportunists and
revisionists from the Party, all those who lost their-revo-
lutionary spirit and totally failed the Party, as well as
those who were passive. In this way, the Party restored
not only its unity but also its capacity for action, enhanced
its influence upon the whole society and strengthened its
ties with people. The 14th Party Congress worked out a
clear program to further the development of our socialist
society. It outlined ways and objectives of continuous,
dynamic and effective development of the national econ-
omy, in order to satisfy material and cultural needs of the
population more fully, to strengthen the socialist order and
to develop socialist democracy, to educate the socialist
man. This program has become the program of all our
people. Through honest work, it is becoming a reality. The
result is that the atmosphere in the Party today is by far
sounder and more productive. Consciousness and political
responsibility as well as sound optimism, feeling of social-
ist patriotism and proletarian internationalism are grow-
ing.

Equally important was the achievement that in open
political struggle a majority of workers, cooperative farm-
ers, intelligentsia, including youth, were won to the Party
policy. We also were able to isolate rightist and anti-
socialist elements.

Another major achievement is the fact that the Len-
inist principles of control have been restored at all levels,
both in the Party and in the state, and that the whole na-
tional economy has been consolidated. The role of the state
plan has been restored. The main objectives of the Fifth
Five-Year Plan are being fulfilled, in many aspects even
exceeded. Consequently, the real income of the population
has continued to grow, the living standard of the working
people has increased. The stability of retail prices has
been maintained and the purchasing power of the Czecho-
slovak crown has increased. There has been a significant
improvement in the care for young married couples, for
mothers and children, and for pensioners. The everyday
security of the working people has been enhanced.

The whole state structure, from the top to the bottom,

It was essential to restore order and, above all, the

has been restored. The class and political foundations of
our socialist society have been strengthened as well as the
class character and the activity of the representative bod-
ies, the role of the national committees and the social or-
ganizations associated in the National Front has been in-
creased. :

Last, but not least, is the major achievement of restor-
ing our friendship, alliance and fraternal cooperation with
the first country of socialism, the Soviet Union, and the
other countries of the socialist community. Thanks to this
and the principled foreign policy of our state, the enemies
of socialism did not manage to isolate our country in the
international forum.

The achievements accomplished in a relatively short
time are the results of the principled Marxist-Leninist
policy of our Communist Party and its Central Commit-
tee, of great selfless political and organizational work of
the whole Party, its organizations and Communists. These
achievements are the results of correct application of the
Leninist principles in the life and work of the Party and all
of society, the result of effective application of the social-
ist principles of management and planning. They are the
fruit of every-day productive work of our people who, in

_their vast_majority, have understood_and are taking an.

active part in bringing the 14th Party Congress conclu-
sions into life. At the same time we are aware that these
accomplishments are made possible by the success
achieved by the Soviet Union policy of peaceful relations
among nations and by the coordinated policy of the social-
ist countries in the world, in asserting the process of de-
tente and peaceful coexistence, which enabled us to con-
centrate our full energy on the building of the society.

The achievements also prove the realism, strength
and vitality of the course taken by the 14th Congress of our
Party whose correctness has been fully confirmed in prac-
tice. Our achievements are great, especially in compari-
son with the deepening crisis in capitalist countries.

Q: The bourgeois press has extensively commented
in the past months on the public expressions of disaffection

_ working people nor in many other places in the world.

.they want to disturb the process of detente in the world. _

.problems resulting from the disruption caused by thes

forces. 5 ;

These sporadic voices serve our enemies as. an &
pression of ‘‘internal opposition.’’ And some people in this
country, who played an unpropitious role during the yeal®
of crisis, abetted these counterrevolutionary forces ~ |
such as Smrkovsky, and, after his death, Dubcek, Mlyna!
and others. These actions were acclaimed neither by out

It may be worth noting that until recently we b&
lieved that many of these ‘‘former representatives” welé
more or less representatives of right opportunism. Thelf
development until now has clearly proved that they follow
the path of betrayal and are fully in service of the an!
Communists. :

Their aim is not only to slander socialism in Czech
slovakia but to harm it directly, to hinder the efforts fo!
peaceful coexistence of countries with different soci#
systems, to discredit the socialist ideas which become
every more attractive in the world. They had managed to
do that at the time they held positions. In the long ru

The so-called Smrkovsky ‘““Memoires”’ as well as the
Dubcek letters and other similar writings have nothing to
do with the truth. They follow only one aim: to serve antl
Communists in their attacks against socialism. They do”
solve any problems. Rather the contrary. The problems
accumulated in our society before January 1968 and thé

“representatives” have been and are being eliminat
thanks to the fact that we can tackle them now withol!|
their anti-socialist intentions.

In this context I would like to comment briefly on the
Czechoslovak emigration in the West. The anti-Comml”
nist centers exploit the fact that the strongest new emi
gration in the West is the emigration from Czechoslovakia:
A considerable number of the emigrants are intellectuals
who had an opportunity to get a knowledge of Marxism all
gained some experience from socialist construction. Theré
are among them people who were not only members of f
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia but also members ©
its elected bodies up to the Central Committee, represe™
tatives of the government and social organizations. Some
openly set out on a road to treason. They associate them
selves with the most reactionary forces as for example
with West German revanchists. Josef Loebl, Ludek Pach:
man and others openly gave up their Communist convic
tions, . i
They do not try to conceal that their greatest hope 8
a global attack against the whole socialist commun! y:

Soviet soldier in Prague, September 2, 1968 |

of persons involved in the revisionist movement in 1968,
such as the Dubcek letter and the Smrkovsky ‘‘Memoires.”’
What position does your Party take regarding these mat-
ters?

A: This is so, though it is nothing new, nothing surpris-
ing. These things, however, will not divert us from build-
ing our society. The most reactionary forces of imperial-

.ism, surprised by the achievements of existing socialism,

its growing influence in the world, the achievements of the
peace offensive of the USSR and the other socialist coun-
tries, and the achievements of progressive forces in the
world in general, concentrate their forces once again in
the attacks against socialist countries, and intensify anti-
communist propaganda, whose main tool is anti-Soviet-
ism. They do not hesitate to use the dirtiest means. They
are trying to exploit every opportunity, including emi-
grants, defeated rightist and anti-socialist forces.

Their purpose was served by the so-called Smrkovsky
““Memoires’’ and Dubcek letters. In connection with these
pamphlets, the anti-communist centers stirred up a new
wave of anti-Czechoslovak hysteria with the ultimate goal
of attacking socialism and peace. The campaign was no
coincidence. This is shown by its timing on the eve of the
30th anniversary of the liberation of our country by the
Soviet army. In this action, Czechoslovak renegades and
emigrants united with the most reactionary international

oo

Vasil Bilak, member of the presidium Gnd Secretary ‘,
being interviewed by Margrit Pittman, Daily World Ff

PACIFIC TRIBUNE-—SEPTEMBER 19, 1975—Page 8

WORLD MAGAZINE