To: Retort From: HS [Howard sends us this gloss on Klement Gottwald, Stalinist cabinet-maker and later President of Czechoslovakia, vis-a-vis the 1952 Christmas message noted by SE. IB] Gottwald instigated a series of purges, first to remove non-communists, later to remove some communists as well. Prominent Communists who became victims of these purges and were defendants in the Prague Trials included Rudolf SlÃnskÃ, the party's general secretary, Vlado Clementis (the Foreign Minister) and GustÃv HusÃk (the leader of an administrative body responsible for Slovakia), who was dismissed from office for "bourgeois nationalism". Clementis was executed in December 1952 and hundreds of other government officials were sent to prison. HusÃk was rehabilitated in 1960s and became Czechoslovak president in 1975.... Gottwald died in 1953, just five days after attending Stalin's funeral in Moscow on 9th of March, due to a burst artery brought about by prolonged heart disease, heavily affected by syphilis and strong alcoholism. In 1953, a mausoleum was initially erected for Gottwald at the site of Jan ÅiÅka monument in the district of ÅiÅkov, Prague. However in 1962 due to a botched embalming, the body had blackened and was decomposing. It was then removed and cremated.... In 2005 he was voted the Worst Czech in a ÄT poll (a programme under the BBC licence '100 Greatest Britons' ). He received 26% of votes. [Wikipedia] ----------------- Speech by the Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak government December 24, 1952 In my Christmas speech I would like to speak first of all to those gathered at the Christmas Eve table: our children and youth. You, who are growing up, do not even notice how many things have changed recently. Not even the legendary Christmas has remained unchanged. The Christmas trees are still shining, everyone is waiting for gifts, but the creche that used to be an indispensable part of the celebration is disappearing. The creche with baby Jesus had to be present in every household even if only cut out of paper and placed on moss. Baby Jesus, lying in the stable on the straw beside a donkey and an ox and the star of Bethlehemabove, were the symbols of the Christmas of past times. Why? They were supposed to remind the miserable working people that the poor belong in a stable. If Jesus could be born and live in a stable, then why could you not live there and your children be born there? This is how the rich and powerful spoke of the poor and the working people. That is why, in the times of the capitalist domination, when the rich were in power and the poor worked hard, workers lived in pigsties and their children were born there. But times have changed. Many things changed. Baby Jesus grew up and got old, he turned into Father Frost with the beard. He is no longer naked and in rags, but he is dressed up in a fur coat and fur cap. Our workers and their children are no longer naked and in rags. Father Frost comes from the East and his road is illuminated not only by the Star of Bethlehem but also by many stars which shine on mines, steel mills, factories and construction sites. It is with pride that these red stars announce that your fathers and mothers have fulfilled the goals set up in Gottwald's five-year plan... |