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Difference between Hungary and Czechia vis-à-vis Russia
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:date: 2022-10-08T11:13:08
:category: faith
:tags: review, blogComment, Czechoslovakia, Communism,
Normalization, justice, politics, sociology, EU,
convervatism
Comment on the Reddit thread “`Jana Černochová, Minister of
Defence of the Czech Republic, makes a statement`_”
and answer to the question by rocygapb_)
Why is Hungarys suffering a case of amnesia? What is
different between these countries that suffered soviet
occupation and violence?
There were so many differences (I am a Czech growing up in the
Communist Czechoslovakia of 1980s):
After the 1956 invasion the leaders of the regime (mostly the
Party members) were severely crushed, but after that the regime
was extremely lenient. Basically “don’t bother us and we won’t
bother you” kind of regime. There were small private enterprises
all over the country, contact with the West (e.g., Coke ads on
billboards in the middle of Budapest … I have never seen those in
Prague), not that difficult travelling regime (again, if you were
not a problem for the regime).
After 1968 the official name for the new policy was
Normalization_ which was less brutal (relatively smaller number
of people were imprisoned and there were almost no political
capital punishments here since 1950s) but much more
comprehensive.
Comparing to Hungary (and Poland) almost 100 % of all industry
and everything was state owned, so everybody could be controlled
through employment. EVERYBODY had to come in front of the
“control committee” (prověrková komise), which were in every
company, every theater, school, everywhere and you were asked
what you did during “the critical period” (i.e., the relative
freedom of the Prague Spring) and if it was something the
committee didn’t like you were fired, also EVERYBODY was asked
one critical question “What do you think about the brotherly help
from other socialist countries in August 1968?” … if you didn’t
approve (on record) the occupation, you were fired and became
almost unemployable. Remember, everybody has their file going
from employer to another employer, and if you were once
recognized as “enemy of socialism” (yes, there was a list, and
yes, my father was on it … fortunately, not of the highest rank,
but still) there was no way to get any decent job, your children
wouldn’t get into decent school, you driver’s license suddenly
expired, your passport couldn’t be published, etc. etc. The main
purpose of this was not to crush the opposition, but to `break
everybody’s conscience`_.
I remember meeting (still under the Communist times) with some
guy from Argentina (or Brazil … one of those South American
countries which were under the military junta regime) and he was
in awe how sophisticated and efficient this terror was. We had
almost perfectly locked borders, so the Communist here could be
must more sophisticated and less violent than in those military
dictatorships. So, there was no silent understanding in
Czechoslovakia … you were either them or us (however, vague the
definition was) and “us” hated “them” with a passion.
Also, the country was under visible and obvious Russian
occupation (there were always some 75,000 Soviet soldiers
stationed in Czechoslovakia). It happened regularly when driving
in the countryside that you met some Russian military convoy and
then you made sure to get out of their way, because they didn’t
slow and they didn’t care much about Czech cars. The hatred
towards Russians was much stronger here (and still is).
After the 1989 the regime change in Czechoslovakia (and now
Czechia and Slovakia) was much more thorough. Hungary spent a lot
of time trying some kind of “third way” between socialism and
capitalism resulting that most originally state-owned large
enterprises where half-stolen by their original Communist
managers and various other apparatchiks (now the pillars of the
Orbán’s regime), and Hungarian finances were thoroughly ruined.
There were many things done poorly during the transformation of
Czechoslovakia (and Czechia/Slovakia) in 1990s, but it is true
that the basic motto was “We want to be normal again!” (meaning
like in the Western Europe), there was never any attempt to
pretend that the Communist regime was anything else than horrible
mistake and crime.
Contrary to Czechoslovakia, in Hungary (and Poland) there was
never (although here it was rather controversial and quite
problematic) `clean sweep`_ of the state apparat from all former
Communists and Secret Police agents with results that plenty of
Hungarian (and Polish) politicians and government officials have
quite problematic history. It is getting worse even in Czechia
now (e.g., the former prime minister Babiš was among his other
sins also well-known Secret Police agent), but still I believe
that at least temporary clean separation improved situation here
a lot.
.. _`Jana Černochová, Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic, makes a statement`:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/xybpzl/jana_černochová_minister_of_defence_of_the_czech/
.. _rocygapb:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/xybpzl/comment/irgfrw7/
.. _Normalization:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_(Czechoslovakia)
.. _`clean sweep`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustration#In_Czechoslovakia_and_the_Czech_Republic
.. _`break everybody’s conscience`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Powerless
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