- Being a Communist Party boss is a risky job, writes Jan Jandourek in the Sept. 14 Mladá fronta Dnes, in reaction to Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Chairman Miroslav Grebeníček's announced resignation. Historically, the heads of the Czech Communist Party have ended up badly. Bohumil Jílek, its general secretary during the '20s, was forced to resign and then excluded from the party. His successor, Klement Gottwald, died in 1953, at the height of his power, but obsessed by fears of Stalin, addicted to alcohol, and suffering from illness and perhaps even from a bad conscience because he had ordered many of his old friends executed. One of them was none other than the party general secretary, Rudolf Slánský, falsely accused of being a traitor. Antonín Novotný, who led the party from 1953 to 1968, was forced to resign and live out his days in obscurity. Alexandr Dubček, the reformist leader of 1968, met the same fate, though he enjoyed a few moments of glory after the revolution of 1989 (before dying in a car crash in 1992). Gustáv Husák, party leader during the normalization era of '70s and '80s, was expelled from the party after the revolution and died, totally forgotten, in 1991. The communist leader during the months before the 1989 revolution, Milouš Jakeš, was also expelled after 1989 and can still be seen at May Day rallies, a lonely man sitting under a parasol, trying to sell his memoirs. In the early '90s movie director Jiří Svoboda attempted to reform the party unsuccessfully before being forced to leave it. Since then, it's been led by Miroslav Grebeníček. After 12 years, it is his turn now. His comrades will certainly thank him, but he still leaves the impression of a bitter and misunderstood leader who has to be sacrificed. A strange party with a strange history, concludes Jandourek, adding a piece of advice: If they ever offer you the leader post, think twice about it.