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Remnants of resistance

Institute reveals posters salvaged by mystery collector in 1968

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 29th, 2007 issue

Archive photo ISIFA/AKG
The spirit of liberalization that prompted Warsaw Pact troops to invade Prague Aug. 21, 1968, fueled the particular humor and pathos evident in the response to the uprising.
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VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
This poster, proclaiming 'paper and pencil - is my gun!' was one of many messages that were left.
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VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
The collection ranges from calls for revolution to dark-humored verse, testifying to what Jana Bachová calls the period's "colloquial creativity."
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In this poem, Brezhnev "flushed eternal friendship down the toilet."
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This poster, proclaiming 'paper and pencil - is my gun!' was one of many messages that were left.

Historian Jana Bachová fingers a table-size binder of yellowing posters. Some are scrawled on paper bakery bags, others carefully lettered in tri-colored ink, bearing the stamps of illegal printing presses. Their messages channel a spectrum of emotions, ranging from derogatory anti-Russian slurs and revolutionary slogans to humorist rhymes and sentimental poetry.
As a whole, they embody the “colloquial creativity” of a resistant nation, Bachová says.
“It’s an appellation to the people, urging them not to give up, telling them that all will end well.”
On Aug. 20, the Military History Institute in Prague revealed the 128 posters, which provide the latest example of the public’s spontaneous resistance against Warsaw Pact troops following the Aug. 21, 1968, invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The event marked the beginning of 20 years of Soviet control.
A librarian discovered the collection two years ago hidden within the institute’s archive of old military maps. According to Bachová, they had been salvaged by an unknown collector on the night of Aug. 26, five days into the occupation.
“The posters were found completely by accident during a reorganization of the archives,” Bachová says. “They were stashed away with the maps, where no one thought to poke around for quite some time.”
The back of each poster contains a handwritten label indicating the time it was found and the place it was taken from. According to these labels, the posters were gathered at around 2:30 a.m. from the upper part of Wenceslas Square, between the Hvězda arcade and the former House of Fashion (Dům módy).
Dodging patrols, the unknown collector retrieved the crumpled, tire-marked banners before they could be destroyed by Soviet soldiers.
“I’m sure the occupants would not have been pleased to see what [the collector] was doing,” Bachová says, pointing at a torn sign. “You can tell he was in a hurry.”
The identity of the collector remains a mystery. “Nobody has any idea who hid them here,” she says. “It was probably a former employee who had to leave the institute after 1968.”
Chronologically classified by typewritten labels, the collection bears the marks of hasty yet diligent organization. The handwritten additions are taped in the place of torn or missing fragments.
“Whoever it was, this person had the skills of a historian or librarian,” Bachová says.
While it’s possible that similar posters exist in smaller private collections, Bachová says the size and organization of the Military History Institute’s assemblage is unique.
“It’s exceptional that these posters survived, and in such a big number,” she says.
The posters will be on display at the Military History Museum next year as part of an exhibit commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Soviet occupation. Historians hope the exhibit will reveal the identity of the unknown collector.
“We’d be very interested to find out who put [the posters] here. We’re hoping that the person, if he or she is still alive, will come forward when we showcase them,” Bachová says.
Expressing both pathos and humor, the posters’ messages intended to mobilize the nation into various forms of passive resistance. One note urges youth to “Increase the sexual tension of the occupants: Kiss passionately in front of the deprived suckers.” Another advises pet owners to “hide [their] dogs and cats: The Russians are hungry.”
Lasting legacy
The events of August 1968 left a lasting imprint on the national conscience, says Military History Institute historian Jan Šach.
By sending Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, Soviet leaders aimed to thwart the Prague Spring, a nationalist movement to reform the socialist regime and lower the country’s dependence on the USSR.
According to Šach, the Prague Spring was a result of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s policy to speed up the progress of the Soviet bloc, which was falling behind the United States in the Cold War.
“To boost the ailing economy, Brezhnev recommended relaxing societal and economic constrictions,” Šach says.
Encouraged by the relaxation, architects of the Prague Spring began implementing weighty political reforms, propagating liberal rhetoric and unseating conservative communist officials.
The sweeping changes alarmed the Soviet leadership. “It became a threat that Czechoslovakia was going to become the next Yugoslavia, or, worse, the next Austria,” Šach says. “For strategic reasons, Brezhnev could not allow that to happen.”
The political upheaval in Czechoslovakia was an unwelcome development for both the USSR and the United States. According to Šach, both countries feared the movement would undermine negotiations around the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. “The Prague Spring was not in the cards for the Russians or the Americans,” he says.
After the invasion, Czechoslovak and Soviet leaders met in Moscow for a five-day session of talks. It was during this period of uncertainty that the recovered posters were created.
In a historical context, the passions and hopes expressed in the posters illustrate the naive ideology of the nation, Šach says. “People trusted their leadership — they believed that it was all going to end well, but their leaders were all staunch comrades. They revered Marxism and did whatever Moscow told them to do.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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