Ex-Czech Leader Departs From Prepared Text in Italy : Dubcek Softens Expected Tough Talk

At the last minute, former Czechoslovak reform leader Alexander Dubcek did not read the bitter attack on the Prague government he had prepared for delivery at a university here Sunday.

In the prepared text, Dubcek said that the 20 years since Warsaw Pact tanks crushed his “Prague Spring” reforms have been marked by “worsening economic stagnation, sterility and incalculable moral losses.”

But in giving the address in the Slovak language, Dubcek radically shortened his talk, cutting out almost all political references. He made the speech while receiving an honorary political science degree from Bologna’s 900-year-old university--the reason for his first visit abroad in 18 years.

Time Constraints

Political science faculty head Guido Gambetta, who accompanied Dubcek by car from Czechoslovakia on Friday, said the speech was cut for time reasons.

“Certainly it stands. It is all his text. It has been distributed to the press,” Gambetta said.

The Italian text of Dubcek’s speech was issued to journalists Saturday. It was also distributed to 1,000 guests at a ceremony Sunday.

And university officials insisted that the statement stands despite the cuts.

After presenting Dubcek with the degree, Rector Fabio Roversi Monaco told the audience that although Dubcek only read excerpts of his 11-page speech, he wanted the entire document released, the Associated Press reported.

Dubcek refused to answer questions from journalists about the speech after a meeting with Bologna Mayor Renzo Imbeni.

But later, in a TV discussion, Dubcek called the 1968 Soviet-led invasion a “grave error.” He defended his decision to urge Czechoslovaks not to offer armed resistance.

Dubcek, 66, wearing a university gown trimmed with white fur and a purple silk sash, was clearly deeply moved by the university ceremony.

In the prepared text, the former leader--who has expressed fears about his return home after the 10-day visit to Italy--contrasted the hopes of “socialism with a human face” in 1968 to the “trauma” of Czechoslovakia since then.

Dubcek, who lives in Bratislava, is retired from a lowly job in a forestry department office that was assigned to him after he was stripped of his Communist Party membership in 1970.