Protests Ease but Czech Leaders Face New Threat

This country’s hard-line Stalinist government faced less pressure from the streets Saturday, but it was virtually cast adrift by Moscow in a development that Western diplomats said leaves it weakened and practically isolated from its allies.

A new Soviet move insisting on a full re-evaluation of the events surrounding the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia could fatally undermine the regime of Czechoslovak leader Milos Jakes, diplomats believe.

“It is a kiss goodby,” said one Western diplomat. “It’s a separation.”

Another said: “This is an announcement and a threat. It’s a regime that’s doomed.”

The 1968 invasion by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops crushed the so-called Prague Spring reform movement that sought some of the changes now taking place in Eastern Europe. It brought the present Czechoslovak hard-liners to power, and any questioning of that period would seriously weaken Jakes’ control over the party, diplomats believe.

The announcement of the review was made in the official Czechoslovak Communist Party newspaper Rude Pravo. It came after Jan Fojtik, the Czechoslovak party’s leading ideologist, returned from a hastily arranged trip to Moscow.

A statement made in the name of Fojtik and his Soviet counterpart, Vadim A. Medvedev, said: “The two men discussed their countries’ histories . . . including 1968.”

” . . . Without a thorough analysis of the past, it is not possible to set clear intentions and objectives for the future,” the announcement added.

This sign of a Soviet hand in the situation here is significant because it is widely believed that Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev played a personal role in the removal of Stalinist leaders in East Germany and Bulgaria during the past month.

Largely because of the purge that followed the 1968 invasion, few Czechoslovak Communist reformers remain in senior party positions.

However, diplomats noted that Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec has recently spoken more forcefully about the need for political change in Czechoslovakia, a move some interpreted as suggesting a possible alternative to Jakes.

Meanwhile, about 1,500 demonstrators marched Saturday through downtown Prague, shouting “Freedom! Freedom!” while others called for a series of strikes to press their demands for political change.

The size and mood of Saturday’s protest, however, raised questions about whether Czechoslovakia’s political opposition is prepared for a prolonged confrontation with the government in the streets.

Demonstrators and bystanders whistled and broke into a rhythmic, taunting applause when riot police appeared, but they quickly dispersed after singing the Czechoslovak national anthem.

There was no violence.

The protest was only a small echo of Friday’s major student demonstration that ended with police systematically splitting up parts of the crowd, then brutally beating demonstrators and assaulting others, including reporters.

Saturday’s demonstration ended in the same street where Friday’s violence occurred, with protesters placing candles at a small, makeshift shrine where they said one student had died in the Friday violence.

A sign next to several candles said, “On this place last night an unarmed student was killed.” There was no way to verify the assertion.

During the protest, some students talked of possible strikes at the city’s large Charles University. Students and others spoke of trying to mount a general strike later this month.

Some actors also pledged to strike Monday, a development that would disrupt an important and visible part of the capital’s cultural life.

But there were signs that the Czechoslovak hard-liners now may be under greater pressure from within their own institutions than from the streets.

In addition to Moscow’s dramatic move, there are indications of restlessness within the Czechoslovak Communist Party.

One source linked to the party’s Central Committee spoke of heated shouting matches among members who usually are careful to hide their differences.

The party’s official youth paper Youth Front criticized authorities for failing to properly explain the government’s problems and urged the official Union of Student Youth to fight on behalf of those who believe “they have been unjustly persecuted”--a reference to those students beaten by police Friday night.

Even the small, usually docile officially sanctioned political parties have begun to stir, openly criticizing the Communist leadership.

The newspaper People’s Democracy, published by the Czechoslovak People’s Party, a Catholic group, reported some of the provocative banners carried by students in Friday’s demonstration and criticized police for ordering the students to disperse but then blocking their path of retreat.

The first major appearance of students on the streets in protest against the government is seen as a highly significant development.

In interviews, Czechoslovak students and other young people expressed anger and frustration after Friday’s police crackdown.

“The mood is very different now,” a 21-year-old civil engineering student commented. “When you see an adult man beating a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, the authorities have little left.

“We’ve seen from Poland, Hungary and East Germany that things can be done now,” this student added. “It’s going to grow and grow.”

Students have not previously played an active role in anti-government protest in Czechoslovakia. There are an estimated 45,000 students in the Czechoslovak capital.

Students have been afraid to demonstrate because they could risk their future in a society where authorities control both the university places and most jobs open to university graduates.

Some argue that Friday’s demonstration was a watershed that gave students a firsthand taste of the regime’s repressive measures and that they will now become active.

Others, however, noted that while the demonstration quickly turned into an anti-government protest, it had initially been given official sanction, to commemorate the death of a Czechoslovak youth killed in 1939 resisting the country’s then-Nazi occupiers.

How many students will now be willing to take to the streets illegally remains unclear.

Some people believe that test might come next Sunday in a large Mass planned to celebrate a new patron saint in this staunchly Roman Catholic country.

Another possible rallying point for students would be Dec. 8, the ninth anniversary of the death of British rock star John Lennon, a cult figure in Czechoslovakia, especially among its youth.