Czech Regime Topples : Jakes, Politburo Quit After Weeklong Massive Protests : Dubcek Returns in Triumph

Milos Jakes and the rest of his hard-line Communist leadership resigned today after an unprecedented week of massive pro-democracy protests that had urged them to quit.

While the shaken Communist Party Central Committee met in emergency session, Alexander Dubcek, the “Prague Spring” reformer Jakes ousted in 1968 after a Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, made a triumphant return to the capital before 300,000 cheering and flag-waving protesters.

“An old wise man said: ‘If there once was light, why should there be darkness again?’ Let us act in such a way to bring the light back again,” Dubcek told the jubilant crowd in Wenceslas Square.

Later, upon hearing word of the resignation of the entire Politburo, Dubcek and top dissidents at a news conference in a theater jumped to their feet, shouted “Hurrah!” and hugged each other for joy.

Jakes was the third East Bloc leader to fall from power in a little more than a month as support for the reforms instituted by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev gains momentum.

The resignations were offered at a closed-door session of the Central Committee, which was expected to approve them without delay. A new leadership will be elected by secret ballot, said the state-run news agency, CTK.

Jakes said the party had not instituted reforms quickly enough and had underestimated the effect of the pro-democracy movement sweeping Eastern Europe.

Czechoslovakia’s leaders, who were installed after Warsaw Pact tanks crushed Dubcek’s reform movement in 1968, had resisted most of the reforms adopted by their formerly hard-line Communist allies.

Since Nov. 17, hundreds of thousands of people have filled the streets of Prague and other cities demanding democratic reforms and the end of the Communist monopoly on power. They have been the largest demonstrations in the nation’s history.

“For a week, our capital lives in a feverish atmosphere accompanied by large demonstrations,” CTK quoted Jakes as saying. “The tension is gradually spreading to other places in the republic. We must openly say that our country is at a fatal crossroads.”

“We have underestimated completely the processes taking place in Poland, Hungary and especially recently in East Germany and their effect and influence on our society,” said Jakes, who was responsible for the expulsion from the party of half a million Communists, including Dubcek.

Dubcek, 67, made his first public appearance in Prague since the party purge in June, 1970. Since his ouster, he has worked as a low-level employee of the state forestry services and has lived in virtual seclusion.

“Dubcek, Dubcek!” and “Long live Dubcek!” the crowd yelled as he appeared in Wenceslas Square, the site of repeated pro-democracy demonstrations. He urged them to unite to improve the country.

“The ideal of socialism with a human face is living in the conditions of a new generation,” Dubcek said. “We must unify to raise our country to a higher level.”