Communism Czechoslovakia

PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia--As this nation's revolution moves from the street to the negotiating table, the extent of communism's failure here has taken on a new dimension. At every turn, the Communist Party and those who lead it seem incapable of responding to events. With each day, its power seems to ebb further as the political momentum accelerates toward the country's 2 1/2-week-old opposition group, Civic Forum.

Magdi Pinter was only 16 when a secret policeman's knock heralded what was to become a lifelong odyssey of oppression. Whisked off on an autumn day in the first months after World War II, the schoolgirl disappeared into a nether world of torture, interrogation and absurd accusations. She was forced to confess to treason and served eight years in Siberian labor camps before learning that her crime had been her acquaintance with a boy caught trying to escape the nightmare of postwar Hungary.

Magdi Pinter was only 16 when a secret policeman's knock heralded what was to become a lifelong odyssey of oppression. Whisked off on an autumn day in the first months after World War II, the schoolgirl disappeared into a nether world of torture, interrogation and absurd accusations. She was forced to confess to treason and served eight years in Siberian labor camps before learning that her crime had been her acquaintance with a boy caught trying to escape the nightmare of postwar Hungary.

He was a beloved king, Wenceslas, sainted and celebrated in song and story, elevated to Czechoslovakia's throne in 922 in a popular uprising against an anti-religious tyrant who had seized power by force and murder. A statue of the good king presides over Prague's historic gathering place, Wenceslas Square, where 10 days of huge protest marches culminated Nov. 17 in the overthrow of another dictatorship and the choice of another leader named Wenceslas.

He was a beloved king, Wenceslas, sainted and celebrated in song and story, elevated to Czechoslovakia's throne in 922 in a popular uprising against an anti-religious tyrant who had seized power by force and murder. A statue of the good king presides over Prague's historic gathering place, Wenceslas Square, where 10 days of huge protest marches culminated Nov. 17 in the overthrow of another dictatorship and the choice of another leader named Wenceslas.

The removal of Gustav Husak, the hard-line Czechoslovak Communist who was installed in power at the points of Soviet bayonets almost 20 years ago, obviously reflects the wishes of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev. There is ample evidence that Gorbachev found Husak out of step with the reformist policies that are now being pushed by the Kremlin. However, it is not at all clear that Milos Jakes, Husak's successor, is really capable of leadership in the Gorbachev image.

Encounter Essays Milan Kundera, translated from the French by Linda Asher Harper: 192 pp., $23.99 "Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself?" Milan Kundera asks this question in writing about the painter Francis Bacon, one of many cultural figures he addresses in his commanding, compelling new collection of essays, "Encounter. " It's a question that resonates throughout the book. To what degree can we be distorted by violence and fear — in short, by history — and still be ourselves?

As hard-line communism in Czechoslovakia went into its death throes last week, an eerie quiet fell over Mlada Boleslav, an industrial town just northeast of Prague. Soviet troops, stationed here since 1968, simply disappeared. "They went inside and stayed there for days," Oldrich Kubala, an editor at the regional newspaper Zar (Light), told a visitor.

Hundreds of thousands of Czechoslovaks underscored their repudiation of communism here Saturday with a jubilant salute to Pope John Paul II, who had championed their rights when they could not. "Today we stand before the ruins of one of the many towers of Babel in human history," the Pope said as an epitaph for four decades of failed communism in Czechoslovakia.

Dawn Staley should know Olga Connolly. They should be close friends, have dinner occasionally so they can inspire each other. To be sure, they are worlds apart. Connolly is 70, grew up under the politics of Communism in Czechoslovakia and won her fame as a discus thrower. Staley is 34, grew up under the politics of survival in North Philadelphia and won her fame as a basketball player.

PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia--As this nation's revolution moves from the street to the negotiating table, the extent of communism's failure here has taken on a new dimension. At every turn, the Communist Party and those who lead it seem incapable of responding to events. With each day, its power seems to ebb further as the political momentum accelerates toward the country's 2 1/2-week-old opposition group, Civic Forum.

Markiza Television made a big splash in December with a report that Slovak President Rudolf Schuster was briefly kidnapped last summer during a family vacation in Brazil by Indians demanding ransom. "We were held captive," Schuster told a reporter for the private Slovak network. "We did not know why and for what. While this was happening, the Indian who had invited us and the chief who had imprisoned us started up a quarrel, and I thought they would even begin to fight each other."

Madeleine Albright was 2 years old when her parents whisked her out of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, less than two weeks after the Nazi occupation, and gave up their life as a prominent Czech diplomatic family and said goodbye to many relatives. Eventually, she and her parents came to America, where Albright followed her father's footsteps into a diplomatic career that culminated two weeks ago when President Clinton made her the first female secretary of State.