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In Between Sympathies and Loyalty the French Communist Party and the Prague Spring

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In Between Sympathies and Loyalty the French Communist Party and the Prague Spring In between Sympathies and Loyalty The French Communist Party and the Prague Spring Michaela Kůželová The offi cial response by French Communists to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968 is deemed to be the fi rst instance ever that the French Communist Party (Parti communiste français) decided to publicly refuse to support an international action by the Soviet Union.1 The close of the Prague Spring coincided with the French Communist Party coming to terms with the consequences of the mass demonstrations in France in May 1968.2 For most Party members the initial rejection of the invasion was a popular decision.3 From the perspective of the years that followed, 1968 seemed to be a success for the French Communist Party, at least in terms of membership growth. According to data provided by Philippe Buton, in 1969 the Party had approximately 380,000 members, which was about a 30,000 increase on 1967.4 The support rendered to Alexander Dubček and the Prague Spring, however, was not entirely straightforward. The subsequent rejection of the August invasion proved quite inconsistent as well. 1 Compare LAZAR, Marc: Le communisme: Une passion française. Paris, Perrin 2005, p. 39. 2 The student and workers’ unrest in France in May 1968 led to the empowerment of the radical Left, inter alia, to the detriment of the FCP which, failing to assume control over the protests, had distanced itself from them. 3 See BELL, David Scott: The French Communist Party in the Fifth Republic. Oxford, Clarendon Press 1994, p. 94. 4 Compare COURTOIS, Stéphane – LAZAR, Marc: Histoire du Parti communiste français. Paris, Presses universitaires de France 2000, p. 357. 50 Czech Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. IV Some historians and others have studied the repercussions of the Prague Spring within the French Communist Party. Shortly after the August invasion, a number of books were published in France by French communist intellectuals and sympathisers with the “restoration movement” in Czechoslovakia.5 Somewhat later, the sociolo- gist Pierre Grémion analysed the reception of the events in Czechoslovakia within the French Left in general (not merely the communist Left).6 The Czech historian Karel Bartošek studied the relations between the French and Czechoslovak Com- munists. In his publication Les aveux des archives: Prague–Paris–Prague 1948–1968, Bartošek devotes quite an extensive chapter to this particular period.7 Nonetheless, besides his memories, he largely draws from Czechoslovak archives. The position of the French Communists is thus portrayed through the prism of the Czechoslovak Embassy in Paris. Recent years have also brought comparative perspectives on the theme: in her book, Maud Anne Bracke explores the response of French and Italian Communists to the Prague Spring, and the subsequent intervention.8 She focuses on the effect of the events in Czechoslovakia on the change in the understanding and strategy of internationalism within the French Communist Party and its Italian counterpart. The German historian Ulrich Pfeil studied the reception of the Prague Spring among East German and French Communists.9 Both older and more recent works on the history of the French Communist Party address its offi cial position on the Prague Spring and, particularly, on the August intervention.10 Most publications hitherto (apart from the Bracke monograph), however, did not draw from the recently opened archive of the French Communist Party. The presented study therefore aims to offer a further insight into the still prevailing perspective in historiography on the relations between French and Czechoslovak Communists in 1968 by shedding further light on the fi ndings concerning the internal material of the French Communist Party (hereafter the FCP). Based on the new evidence the study attempts to reconstruct the reaction to the Prague 5 Compare for example DAIX, Pierre: Journal de Prague: Décembre 1967 – Septembre 1968. Paris, Julliard 1968; GARAUDY, Roger: La liberté en sursis: Prague 1968. Paris, Fayard 1968; IDEM: Toute la vérité. Paris, Grasset 1970. 6 GRÉMION, Pierre: Paris–Prague: La gauche face au renouveau et à la régression tché- coslovaques (1968–1978). Paris, Julliard 1985. 7 BARTOŠEK, Karel: Zpráva o putování v komunistických archivech: Praha–Paříž (1948–1968) [A Report on The Pilgrimage through Communist Archives: Prague–Paris (1948–1968)]. Pra- ha – Litomyšl, Paseka 2000, pp. 219–231 (originally published in French: Les aveux des ar- chives: Prague–Paris–Prague 1948–1968. Paris, Seuil 1996). 8 BRACKE, Maud: Which Socialism? Whose Détente? West European Communism and the Czechoslovak Crisis, 1968. Budapest – New York, Central European University Press 2007 (published also in Italian the following year). 9 PFEIL, Ulrich: SED, PCF and The Prague Spring. In: Soudobé dějiny, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2001), pp. 58–75. 10 Compare for example ROBRIEUX, Philippe: Histoire intérieure du Parti communiste, Vol. 2: 1945–1972. Paris, Fayard 1981, p. 646; BELL, D. S.: The French Communist Party in the Fifth Republic, p. 93 n.; COURTOIS, S. – LAZAR, M.: Histoire du Parti communiste français, pp. 353–357. In between Sympathies and Loyalty 51 Spring at three different levels within the FCP: 1. by the Party leaders (offi cial reception), 2. among French communist intellectuals, and 3. within the Party rank and fi le. The reception within the fi rst two groups has already been explored and detailed quite extensively. Offi cial statements and communiques by FCP leaders were issued in the FCP daily L’Humanité. The views of intellectuals were printed in French (Communist Party) journals such as Les Lettres Françaises or Démocratie nouvelle and in their own books. Moreover, some of the internal documents from the FCP have also been published already.11 On the other hand, by and large, grass- roots members felt no urge to express their views, which had mainly been shaped by the Party leadership. The latter was conscious of its infl uence and therefore emphasised membership instruction, which also included an interpretation of the events in Czechoslovakia. Those among the rank and fi le who had spent time in Czechoslovakia reported their experiences to the FCP. Their accounts show how French nationals responded to the Prague Spring as well as on the information base used by the French Communist Party leadership to form its views on the events in Czechoslovakia. The sources also shed further light on the usual image of the fi rst two groups: transcripts of speeches given at sessions of the FCP Central Committee were no doubt published with some editorial intervention in terms of content, whilst the now accessible archive contains audio recordings of these addresses. Moreover, internal decisions taken at political bureau sessions and the Party Secretariat have not, for the most part, been accessible. In addition, the study examines Czechoslo- vak refl ections on the position adopted by the French Communists. In so doing, it draws largely on documents from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (hereafter CPC) preserved at the National Archive of the Czech Republic, on reports issued by the Czechoslovak Embassy in Paris available at the Archive of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, in some cases, on printed documentary series. Prague Spring: A Future for Czechoslovakia? French Communist Party circles began to discuss the Prague Spring as early as the mid-1960s. A piece of writing by Roger Garaudy from June 1963 is deemed to be the fi rst consideration of the theme.12 In his article published in Les Lettres Françaises and bearing the prophetic title “Kafka and the Prague Spring,” Garaudy highly commended the contribution made by a conference on Kafka in Liblice that had just ended: “The conference in Liblice and the respect that Prague has for Kafka 11 Compare FABIEN, Jean (ed.): Kremlin–PCF: Conversations secrètes. Paris, Olivier Orban 1984. 12 Roger Garaudy (1913–2012), philosopher and member of the CC FCP, expelled from the Party in 1970 for criticism of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia; he later turned to Catholicism and, in the early 1980s, converted to Islam, having expressed his ideological transformation, inter alia, by denying the Holocaust. 52 Czech Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. IV seemed to us like swallows signalling the arrival of spring.”13 It came as no surprise therefore that fi ve years later Garaudy was an enthusiastic supporter of the Prague Spring which had by then become an “offi cial” phenomenon. In his position as a member of the FCP Central Committee (hereafter the CC FCP) Garaudy thus stood on the side of the Czechoslovak reform Communists. He expressed his position, inter alia, during the sessions of the CC FCP. By the same token, he also subjected Antonín Novotný, First Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, to frequent criti- cism. For instance, in April 1968, Garaudy criticised the government of Antonín Novotný (who had by then stepped down) for excessive bureaucracy, the absence of democracy and a national policy that was detrimental to Slovakia. While on the one hand, Garaudy recognised that it was during Novotný’s administration that the restoration of justice began for those who had been unfairly sentenced during the show trials, on the other he was critical of the fact that those who had been responsible for the persecutions during the 1950s were often allowed to remain in their posts.14 The journalist and writer Pierre Daix was another French intellectual within the Party who, during the Prague Spring, publicly declared his support for Dubček’s leadership.15 In the spring of 1968, Daix published reports from Czechoslovakia in the communist-oriented revue Les Lettres Françaises. His defence of the libera- tion endeavour was explicit. On 20 March 1968, for instance, he attended a public gathering entitled “Youth Enquires” which was held in the Congress Palace at the Julius Fučík Culture and Leisure Park in the Prague district of Holešovice.
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