Thirty-three percent of Czechs think that a totalitarian political establishment with the absence of free elections would be a good choice for our republic. Research by the non-political non-governmental organization Globsec from Bratislava shows this.
Researchers in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe dealt with several topics. Mainly Putin’s war or the (dis)advantages of NATO membership. More than a thousand people also asked if they would like to live in a dictatorship without free elections. Only Slovaks and Romanians fared worse than Czechs. Authoritarianism would be welcomed by 36 percent of the population there.
“A totalitarian regime without free elections is good for our country.” That’s how the answer was formulated, with which a third of the respondents from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia agreed. The researchers asked in general terms. Not specifically a communist, socialist or even Nazi government monopoly.
With our geopolitical experience, the monstrosity of totality is best remembered by Bolshevism. Unlike the Nazis, many of us still vividly remember the communists. However, before we look at the official statistics of ideological murders, I will explain why I find the result of the poll so unbearable in particular.
My name is Jan after my godfather. He lost his leg in a communist camp, where he was imprisoned for purely political reasons. I have that extremely likeable man from Adamov, from the South Moravian ravine where blockhouses towered in the background of the church, vaguely recorded in the family’s cultural memory, always smiling. They didn’t get him.
The Bolsheviks confiscated the farm, forests and fields from the second branch of our family. To this day, it has not been possible to fully restore them to their original polished splendor after the communist looting. My grandmother always despised lazy and sleazy communists. From a classy girl who whizzed through the Krkonoše landscape on a moped, she became, without the slightest bitterness, the loving wife of a small-town school teacher. Not even the red crooks took away her joy in life.
I understand that quite a few people are economically frustrated today. But no one, and I would like to insist on this, can say that this is happening because of his political or other opinions. On the contrary, the state is so benevolent that even the biggest liars, about whom we have repeatedly reported and who spread dangerous misinformation purely for the sake of money, are still free.
Of course, we can hypocritically rejoice that, according to the same survey, 65 percent of us do not want totalitarianism (two percent have no opinion). That third, however, I repeat, at least for me, is so horrible that it is worth paying attention to.
Specifically in the area, the former Czechoslovakia, where the regime executed 248 people for “political crimes”. Where eight thousand human beings died for political opinions in prisons and camps. And where at least 450 people were killed trying to flee across the border. And where they deprived my godfather of his leg. And my grandmother’s family for the work built up by many generations.
I am not talking about the damage that Bolshevism did to the moral constitution of the nation. Even 35 years after the revolution, our spines are not completely straightened. And the call for a new totality is already being heard. Considering the current state of domestic politics, probably non-communist. Nevertheless, it is an ominous, disillusioning, depressing tendency. And stupid.
Tags: Gloss Czechs totalitarianism
