Distinctive footprint.
Every evening, around 8 o'clock, thousands of listeners intently listened to the carefully prepared, perfectly censored and skillfully edited audio recordings from the courtroom. The year was 1950, it was June, and the Czechoslovak judiciary of that time was just leaving a distinctive mark on the history of the country. The staged trial, preceded by a series of trials, rehearsals and consultations with Soviet advisors, was heading towards its conclusion, in which shocking verdicts were to be delivered. In the then Czechoslovak parliament, after the free elections held in May 1946, the Communist deputies had the majority. The general mood of Czechoslovak society is illustrated by the thousands of signatures on various resolutions demanding severe punishment for the enemies of the new regime. The existence and exposure of a rogue organised group was a rather logical part of a complex period which, although it had historical parallels, was in many ways quite original. A whole lot of Czechoslovak citizens believed that after fascism and the world war nothing worse could come. They were ready to defend the peace and the joyful future they had won. The Communist propaganda played on this string, spouting dozens of articles before the trial began, which for many Czechoslovak citizens were the only source of information about current events. The organisers of the trial appointed Milada Horáková as the head of the resistance group. To maintain a semblance of balance, three more men were chosen for absolute punishment, namely Jan Buchal, Oldřich Pecl and Záviš Kalandra. Despite intense pressure, especially from international scientific circles, President Klement Gottwald refused to grant the convicts clemency and the executions were carried out without delay. The trial itself is a terrible proof of the danger of communism and the ideas and ideas associated with it. Equally alarming is the fact that even a relatively advanced society does not have the instruments to stop or at least greatly slow down the implementation of the ideas of dictators, mad leaders, leaders of all kinds and perverse ideologies. Just listening and watching is simply not enough to make anyone afraid of the consequences of their actions. Propaganda, marketing, posters, letters, radio, but also television, the internet, social networks and chain emails form a social consciousness that decides much, enables much and completes much. Trials, hazing, bullying or manipulation in which life or health, whether of self, family or loved ones, is at stake are part of it.
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