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Immediately after Slansky’s trial [28], in February 1953, Vlado and I returned to Prague. The management of the radio in Moscow assumed that I could have problems due to the trials that had just taken place, because during the trial they hung and shot most significant functionaries of Jewish origin. That’s why they sent a letter praising me from Moscow to the Czechoslovak ministry. Upon my return I wanted to return to Pravda as an editor. In Moscow, besides working in radio, I had been a correspondent for the Bratislava offices of Pravda. When I told the Party’s central committee that I wanted to return as an editor, they said: “No! You’ve worked in Moscow. You’ll get a position of responsibility.” I said: “I’m not a functionary, but a journalist.” But in short, nothing could be done, they stuck me into the position of deputy to the director of Czechoslovak Radio in Slovakia, in charge of programming. I was in charge of music, literature, politics, children’s programming. In other words, everything. It was a very responsible position. I didn’t like some organizational aspects that had dominated there up until then. For example, up until my arrival, there hadn’t been any record library. I basically founded it there. I remained in the position of first deputy until the year 1956.
After Stalin’s death in 1953, an overall relaxation took place. Khrushchev [29] needed to get international cooperation moving. It was also necessary to activate the international radio organization, OIR, which had offices in Prague. In 1956 they made me the General Secretary of OIR in Prague. Its members were radio stations in socialist countries, plus two non-socialist ones, Egyptian and Finnish radio. My task was to get it going. I consider organization to be creative work, and I have to say that I was successful in organizing cooperation and the exchange of programs and experiences of member as well as non-member radio stations.
In the meantime I had remarried. My wife worked for the Academy of Sciences. She was probably the one most afflicted by my work. Because during a time span of three years, I wasn’t at home for 220 days. I traveled to many countries, organized meetings. Finally in 1959 we returned from Prague to Bratislava, where I became editor-in-chief of political broadcasts of Slovak Radio. I worked there until 1963, when I applied for the position of teacher at the Department of Journalism at Comenius University. I won the competition.
In 1968, as a teacher at the Department of Journalism, I took part in a conference on information and international relations in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. My paper got a good reception. At the conference I was approached by the rector of the Munich Academy for Television and Film. He proposed that I come lecture at their university. In those days they were leading very stormy discussions with their leftist students. I told him to send the invitation to the Department of Journalism, and that the department will pass it on to the Minister of Education. If he agrees, I’ll gladly accept the invitation. During that time [30] the entire procedure wasn’t very complicated. It went relatively quickly and if I’m not mistaken, during the winter semester of 1969/70 I was already working in Munich. I was very much surprised by the students at that school. They were fanatical Communists. Their idols were Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Of course there were also some opponents of Communist regimes to be found. My task was to familiarize them with socialist theories of journalistic sciences. My work connected with lectures as well as informal meetings with students in Munich was good, from the viewpoint of the school’s management. I’d say also successful. I think that those students expected a more radical and leftist attitude from a person from Communist Czechoslovakia. They, on the other hand, surprised me that radical leftists were returning to the era before the Great October Revolution, when the issue of free love had been an oft-discussed theme. Vulgarly put, their attitude was one of everyone doing it with everyone. Apparently it was related to the fact that they were returning to early times, when besides revolutionary ideas carried by the ideal of justice, the fight against ossified customs and conventions was being formulated. The students imagined it as completely uncontrolled and uncontrollable freedom. About the same as we see today, when even people without any sort of responsibility are in important positions.
After Stalin’s death in 1953, an overall relaxation took place. Khrushchev [29] needed to get international cooperation moving. It was also necessary to activate the international radio organization, OIR, which had offices in Prague. In 1956 they made me the General Secretary of OIR in Prague. Its members were radio stations in socialist countries, plus two non-socialist ones, Egyptian and Finnish radio. My task was to get it going. I consider organization to be creative work, and I have to say that I was successful in organizing cooperation and the exchange of programs and experiences of member as well as non-member radio stations.
In the meantime I had remarried. My wife worked for the Academy of Sciences. She was probably the one most afflicted by my work. Because during a time span of three years, I wasn’t at home for 220 days. I traveled to many countries, organized meetings. Finally in 1959 we returned from Prague to Bratislava, where I became editor-in-chief of political broadcasts of Slovak Radio. I worked there until 1963, when I applied for the position of teacher at the Department of Journalism at Comenius University. I won the competition.
In 1968, as a teacher at the Department of Journalism, I took part in a conference on information and international relations in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. My paper got a good reception. At the conference I was approached by the rector of the Munich Academy for Television and Film. He proposed that I come lecture at their university. In those days they were leading very stormy discussions with their leftist students. I told him to send the invitation to the Department of Journalism, and that the department will pass it on to the Minister of Education. If he agrees, I’ll gladly accept the invitation. During that time [30] the entire procedure wasn’t very complicated. It went relatively quickly and if I’m not mistaken, during the winter semester of 1969/70 I was already working in Munich. I was very much surprised by the students at that school. They were fanatical Communists. Their idols were Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Of course there were also some opponents of Communist regimes to be found. My task was to familiarize them with socialist theories of journalistic sciences. My work connected with lectures as well as informal meetings with students in Munich was good, from the viewpoint of the school’s management. I’d say also successful. I think that those students expected a more radical and leftist attitude from a person from Communist Czechoslovakia. They, on the other hand, surprised me that radical leftists were returning to the era before the Great October Revolution, when the issue of free love had been an oft-discussed theme. Vulgarly put, their attitude was one of everyone doing it with everyone. Apparently it was related to the fact that they were returning to early times, when besides revolutionary ideas carried by the ideal of justice, the fight against ossified customs and conventions was being formulated. The students imagined it as completely uncontrolled and uncontrollable freedom. About the same as we see today, when even people without any sort of responsibility are in important positions.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Jozef W.