EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCER

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02882315
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: September 24, 2019
• Case Number: F-2018-00903
• Publication Date: May 13, 1968

Approved for Release: 2019/08/02 CO2882315
CON I'l DEN I 1AL
105 EASTERN EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCER
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Visits Czechoslovakia
OCI #0717/68
13 May 1968
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Marko Nikezic voiced Yugo-
slavia's "special interest and sympathies" for current
events in Czechoslovakia on his arrival in Prague on 13 May.
Nikezic's visit will precede by a few days that of Yugo-
slav Deputy Premier Kiro Gligorov, the guiding hand behind
Belgrade's economic reform. The visits probably signal
the start of closer cooperation between the two regimes.
Nikezic undoubtedly will advise the reformist Czechoslovak
regime on ways to deal with Soviet, Polish, and East German
Pressure as well as ways Belgrade might help.
Bulgarian Leadership Examines Drought Areas
At least six top Bulgarian party leaders fanned out to
various okrugs over the weekend for a first hand examination
of the effects of the drought. Bulgarian officials have de-
scribed the drought to US embassy officers as the worst in
memory. On 10 May Sofia Radio admitted that the loss of grain
crops in one okrug alone (there are 28 okrugs) will amount
to 15 million leva (2 leva=US $1). The Bulgarian leadership
undoubtedly is concerned over the unsettling effects of the
drought on the populace who are already discontented over
the Tanuary rise in consumer prices.
Yugoslav Church-State Conflict
Party leaders in predominantly Catholic Slovenia and
Croatia, alarmed over the recent upsurge of religious in-
fluence there, have recently taken steps to curb political
discussion in the church.
An editor of a Zagreb newspaper has been sentenced to
nine months imprisonment for his articles concerning religious
societies in socialist countries, and a religious monthly
has been banned for criticizing the regime's stance on Vietnam
and the treatment of Jews in the USSR. The Croatian mass
organization (the Socialist Workers' Alliance) recently pro-
posed at a meeting on 18 March that its members form committees
GROUP I
Excluded from automatic down-
grading and declassification
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to deal with religious matters at local levels.
A Slovenian Catholic priest, Ivan Petrie, was tried
and convicted last October for allegedly using religion
for political purposes. He had eulogized a young Yugoslav
killed fighting in the US army in Vietnam as having fallen
in a "holy and just cause". This was the first such trial
in many years, and was a sudden departure from the careful
treatment accorded Catholic officials since Belgrade re-
newed quasi-diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1966.
Slovenian and Croatian Party officials, a large number
of whom have favored a benevolent attitude toward Catholi-
cism, now find themselves fighting an uphill battle to cur-
tail the rapid reassertion of church influence, especially
among the young people. Unless the republic parties are
willing to resort to more repressive measures however,--
which is unlikely--the steps already taken or proposed
will probably have little effect in curbing the spread of
religious influence.
Czechoslovak Minister of Heavy Industry Speaks Against Strikes
Increasing wage demands backed by strikes in Pisek,
Opava, and other places are unfounded, according to Minister
Krejci.
Speaking at a meeting of Slovak enterprise managers,
Krejci also condemned the apparent informal creation of
"groups of producers according to their branch interests."
He said that the official transition to a new organizational
arrangement of companies would be effected as of 1 January
1969, but would, in exceptional cases, be implemented
on 1 July this year.
Kreici's message seems to be "wait for us."
Hungary To Send Four-Five Thousand More Workers To The GDR
Jozsef Rozsa, manpower chief of the Hungarian Ministry
of Labor, announced on 4 May that Hungary would send four to
five thousand more laborers to the GDR in 1968. Last
year Hungary sent three thousand unskilled workers to the
GDR for a three year apprenticeship. Apparently the arrange-
ment proved satisfactory for both countries.
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Rozsa disaayed some sensitivity to charges that un-
employment in Hungary is behind this arrangement. He
countered such charges with the claim that some Hungarian
industries were complaining of labor shortages. It is
probably true that Hungarian industries could use more
skilled laborers but there are few job prospects for un-
skilled youths in Hungary.
Gyorgy Lukacs Strikes Again
Gyorgy Lukacs, Hungary's foremost Marxist philosopher,
is again tweeking the noses of would-be ideologists in the
Hungarian party leadership. In an article in the literary
journal Kortars, Lukacs replied to a recent attack on his-
theories by Gyorgy Aczel, the regime's cultural watchdog,
by calling for the elimination of "slightly improved and
modernized dogmm, and the uncritical adoption of even the
most stupid Western crazes."
Lukacs, whose communist credentials date from the Bela
Kun regime of 1919, has been a constant embarrassment to the
Kadar regime. In 1956 he joined Imre Nagy's cabinet and was
subsequently excommunicated. Even though Lukacs refused to
publicly repent, he was readmitted to the party last year,
although with the clear understanding that his readmission
did not imply party approval of his theories.
Recently, Lukacs published several articles in foreign
magazines attacking both Stalinist die-hards and the desertion
of Marxist principles. On 27 April, Aczel published a
pettifogging attack on Lukacs' formulas which, far from dis-
crediting them, only gave them increased publicity and be-
gan a dialogue in which Aczel can only come out second
best.
NOTE: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ABOVE REPRESENT
ONLY THE ANALYSIS OF THE EE DIVISION
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