Stanislav Polnar

Abstract

The communist coup in 1948 brought a pivotal change in Czechoslovakia’s legal policy related to the possibility of leaving the country freely. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) did not understand this option as a matter of a free citizen’s choice – in contrast, it considered the maximum possible restriction of this principal human right to be a principal interest of the society. The reasons stemmed from ideological, security and economic considerations. Without a doubt, the political stance of the Soviet Union – which took a resolutely negative stance to the option of leaving one’s home country – played a role as well. All of the factors eventually showed in the legal policy, legislation and the application of law by Czechoslovak authorities. First, it was the matter of passport and emigration agenda, with the unusual involvement of security authorities including the State Security (StB). This institutional measure opened up the opportunity for transferring cases from administrative to penal law. After 1948, penal regulations treated unauthorised desertion of the republic as a crime against the country, rather than as an administrative offence. Logically, investigation was on the agenda of StB. The socialist security law also de‑ fined the modus operandi of the Czechoslovak national border. It gave broad authorisations to the Border Guard including the use of firearms on citizens leaving the country without authorisation. By the same token, the border was “secured” using equipment that actually killed hundreds of people. Not all of the successful émigrés stayed abroad permanently. Some of them came back to Czechoslovakia for various reasons, exposing themselves to penal repression and permanent police surveillance. The state tried to attract émigrés back using periodical campaigns promising them no punishment under amnesty. The great majority of the people who left in 1948 and 1968 did not avail themselves of this apparent act of good will, staying abroad permanently. Then, the regime at least seized the property they left behind. In effect, attempts at leaving the socialist Czechoslovakia were acts of civic courage that involved many severe consequences, and as such they deserve admiration.