CZECHOSLOVAKIA: A Pact with Pavel

"Because we love you [President Gottwald], because we love the great Generalissimo Stalin, and because we know you are leading us to a happy future." This was the reason, according to official Czech propaganda, why 77 involuntary passengers on the famed Freedom Train to Germany (TIME, Sept. 24) returned voluntarily to Czechoslovakia.

Pink-cheeked, 16-year-old Zdenka Hyblova had another and more valid reason: she loved her boyfriend Pavel. Zdenka, Pavel and Zdenka's girl friend Alena had long dreamed of escaping. A year ago, all three had made a pact to flee their Communist land together. Then on a day that seemed at...

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