Commissar Ladislav Kopriva, the man behind many Czech purges, likes to philosophize. Last November, after jailing Czech Vice Premier Rudolf Slansky for "antistate activities," Kopriva said: "Our Czechoslovak traitors . .. can be compared with Russia's Trotsky ... Our conspiracies are not extraordinary, but only further evidence that our country is subject to the same laws of socialistic development as the Soviet Union."
Last week the laws of socialistic development caught up with Commissar Kopriva himself. Prague radio announced that he had been "relieved at his own request" of his duties as Minister of National Security. It was the same hollow phrase used by Kopriva to cover up what his bullyboys had done to thousands of Czech "deviationists," including former Communist Foreign Minister Vladimir dementis, who has been in jail—also presumably at his own request—since January 1951.
Into office as Kopriva's successor went tough, 55-year-old Karel Bacilek, Moscow-trained son of a Slovak bricklayer, and former Minister of State Control, i.e., Big Brother to all Czech industry. Bacilek's appointment seemed to indicate a new Kremlin policy in Czechoslovakia. Disturbed by the Czechs' failure to deliver their quota of weapons and equipment to the Red army, the Kremlin is getting rid of men like Slansky and Kopriva, who were good Communist theoreticians but sloppy administrators, and replacing them with lesser-known Communists who know how to get things done.