The crowds in Prague last week could have been greeting a rock star or a movie idol. "I can see him! I can see him! He has on a hat!" cried one woman. "We're all his supporters. I was so close, I could look at him eye to eye." Swooned another: "My heart was thumping!" The object of their affection, though, was not the U2 band or Television Star Harry Hamlin. It was none other than Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was making his first official visit to Czechoslovakia.
The ironies of the trip were lost on few visitors. Nearly two decades ago, in August 1968, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague to topple the reform government of Alexander Dubcek, who had launched a series of popular political and economic reforms that became known as "socialism with a human face." Now Gorbachev was in town talking about his reforms, which had more than a passing resemblance to the Czechoslovaks' own experiments of 1968.
Unlike so many East bloc visits, when local Communist officials seem to rely on the local Rent-a-Crowd to provide an adoring audience, many of the Czechoslovaks appeared to have turned out spontaneously. Some in the crowds said they hoped Gorbachev's reforms would soon reach them. On the first day, some 5,000 people packed the cobblestone streets in front of Hradcany Castle overlooking the Old Town of Prague to greet the fedora-wearing Soviet leader and his wife Raisa. Similarly warm groups met them as they dashed through a hectic schedule -- talks with officials, visits to the opera and a Soviet war memorial, and campaign-like walkabouts featuring handshaking, chatting and baby kissing. After two days in Prague, Gorbachev went on to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia's second largest city and the capital of Slovakia.
Those who probably took the dimmest view of the trip were Czechoslovakia's Communist Party officials. Under their heavy hands, the Prague Spring of 1968 quickly gave way to sullen winter as the country became one of the most rigidly orthodox in the East bloc. Party Leader Gustav Husak, 74, installed by former Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev as Dubcek's replacement, has symbolized the backward-looking government's unimaginative face.
In public, of course, Husak had effusive praise last week for Gorbachev's policies, and promised his "full support" for the Soviet leader's "bold ideas, profound reforms and resolute deeds." But behind closed doors the Gorbachev policies have been causing serious troubles within the Czechoslovak party. In fact, there were rumors that Gorbachev's visit was delayed for three days because local leaders could not agree on their own policy toward reform. Last February a Soviet delegation led by Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze visited Prague to try to smooth over the differences. The Czechoslovak party has been split between hard-liners led by chief Party Ideologue and Presidium Member Vasil Bilak, who favors only very limited reforms, and the more pragmatic Premier Lubomir Strougal, who advocates broader changes.