CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Socialist Romanticism

To "mobilize the workers and peasants for socialist construction," Moscow's party line in literature calls for "socialist romanticism." Last week, a Czech newsman and poet named Arno Kraus turned out such an item, made Page One of Prague's Lidove Noviny (People's Newspaper) with it:

Crowd after crowd left the factory gates

Workmen with their caps pushed back,

The girls' eyes glistening with love.

And the hands in their caressing

Spoke of human gentleness under the

rough skin.

But with the kiss with which the girl

welcomed her lover

I heard an eager question:

"Have the shockworkers...