World: RUSSIANS GO HOME!

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The people did just that. They moved so many road signs and town markers in order to misdirect Soviet troops that it was impossible for a stranger to find his way without constantly consulting a map. They also switched number and name signs on houses and apartments so that Soviet security police could not find Czechoslovaks whom they sought to arrest. (The Czechoslovak Interior Ministry had already refused to make any arrests.) "You know where you live," said a free radio. "There's no need for the rascals to know." When Soviet officers asked residents of Bratislava where the clandestine radio station was, they were sent in every direction but the right one. Railway workers and local militiamen in eastern Slovakia reportedly tried every method to prevent the arrival of a train with electronic equipment that would enable the Russians to locate and jam the secret radio transmitters.

Hidden in Ambulances. Indeed, it began to look as though the whole resistance effort had been well plotted by the government before the invasion. Clearly, people were not operating solely on their own initiative. The studios and equipment for the secret stations must have been set up in advance, and scores of journalists and technicians had been briefed on what to do and where to go. The clandestine printing presses had also been primed. Taxi drivers were soon distributing a ten-point leaflet of instructions that said:

"1) Until our leaders are released, go into passive resistance and go on strike if necessary. 2) Do not collaborate with the forces of occupation. 3) Talk to the soldiers in Russian [to persuade them of the Czech point of view], explain, paint slogans, print leaflets. 4) If threatened, claim that you do not understand Russian or any other language. 5) If pressed, play the fool. 6) Support free TV and radio stations. 7) Try to prevent Russian propaganda and jam their stations. 8) Support all pur progressive leaders. 9) Expose collaborators and those that are weak in character. 10) Prepare yourself to take further steps should the occupation not come to an end."

So resourceful were the Czechoslo vaks that they held a conference that was one of the irritants leading to the invasion right under the Russians' nose. With Russian troops everywhere in and around Prague, the special party congress that had been set for Sept. 9 convened in the CKD machine-tool factory in a Prague suburb. More than 1,200 out of the 1,500 delegates elected last July to attend the congress managed to reach the secret meeting place. Many were smuggled inside dressed in blue overalls and carrying fake identity cards; a few with familiar faces were brought to the plant hidden in factory ambulances. They promptly elected not only a liberalized Central Committee but a new party Presidium—minus such hard-liners as Kolder and Indra. Dubcek, who was in Russian custody, was again named party chief by the delegates, who also issued a declaration demanding that the Soviet armies leave the country and threatening a general strike on Friday if they did not.