World: RUSSIANS GO HOME!

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Prague, and from the first his words attempted to reassure. "There is no way back from freedom and democracy. The situation must be solved rapidly and the troops must leave."

Afternoon Off. Svoboda soon decided that he wanted to talk directly with the Kremlin leaders; Moscow agreed that he could come, but insisted that representatives of the conservatives on the Presidium must also be represented. Bilak and Indra joined the delegation, as did another conservative, Jan Filler, the party boss of Middle Bohemia. To balance the lineup, Svoboda was also permitted to bring along three Dubcek loyalists: Defense Minister Dzur, Minister of Justice Bohuslav Kucera and Central Committeeman Gustav Husak. It began to look like Cierna all over again—but on the Kremlin's terms. Before leaving, Svoboda asked the nation via clandestine radio to "have trust in me."

Unreality ruled once more when Svoboda arrived in Moscow. The whitehaired general was given a 21-gun salute, presented with flowers and bussed on both cheeks by Brezhnev, Kosygin and President Nikolai Podgorny, who had come to the airport to greet him. Together the four rode in an open car, waving to thousands of Russians who had been given the afternoon off, oddly enough, to hail the conquered hero.

When Svoboda sat down with Brezh nev in the Kremlin, he discovered that the Russians wanted to talk only with him and the six men that had come with him from Prague. Svoboda demanded that Dubcek and Cernik be in cluded. When Brezhnev demurred, Svoboda threatened to break off all negotiations, and Brezhnev gave in. Svoboda then informed the Czechoslovaks in a message broadcast over Prague's free radio station that Dubcek "was at his side" in the Kremlin confrontation.

License Numbers. Back home, the Czechoslovak people continued to show the same sort of solidarity with Dubcek as Svoboda had shown. Many of them wore red, white and blue corsages and carried IVAN GO HOME! placards. Thev burned propaganda leaflets dropped from Soviet helicopters. Hundreds of thousands of citizens in fac tories, sports clubs and professional associations signed petitions calling upon Svoboda to declare Czechoslovakia neu tral and withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. Radio Prague began broadcasting the license-plate numbers of secret police cars so that people could slash their tires.

In this frustrating atmosphere, some Russian soldiers were getting trigger-happy and tough. Retaliating against lone snipers who took potshots at them during the night, they sent up flares and raked whole neighborhoods with small-arms fire. After they spotted some armed men on the roof of the Rude Pravo newspaper office. Soviet machine gunners opened fire, riddling the building's facade and shattering windows; their targets turned out to be Russian troops. The soldiers began firing without warning at anyone seen in the streets after the 10 p.m. curfew. In Prague, they killed at least three people and wounded two in one night, bringing the total number of those killed in the capital during the occupation to 20 and the wounded to 300. As many as 30 more may have been killed in the rest of the country.