Masaryk’s Wednesdays are having a significant effect,” and that “what the shepherd’s [T. G. Masaryk’s] son is saying is much liked.”293 Čestmír Jeřábek discussed Masaryk’s broadcasts in his wartime diary, likening them to “conversations with a trusted friend who sits down at the table with us and speaks from heart to heart, letting out a joke or a quotation here and there, clapping us on the shoulder.” Convinced that this informal style brought Masaryk closer to his listeners, the writer suggested that “his words are as easy for them to understand as Aleš’s pictures or folk songs […] They are simple and yet wise. You get the impression that Jan Masaryk gets the same joy from them as those to whom they are addressed, probably because they are sincere.”294 In the introduction to the 1948 Czech edition of Masaryk’s published talks, Josef Kopta also concluded that listeners were won over by Masaryk’s sincerity, suggesting that he opened his heart at the microphone – speaking “as if he were at confession” – and they opened their hearts to him in return.295 Historians of propaganda have noted that subtle and indirect approaches can appeal to an audience, particularly when a saturation of direct propaganda leads to resentment.296 Jeřábek’s comments also suggest that Masaryk’s personal tone was perceived by some as being pitched at exactly the right level for his audience, showing the deep understanding of his listener’s context and background that characterises truly effective propaganda.297
293 Otáhalová and Červinková, Dokumenty z historie, 2:514–16. 294 Jeřábek, V zajetí antikristově, 59. Mikoláš Aleš (1852–1913) was a Czech painter, known for portraying national themes and supporting Czech causes in Austria-Hungary, such as the Czech National Theatre. 295 Josef Kopta, “Domov děkuje,” in Volá Londýn, by Jan Masaryk (Prague: Práce/Lincolns-Prager, 1948), 11. The introduction by Kopta, a First World War legionary, was written in the spring of 1946 and included in editions of Volá Londýn published in 1947 and 1948. The 1948 edition makes no reference to Masaryk’s death in March, so was presumably published very early in the year. Following the Communist takeover in February 1948, no further editions of Volá Londýn were published until 1990, and the work of the domestic resistance was strongly promoted over that of the London exiles. 296 In his 1940 book on propaganda, John Hargrave described this as the “Drop it in his tea” approach, indirectly propagating an idea in the audience’s minds; see Hargrave, Propaganda, 111–16. 297 In his ground rules for effective propaganda, Charles Roetter listed “a clear idea and knowledge of the target which is being aimed at” as being of critical importance; Roetter, Psychological Warfare, 14. An effective propagandist, according to Roetter, bases their arguments on the opinions of their audience, not their own.
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Exercising Authority: The odsun and “Rabble-rousing” from London By the various means outlined above, the representatives of the government-in-exile under President Beneš sought to establish themselves as the legitimate legal and ideological leaders of Czechoslovakia, who understood the suffering of the home population and shared with them a common view of the world and the war. A study of the wartime broadcasts also shows how they then strove to exert this authority from abroad by issuing orders and instructions to listeners. Early in the conflict, these orders were often immediate reactions to events taking place at home: for example, in spring 1941 Beneš’s government broadcast a warning that any Czech student who obeyed the calls to attend a high school in the German Reich would be barred from Czech higher education once the occupation ended; and at the end of the year the government reminded the public that it did not respect the transfer of any state or government property that had taken place since September 1938.298 The abovementioned press boycott of September 1941 is an example of a more extensive campaign that was broadly successful, but, as the end of the conflict approached, the government programme featured more specific instructions to prepare the ground for liberation. From 1944 onwards, broadcasters issued appeals and directions on topics such as the formation of national committees to take over power once occupying and collaborationist authorities had been deposed. Despite the success of some of these appeals from London, study of one of the most significant postwar policies, that of the transfer of Czechoslovakia’s German population, raises questions about the moral implications of exercising this authority from a distance. In promoting the press boycott of 1941, the exiles had relied upon the authority of the name of T. G. Masaryk, but they had grown more assertive by April 1944, when they broadcast a declaration on the formation of national committees. Though the topic had been mentioned previously, as a way to ensure that “it is the Czechoslovak people who will, from the very beginning, be the bearers and executors of state power in the liberated Republic,” the declaration differed by giving a list of
298 BBC Czechoslovak Programme, 5 April 1941, LN Z 1941 – 6; 19 December 1941, LN Z 1941 – 11, CRA.
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clear instructions on the formation of the committees and their duties.299 The announcement ended with an authoritative call to “Citizens of the Republic!” and encouraging words issued in the government’s own name: the government announces the organisational principles of the national committees at this time with the conviction that the leadership of the state can only be protected on the road from slavery to freedom by the devotion and loyalty of the sons and daughters of the nation.
The declaration then concluded with a reminder of the government’s unity with the people at home: “to end the battle and build peace, to drive out the tyrants and renew and perfect social order in the Republic, this is now the duty of us all.”300 Listeners to the broadcasts to Subcarpathian Ruthenia were repeatedly urged to form national committees from then on, and there were also appeals to young people, workers, and, as liberation approached, residents of western Bohemia.301 Despite having made the declaration in its own name, the government-in-exile was keen to show listeners that the concept of national committees had support elsewhere: listeners heard quotations from The New York Times in favour of the plans and were told that Czechoslovakia would probably be liberated early to serve as a “positive example” to others.302 The exiles were also careful to present the proposed system of national committees as being approved of across the political spectrum, re-broadcasting the message of support from Klement Gottwald, the Moscow-based leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (Komunistická strana Československa).303 The word of the exile government was therefore reinforced by association with other authoritative sources 299 From a talk by Communist Vilém Nový; BBC Czechoslovak Programme, 11 April 1944, LN Z 1944 – 31, CRA. 300 The government declaration was broadcast on 16 April 1944 in Czech and repeated the following day in Slovak and Ukrainian; BBC Czechoslovak Programme, 16 April 1944; 17 April 1944, LN Z 1944 – 32, CRA. 301 Examples of Ukrainian-language appeals can be found in BBC Czechoslovak Programme, 24 April 1944, LN Z 1944 – 31; 1 May 1944, LN Z 1944 – 32; 6 November 1944, LN Z 1944 – 37, CRA. An appeal to youth was made on 19 April 1944 (LN Z 1944 – 31), to western Bohemia on 20 April 1945 (LN Z 1945 – 45), and to workers in the last few days of the war (7 May 1945, LN Z 1945 – 46, CRA). 302 BBC Czechoslovak Programme, 24 April 1944, LN Z 1944 – 32, CRA. In fact, Czechoslovakia was one of the last countries in Europe to be liberated and fighting continued in Prague until after the official announcement of peace on 8 May 1945. 303 BBC Czechoslovak Programme, 5 May 1944, LN Z 1944 – 32, CRA.
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