Poslední slova obžalovaných v procesu s Miladou Horákovou „a spol.“
The Last Words of the Accused in the “Milada Horáková et al” Trial

Summary/Abstract: In this section of the journal the last words of all the accused in the trial of Milada Horáková “et al.” are being published for the fi rst time in full, based on a recently discovered audio recording of what was said during the last session of the trial on 8 June 1950. The introduction to the documents clarifi es how this show trial, the fi rst in Czechoslovakia, was prepared. It discusses the role of Soviet advisers and describes the development of the construction of the conspiracy, which was originally aimed against representatives of the pre-February-1948 National Social Party, but gradually went after the whole spectrum of the former democratic opposition to Communism. The introduction also describes the circle of people singled out for persecution. It describes the practices and methods of interrogation used back then, discusses psychological aspects of the interrogated, the attempt to break them psychologically at any price and to force them to sign confessions. It points out characteristic elements in the statements of the accused in the police reports and their statements before the judge – the accused do not deny their political activity before the 1948 Communist takeover, insisting on its legality; they thank their interrogators for having made clear to them the “criminal nature” of their actions; and they warn their fellow citizens to forego similar political activity. The introduction also compares the audio recording of the accused with the extant stenographic and film records, both of which are incomplete, and show the manipulation of the wording of these speeches in the contemporaneous propaganda publication about the trial of the “leaders of the conspiracy of sabotage against the Republic.” It ends with a summary of the court’s verdicts: four death sentences, for Milada Horáková, Jan Buchal, Oldřich Pecl, and Záviš Kalandra, four sentences of life imprisonment, for Josef Nestával, Jiří Hejda, František Přeučil, and Antonie Kleinerová, and fi ve prison terms of between fi fteen and twenty eight years, for Vojtěch Dundr, Františka Zemínová, Jiří Křížek, Zdeněk Peška, and Bedřich Hostička.

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