Stefano Welisch

Once Upon A Time... We Were All Communists Stefano Welisch

In the aftermath of WWII, a sort of "ethnical cleansing" took place in the southern region of Czechoslovakia, which was formerly part of Hungary. Following the directives of the new Communist Government, a vast number of Hungarian families were, in fact, forcibly relocated - or better said, deported - to Hungary, compelled to leave their houses and belongings to Slovak families that had been living beyond the border. Denes, the protagonist, born in 1947, narrates these events and about the dismembering of his family as he was told by his mother, who had experienced this ordeal in person. That does not really affect the boy, who lives serenely, studying and working with his father at the village Cooperative, believing that the Socialist society is the best possible, as he is been taught at school. Some doubt crept to his mind when he witnessed, albeit from a safe distance, the '56 uprising in Hungary and the bloody repression made by the Soviet troops. However, in the aftermath of the revolt, that did not affect Czechoslovakia in the least, and where it was completely censored, life went on peacefully and Denes, now become a "Pioneer of Socialism", as all his fellow students, continued to believe in the virtues of the Socialist society. He completes his studies and obtains the Electrician Diploma, being immediately hired by a local company. Unfortunately, his Socialist faith was shattered in the August of 1968, at the end of his military service that he was performing in Prague, when he saw the Soviet tanks aiming their guns towards the barracks where he was stationed. Was the Communist society so frail that it needed the Russian guns to survive?