Small Truth, Big Lie

Arthur London is a Czechoslovak Communist currently living in France. A veteran of the Spanish Civil War and the underground resistance, he held a post in the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs following the Communist seizure of power in 1948. Arrested in 1952, he was one of the defendants in the “Slánský Conspiracy Trial.” He was condemned to life imprisonment and subsequently permitted to emigrate.

The Slánský Trials were a culmination of a series of staged trials, which followed the Communist seizure of power. The new regime jailed and executed successive waves of clergy, non-Communist intelligentsia, and representatives of democratic and socialist parties. In early 1952, a number of leading Communists were arrested and charged with conspiring against the State. Of the 14 accused, 11 were executed, the rest condemned to life imprisonment. The trials were reviewed in 1956, 1963 and 1968, the charges quashed, victims rehabilitated, and the trials decla...