„Je vhodná doba se s nimi vypořádat…“
It’s the best time to do away with them…The role of the church departments at the regional council in Jihlava and the district council in Moravske Bud

Summary/Abstract: This study attempts to view the Babice case of 1951 from another perspective than it has usually been seen. The murder of three communist officials in Babice on 2 July 1951 triggered large-scale repression against the farmers and clergy, especially in the Jihlava Region, but Babice was to be the deterrent case for the whole country. This was seen especially in the campaign in Rude pravo, the party daily. The study does not deal with the as yet unclear question of the role of Ladislav Maly but is focused on the intervention of the communist regime against the church. At first it is the activity of the so-called Church Sections (cirkevni referat) both in the Jihlava Region and in the districts of Trebic, Moravske Budejovice and Dacice. The church played a key role in this primarily agricultural region, and resistance against collectivisation went in hand with the strongly religious nature of the region. The Babice case thus eventually strengthened repression against rural regions and the church. The study focuses on the system of work of the Church Sections as offices striving to systematically restrain the influence of the favourite clerics, eventually intended to weaken the church itself. The procedure taken against the church and specific members of the clergy was also strengthened by the fact that some of the districts in the Jihlava Region were border districts. The study describes the reports from the Church Secretaries immediately prior to, and especially shortly after, the Babice murder. These reports, amongst other things, imply the fact that the public in the broad region, and particularly in Babice, was well aware of the everyday presence of the State Security before the act, and the communication implies the continuous selection of the problematic clerics, some of which (Paril, Drbola and Bula) were later executed. It is a brief contribution to the well-known Babice case, trying to describe the system of work of the communist machinery in its fight against the church, thus helping to describe the Czechoslovak society of the 1950’s.

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