Oldal 2 [2]
- page two ¬
National Council started a very strong programme of re-organizing
formeriy German Schools into Sorb schools, of creating a strong
Sorb press and of building up Sorb feelings by frequent radio pro¬
adopt sponsored in the Sorb Language and calling for Sorb sepa¬
PaCLSMe
A very important step in this campaign was March 23rd,
1948, when the Communist parliament of Saxony decided, that the
administration of the whole Sorb territory would henceforth be
autonomous, and thet in the territory there would be three offi¬
cial languages : Sorb, German, and Russian. Up to this year the
three languages where on an even footinge Now the tendaney is clear,
to put the languages in the following order : Sorb, Russian, German.
All public inseriptions have to be made in this order, and since
the early summer the tendency is ve y marked slowly to forget even
the Ggrmam, making this a bi-lingual sorb and Russian area. It is
interesting to note for instance, that ir is getting a standing
practice now to call officially the city of Bautzen only by its
Sorb name " Budysiny">
Quite recently, besides the Russian efforts, the Comm¬
nist Governement of Czecho-Slovakia has also started to show inte¬
rest in the matter. Czecho-Slovakia has already hinted that it
would be interested in the annexation of the whole Sorb area, or
at least the Zittau Basin. For that purpose the Czech governement
has opened a free Sorb School in Varnadorf, and is encouraging
the Sorb Youth to come to Czech Universities. A certain number
of free university studies are offered the Sorb Youth both in
Prague and in the USSR. The members of the Czech Military Mission
in Berlin have furthermore shown much interest in the area and have
visited it more than once during this summer.
All these moves from both Czechs and Russians, never oppo
sed by the German Communist SED governement of either Saxony or
the so-called German D mocratic Republic, have puzzled observers
very much in the past. Somehow it was hard to fit them into the
picture. Now nevertheless an intercepted Memorandum of the Czech
Military Migsion in Berlin, following the visit of several of its
members to " Domowina” and especially talks with Miuchin , gives
the answer to the question. According to this memorandum $
1 2 the primary aim of the whole Sorb operation is as fol¬
fows : the crearion of an independent Slaw state in the body of
present East Germany. If Russia, for one reason or another, should
be called upon to leave Germany by its military forces, this small
Slav State would be proclaimed independent, and 16 in turn would
keep Slav forces in order to protect it from the Germense
2 / The creation of such a Sorb State under Slav military
Protection would afford also a valuable precedent for creating
another independent State in the area f the present operations of
Wismath A.G. , namely of the Uranium M nes.
3 / Since it would be hard to keep Russian troops 4n the
Sorb State, once the Russian forces would have to leave Germany,
this duty would befulfilled by Czechs. The Sorb State would hence 3