You may have heard of Soviet defector and ex-KGB official Yuri Bezmenov. Recently Yuri Bezmenov’s warning to America resurfaced in the new Call of Duty: Cold War game. Regarding education in America Yuri gave a bleak outlook for an education steeped in Soviet programming. Yuri says, “Even if you start right now…educating a new generation of Americans, it will still take 15 or 20 years to turn the tide of ideological perception.”
NYT Best-Selling Author Rod Dreher writes about the stories of Soviet-era communism and its oppression and the future of “soft totalitarianism” in Live Not By Lies. View the book on Amazon here.
But what would you do if you saw communism coming literally to your country and dedicated yourself to nonviolence as a Catholic priest?
Born under the surname Poglajen on September 8, 1906, Stjepan Tomislav Kolaković escaped the Nazi controlled puppet-state of Croatia to join the Catholics in Slovakia. He then moved to Slovakia in 1943 only to soon face a new deadly threat. He warned his parish of the impending doom that would come with Soviet occupation of the country.
Only no one believed him, he was labeled an ‘alarmist’. By the time the communists seized power in his new homeland of Czechoslovakia, it was too late. Four decades of Soviet rule would proceed and not end until the bloodless the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Father Kolakovic prepared the Greek Catholic Church of Slovakia for the eventual flip of Slovakia to full communism. He predicted a great time of Christian persecution, as he had seen scrutiny under the Nazis in Nazi-occupied Croatia.
World War II Slovakia
Slovakia seceded from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 and aligned itself with Nazi Germany. The First Slovak Republic, led Jozef Tiso paid Germany for ever deported Jewish person out of the country for “retraining and accommodation”.
By 1945 when it became clear the Russians and the Red Army were going to defeat Nazi Germany the tide shifted in Slovakia against the Nazis. This led to all out war as as a response and ended with the Soviet liberation of the country of Slovakia.
Jozef Tiso was executed in 1947 with charges of Nazi collaboration. This put the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in a position of great strength, and they would take advantage of it.
Father Kolakovic
Father Kolakovic is seen as a hero and even a model of Christian dissention under a regime that despises them. So says Rob Dreher who dedicated the book Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents to commie-fighting Catholic priest. View the book on Amazon here.
Under communism the Slovak Greek Catholic Church was forced to disolve the union with Rome and be accepted in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Father Kolakovic was already familiar with Gestapo-style interrogation and surveillance since they took an interest in him in Nazi Croatia. He feared the same would take place under the Russians.
“Do not be afraid and always act as you think Christ would act in your place and in a specific situation.” – Father Kolakovic
Iron Curtain Falls On Czechoslovakia
Democracy was upended by the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d’état. Towards the end of February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, backed by the Soviets, assumed total control over the government of Czechoslovakia.
According to Rod Dreher, Father Kolakovic established what was called “The Family”, an underground Catholic church in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia. View the book on Amazon here.
Shortly after the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d’état Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, who wasn’t a communist, was found dead.
According to Turning Prayers into Protests Father Kolakovic believed in the power of prayer and tight-knit underground churches to not just survive but florish under intense persecution. This he believed was possible, “despite the decapitation of the church hierarchy by the German and Italian authorities.”
A secret church of around 500 people was well versed in resistance tactics through mock interrogations, led by Kolakovic. By the time the communists took control, Kolakovic’s underground church was ready.
Rising Hero Václav Havel
Despite their best efforts the communists of Czechoslovakia could not destroy the resistance. Their heavy-handed tactics inspired a generation of rebellion by the people, tired of life under the Iron Curtain.
The success of Father Kolakovic was his deliberate preparation which allowed the church to survive and sustain the people under communism. His fight, through prayers, was vindicated by the rise of political and social voices that seeked democracy.
The 1970s gave rise to dissention against communism in Soviet Czechoslovakia with one man galvanizing the movement. In his essay, “The Power of The Powerless”, Václav Havel tells us that the label as an enemy of the state is one that can given without notice and or reasons.
“We never decided to become dissidents. We have been transformed into them, without quite knowing how, sometimes we have ended up in prison without precisely knowing how. We simply went ahead and did certain things that we felt we ought to do, and that seemed to us decent to do, nothing more nor less.”
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