Smuggled Czech Posters Exhibit Reveals Anti-Russian Sentiment

A collection of 28 anti-Russian posters, smuggled out of occupied Czechoslovakia by an American from Harvard and a Czech citizen, is currently on exhibit at Lamont Library.

The unsolicited collection arrived at the University Library from Vienna in early September, Louis A. Sasso, assistant University librarian, said yesterday. Sasso withheld the name of the American and the details of his involvement in Czechoslovakia, however, to protect the Czech citizens who helped.

The posters vary in size and include political slogans, poetry, and cartoons aimed at the Warsaw Pact troops.

One hand-written sign reads in Czech, "Every day, every citizen should post at least one slogan, the size doesn't matter, protesting the humiliation of the Russian occupation; the slogan should be in Russian. Let us endure. GO HOME!"

By the beginning of October, a member of the Slavic department had translated the poster into English from the original Russian, Czech, and German. The exhibit, on loan from the donor, wil continue through this month.