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When the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa) seized power of Czechoslovakia through a coup d’état on February 25, 1948, it soon set about to consolidate power and control over the country.[1] Since 1945, Communist elements had worked to incite violence, establish people’s courts, hold mass demonstrations, and legally discriminate against certain groups in society to bring about the collapse of the democratically elected government.[2] Other efforts soon followed the coup.[3] A new constitution was passed on May 9, 1948, a planned economy was introduced, and political opponents were purged from legislative and political positions.[4] The coup led to Czechoslovakia becoming a nominal multiparty state. In reality, it was a Communist satellite state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and became part of the Iron Curtain.[5]

Several sections of the Czechoslovakian Constitution ratified in May 1948 addressed religious belief and practice.[6] In essence, it guaranteed the freedom to think, believe, and practice any form of philosophy or religious belief. Religious denominations, it noted, were equal before the law, and members of any church were granted the liberty to carry out the acts connected with their denomination. There were, however, two important caveats. These freedoms were not permitted if they were “inconsistent with public order and morality” or if they were “misused for non-religious ends.” These two stipulations were not defined and were left open to interpretation.

Ultimately, this paper demonstrates that poorly defined laws and codified documents were used by the newly empowered Communist government as a means of restricting religious freedom. It is demonstrated that ratcheting pressure was utilized by Communist officials in the mid-twentieth century to try and eradicate all religious bodies in Czechoslovakia, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On January 25, 1949, Czechoslovakia joined the USSR and other Soviet satellite states in forming the Council of Economic Mutual Assistance as the various European Communist countries sought to form increasingly closer ties. Declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports indicate a concern that this organization was a step toward the “complete economic integration of Eastern Europe.”[7] During this time the Communist states took significant measures to promote “Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist doctrine” and fueled a surge of hostility toward the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and other Western powers that were seen as a perceived threat to Communist and Soviet rule.[8] The speed at which the Communist coup occurred in Czechoslovakia surprised even American intelligence specialists. A few months after the Communist party came into power, it curtailed civil liberties and formed concentration camps to incarcerate regime opponents.

The principal source base for this investigation is a collection of declassified intelligence reports created in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Produced by the Czechoslovaki secret police, this collection contains interview transcripts, floor plans, seized correspondence, agent reports, and internal department correspondence. The Czech Republic’s Ministry of the Interior declassified this collection in March 2000. Copies of documents relating to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were made and then preserved in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A second collection of intelligence reports was released by the CIA beginning in the 1970s through to the 1990s and made available through the National Archives of the United States of America. These reports contained assessments of Czechoslovakia and other Communist countries as well as information about decisions and actions that were impacting American citizens.

Prospects in Czechoslovakia

It was undoubtedly a joyous occasion on June 28, 1946, when Latter-day Saint Wallace F. “Wally” Toronto and two young full-time missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Victor Bell and Heber Jacobs, arrived at the Wilson Station in Prague, Czechoslovakia.[9] They were greeted by a group of Prague Branch members, which included Joseph Roubíček, who had been serving as the acting mission president since President Toronto’s departure at the outbreak of war in 1939.[10] After years of desolation that had left many Saints destitute and broken, the welcoming party were thrilled to finally see representatives of the Church again.

The first sustained and organized effort to establish The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Czechoslovakia took place in July 1929 when Elder John A. Widtsoe formed the Czechoslovak Mission and dedicated the country for the preaching of the gospel. The Church in Czechoslovakia continued during the Second World War despite the hardships of Nazi occupation. Several congregations remained in operation with about a dozen Czechoslovakians baptized.[11]

Following President Toronto’s arrival was a small but increasing number of missionaries. Baptisms were slow and steady, but they helped strengthen the existing branches and a series of activities were undertaken to try and organize new congregations. The war had resulted in members being scattered across the country and missionaries would periodically visit far-flung Saints to check on their welfare, help them maintain their faith, and explore proselytizing efforts in their areas.[12]

On Friday, September 6, 1947, President Toronto and the missionaries of the Czechoslovakia mission gathered for a three-day conference in Brno, a city in Moravia. Later that day President Toronto and the entire group of missionaries met with Brno’s mayor, Josef Podsedník. The mayor and his staff warmly greeted them and gave then a cordial reception, which included a tour of the town hall. The mission came away optimistic about the outcome of the meeting with one account noting, “This favorable reception will contribute much to the expansion of the missionary work in this part of the land.”[13] As the mission settled into place, its prospects seemed brighter and more optimistic, but change was on the horizon.

The postwar conditions in Czechoslovakia were difficult, and there were widespread shortages.[14] In 1948 the Church began sending thousands of pounds of aid to the mission to distribute.[15] The foodstuffs were a welcome relief as rationing continued in the years after the war. By 1949 the food situation began to stabilize, and basic items of food had become available in sufficient quantities.[16] Reports from the mission noted that “the number of investigators and the prospects for baptisms is steadily increasing.”[17]

Good prospects continued for much of the mid to late 1940s. In the spring of 1949 President Toronto reported the following: “We are continuing to hold all of our religious functions and meetings without limitations. Our missionaries’ residence permits are being extended without difficulty and we are being given permission to print tracts and to conduct our religious meetings, which, on the whole, are quite well attended.”[18]

Later that year, however, the new Communist government began to introduce a series of increasingly challenging restrictions on the Latter-day Saints. For example, missionaries, members, and Church leaders were obligated to submit talks typewritten in Czech to the police department two weeks before they were due to be given. Such demands were an onerous pressure on the missionaries, many of whom were still learning Czech. Were it not for the local Czechoslovakian Saints who translated the missionaries’ talks they would have been fully silenced and prevented from instructing the Saints.[19]

Persecution also impacted the Czechoslovakian Saints themselves. In extreme cases members were arrested. In May 1949 Otakar Vojkůvka, a Latter-day Saint in Brno, was imprisoned and his business was seized by the government due to his political and religious views.[20] Despite the persecution, it was not until six months later, on December 1, 1949, with new laws mandating state control of religion that religious freedom ceased to formally exist in Czechoslovakia.[21] From that point, each denomination was supposed to operate under the “will and wish of the ministry of religion” as directed by the Communist government, including state-paid clergy. Catholic bishops were especially vocal in their opposition to the idea of submitting church control to the government. Severe religious persecution followed in the weeks and months after the legislation came into effect. One incident resulted in the death of Josef Toufar, a Catholic priest.[22] Around this time Latter-day Saint leaders were turning over matters to local Czechoslovakian members due to the rising persecution meted out by the secret police.

The Secret Police

The Czechoslovakian State Secret Security (StB) performed a formidable role in the new Communist-led Czechoslovakia.[23] Initially StB operatives operated in the background gathering intelligence on the Latter-day Saints operating in the country. It prepared dossiers and reports on the Saints’ limited activities during the war. People they contacted were also noted.

Salt Lake City–born missionary Donald Whipperman was one of the dozens of Latter-day Saints whose activities and contacts were monitored and reported on during the late 1940s. The StB tracked and monitored who Don met, which apparently included “persons of a reactionary mind” and even “the cook of the air force training kitchen” in Prostějově. A concern appears to have been the cook passing on information about the training conditions in a military base. The report concluded, “For his contact with persons not in full agreement with the People’s Democratic Party and with persons having possible contacts with military persons, he is a named intelligence suspect.”[24]

In spring 1949 the StB issued a secret report summarizing the government’s approach to the Latter-day Saint members, missionaries, and meetings: “Our opinion is that this gathering should not be allowed, because it is not in our country’s interest to allow them to meet other persons.” The report instructed operatives, “Pay close attention to all their activities, elaborate on them in the news, and report the new knowledge in this direction immediately to the higher authorities.”[25] A few days later the Czechoslovak Mission surrendered a file on the missionaries in the country, but it did nothing to alleviate the suspicious State Security forces.[26] Over the following weeks and months, StB operatives continued to gather information about the history and operations of the Church in Czechoslovakia.

Later that year, however, the StB began to be more confrontational with all religious entities. Karel Kaplan has argued that the period from June 1949 onward was one of open conflict between Communists and the Catholic Church.[27] The turning point came when Communist youngsters noisily disrupted Karel Beran, the Catholic archbishop of Prague, during a service on June 19, 1949. From this point on, there was an “onslaught on the internal organisation of the Catholic Church.”[28] The Latter-day Saint experience parallels the chronology of the Catholic experience, which confirms that the oppression was not specifically against Latter-day Saints. Initial acceptance of the Church’s operation during the first twelve months of the new Communist government soon faded and was replaced with suspicion and animosity.

There were efforts to grind meetings to a halt by subsuming the Church in registering each meeting and requiring a copy of speeches be deposited with local officials. In early June 1949, however, an StB report noted that the “Mormon sect always announces the orderly holding of its religious meetings in the Federal Department, RNB in Prague, and at the local district council.”[29] Despite the administrative barriers placed in front of them as a pretext for shutting down meetings, the Latter-day Saint missionaries and members followed the police-imposed rules and thus stayed on the correct side of the law.

Soon, however, the state undertook active efforts to disable and disassemble the Church in Czechoslovakia. In July 1949 permission for the Saints to meet at the Knezi Hora monument to commemorate the dedication of Czechoslovakia by Elder John Widtsoe in 1929 was repeatedly denied by the StB, and it is presently unclear how permission was ultimately attained.[30] One State Security report about the trip noted, “On other similar Mormon applications, you will take a negative position if possible.”[31] Other applications for public lectures were rejected by State Security Department Commanders.[32] In 1944 Latter-day Saints had erected a stone monument on the site of the dedication. Somehow the July 1949 trip went ahead, and the Latter-day Saints performed a pageant, God’s Hand Through the Ages, which ironically covered the story of the birth of religious freedom in Czechoslovakia and the arrival of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the country in 1929.[33]

StB surveillance operatives specifically targeted missionaries. There was a fear among Church leaders that any public disturbance would result in the Church being banned, and they worked hard to ensure meetings ran smoothly and were uncontroversial. This was necessary because StB operatives would attend meetings, keep track of who attended, and record what was said. People the missionaries met with were subsequently visited by the StB.[34]

Ratcheting attention and frustration from the State Security department saw increasingly intrusive activities being undertaken. Members were threatened for attending meetings and all activities by the Church were reported.[35] As one secret report menacingly noted on January 13, 1950, “After infiltrating this society, efforts will be made to gain an associate in this sect. Once the incriminating material is obtained, this society will be liquidated.”[36] The StB assumed they would find materials that would justify their actions against Latter-day Saints, but there was nothing to be found. The Latter-day Saints sought to stay above the law to avoid any such allegations. Despite the complete absence of evidence of wrongdoing, when missionaries were moved to new areas there were urgent messages sent between different branches of the State Security seeking information about the American missionaries.[37]

The purpose of the pressure exerted on Latter-day Saints and others appears to have been dual in nature. First, to quickly acquire information and second, to dissuade and dampen participation and belief in the Latter-day Saint faith. In a report dated January 28, 1950, the StB requested the mail of four individuals living in Brandýs, a settlement outside of Prague, be intercepted and photocopied with the copies forwarded to a local State Security office. One of the individuals was noted as being in contact with the missionaries, and the other three names were referred to in a previously intercepted letter, which prompted the surveillance order.[38] On March 7, 1950, Vlastimil Kudrna, a thirty-two-year-old typesetter living in Brandýs, was brought into the State Security’s headquarters in Prague for interrogation. He was asked about Latter-day Saint missionaries, members, and others who were being taught by the missionaries. After providing information about others, Vlastimil was compelled to sign an agreement, which reads, “I declare on oath that I will not mention the above circumstances about which I have been questioned at the headquarters here anywhere and in front of anyone, because I am aware of the criminal consequences that would follow from the betrayal.”[39]

The threat of criminal action was an ominous prospect for interviewees. The StB used signed declarations as a means of limiting any discussion about what occurred during an interrogation. A typical form stated, “I declare that I will not speak to anyone about the facts I have been asked about, or that I have seen and heard here. I am aware that if I should disclose the above circumstances, I expose myself to criminal prosecution and the consequences thereof, which I confirm by my own signature.”

Pressuring people into revealing information and then silencing them is clear evidence of a malevolent organization committed to disabling and dissembling religious organizations to further their views of a fully Communist and atheistic state.

American Latter-day Saint Diplomatic Officials

Spencer Laird Taggart was an American Latter-day Saint working for the US government in Prague during the 1940s. He had served a full-time proselytizing mission for the Church in Czechoslovakia between 1931 and 1934, and during the Second World War he worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as an intelligence officer. In February 1946 the American was sent to Prague, where he was attached to the United States Embassy.[40]

Within days of Taggart’s arrival in Czechoslovakia, State Security informers in the embassy identified his true role as a CIA operative in the country. The extra security, location of his office, and that fact he encoded his reports personally with his own cipher suggested that he was not just an American intelligence operative but that he was “the chief of U.S. Intelligence” in Czechoslovakia.[41] The quiet American was subsequently subjected to constant surveillance. Of the experience he wrote, “We experienced increasing difficulties and obstacles, including harassment, from the ubiquitous secret police. Our telephones were monitored, our mail opened, our household staff required to report all comings and goings, and our personal movements and activities kept under surveillance. This was aimed at intimidating us and rendering us ineffectual as well as identifying our vulnerabilities.”[42]

Existing accounts suggest that Taggart was unable to attend or participate in Latter-day Saint activities on account of his workload and the sensitivities of his position. He later noted, “For a Czech to be seen in the company of an American from the Embassy was akin to a ‘kiss of death.’”[43]

Taggart identified his main objective as being to “help the Czechs guard their independence and to promote Western democracy.”[44] During his time in Czechoslovakia, he helped recruit Czechoslovakian operatives who were working to bring down the Communist government and to realign the country with other Western powers. After returning to the United States in October 1948, Taggart maintained his contacts remotely.

The StB did not forget Taggart. A year later, in October 1949, it was publicly announced by Czechoslovakia’s daily Communist newspaper that there had been “another defeat of espionage attempt and subversion.” The article claimed that Taggart, along with other American operatives, had helped establish a national spy network who were willing to support the Council of Free Czechoslovakia by engaging in “subversive activity.” The “spy ring” had been discovered and busted with participants beginning to be arrested in September 1949. Men and women were tortured and mistreated by the State Security forces before a trial for the accused was held in April 1950. Historian Igor Lukes described the trial as “an orgy of anti-American propaganda” with sensationalist reports published in the press.[45]

The public outing of Spencer Taggart came at an inopportune moment for the Czechoslovakian mission.[46] The article made it clear that Taggart had served as a “Mormon missionary in Czechoslovakia before the war,” which gave the already suspicious secret police further justification to limit Latter-day Saint meetings and proselytizing activities. It was with this further evidence of complicity that they initiated a series of further expulsions.[47]

The Arrest of Stanley Abbott and Carl Aldon Johnson

The expulsion of the missionaries began when the StB arrested two of them for allegedly spying. On January 27, 1950, Latter-day Saint missionaries Stanley C. Abbott and C. Aldon Johnson left the city of Prostějov by train to visit isolated members in northern Moravia, near the Polish border. After several successful appointments they slept at the home of Adéla Kremerova, a Czechoslovakian member who had been baptized in February 1936. The next morning, Saturday, January 28, the two missionaries continued their journey by train to visit Brother Wagner, a Latter-day Saint of German heritage working at a paper mill as part of a forced labor camp in a forested area near Jindřichov.[48]

Other missionaries had previously visited Brother Wagner and a fellow missionary had even sent a letter to Elders Abbott and Johnson providing details of where to find him, including a sketch showing the route to take from the railroad station. On arrival at the paper mill and presenting themselves to the guard, the missionaries were asked for their passports. Soon, after some considerable time was spent waiting around, policemen arrived and took them to a police station, where they provided information about themselves and were searched. The letter and sketch were discovered, and they were subsequently accused of mapping military facilities. The two elders were promptly arrested and after a long and obfuscated journey were taken to a building in Olomouc, where they were interrogated by hostile secret police officers. After the interrogation they were taken to separate prison cells.[49]

The next day the missionaries found themselves at opposite ends of the prison and were subjected to several long days of repeated interrogations. Interrogators alleged they knew the missionaries were American spies, and Elder Abbott was threatened that they could make the missionaries talk if they wanted to “by the use of drugs and beatings which system they claimed to have borrowed from the Americans.”[50] Meanwhile, Elder Johnson was told that if they told them who the “espionage leader” was in the American Embassy, they could hope to be released after “only about five years” instead of being held indefinitely. Because the missionaries were not covert CIA operatives or any other kind of government official, however, they maintained their innocence and refused to incriminate themselves.

Before the arrest, the StB had been surveilling Elder Abbott for some time. Several months earlier Stanley Abbott’s mail had been intercepted by State Security while he served in the town of Brandýs. The operatives who seized the letter could not read it as none of them spoke English, but they sent a copy to their headquarters requesting a translation. They alleged that Elder Abbott and his companion had been in contact with “persons who were compromised with the Germans during their occupation,” and “the two Mormons visit various persons in their apartments and then meet with them at places outside Brandýs, probably at prearranged places.” The report also added, “He [Elder Abbott] is suspected of spying for the Western States.”[51]

For four weeks Elders Abbott and Johnson were held incommunicado and had no way of knowing who knew their whereabouts. The two elders requested that the secret police inform President Toronto of their situation but were told by the officials that “they would do so only at their own discretion.”[52] Although physically unharmed, they were kept in poor conditions and were not allowed outside, with only a pail in the corner of the room for a toilet. During this time, the guards allowed them to read from their scriptures. To pass the time, the incarcerated missionaries spent their time studying, praying, and singing hymns.

Meanwhile, members and fellow missionaries were praying for the missionaries’ safety and well-being. During this time the American Embassy made oral and written requests for information about the missionaries and where they were being held. However, it was not until February 8 that news reached Church leaders and American officials that the missionaries had been imprisoned.[53] Senior leaders in the embassy and President Toronto requested to visit the missionaries, but they were refused.[54]

News finally reached President Toronto after he called local members to retrace the missionaries’ journey.[55] Finally, on Friday, February 24, 1950, the StB released the two missionaries.[56] A condition of the release of the two elders was that most of the remaining missionaries would be evacuated from the country. When the demand was complied with, the two incarcerated missionaries were released and given two hours to leave the country.[57] The official reason for the arrests was that they had attempted to “enter a prohibited area.”[58] Fortunately, the charge of entering a prohibited area was preferred by Church leaders compared to the accusation of espionage, which brought much harsher punishments.[59] Eleven missionaries had been expelled from Czechoslovakia during Abbott and Johnson’s month-long imprisonment, leaving only President Toronto, his family, and two other missionaries in the country.[60]

Elders Abbott and Johnson were permitted limited time to recover a few personal possessions from their rented room before they were taken to Prague Airport. There they were greeted by President and Sister Toronto and members of the American Embassy for a fleeting conversation before being expelled from the country. Later that day they arrived in Zurich, Switzerland.[61] In a jointly signed statement written on the March 1, 1950, the missionaries declared the following: “We wish to add that at the time of our arrest we were violating no law of the Czechoslovakian government nor rules of our church. We have not at any time nor in any manner acted as spies or engaged in subversive activities. We feel that the action of the Czech government in expelling us was entirely unwarranted.”[62]

Frustratingly for the missionaries, the theory that they were spies persisted even after they left Czechoslovakia. In Switzerland they were tracked down and spoken to by the Swiss secret police and other organizations before a local Latter-day Saint leader found them and invited them to stay with his family. The two missionaries soon returned home but were cautious about what they said. They were fearful that if they spoke negatively about Czechoslovakia, there would be retaliations against the members.[63]

Such a course of action was wise. After the closure of the mission office, Czechoslovakian Church leaders and members were subjected to intense questioning. One of those was Marie Vesela, a former secretary to President Toronto. She had moved items, including the missionaries’ belongings, to a small, hired room in her neighbourhood, but it was soon raided, and everything was confiscated. Marie wrote to Stanley Abbott many years later after emigrating to Utah: “We had really a bad time, otherwise we would not have left the country; we longed for freedom but knew that besides freedom we would not get what we needed and lost at home.”[64]

Expulsion and Liquidation

To try and counter the rumors circulating about the missionaries and their intentions, the Czechoslovakian mission published articles about Latter-day Saint missionaries in its monthly publication, Nový Hlas. Articles ranged in nature, but they were uncontroversial and sought to allay concerns. One of the popular accusations was that missionaries were funded by American intelligence agencies. An article was written to explain how missions were funded, but it was ultimately to no avail.[65] State-supported propaganda and a concerted effort to turn popular opinion against the Saints continued to plague the mission, and in 1949 Nový Hlas was banned.[66]

The Communist regime frequently used censorship against religious and secular organizations. The loss of press freedom meant it was becoming increasingly difficult to acquire accurate and reliable information about what was happening in Czechoslovakia. As one contemporary French correspondent noted, “Since 1948, the Czechs have been cautious in talking to strangers, and since the beginning of 1950 mere contact with aliens has often been grounds for a police inquiry.”[67] Newspapers, religious publications, and other forms of information were not immune to the increasingly restrictive Communist diktats.

The forced withdrawal of Latter-day Saint missionaries began several months before the Abbott and Johnson incident. Beginning in May 1949, visas and permits stopped being issued or renewed for missionaries. Interior minister Václav Nosek was a prominent critic of Latter-day Saint missionaries and sought to expel them along with other persons he considered to be suspicious. Of the missionaries he declared, “Their activities, of course had absolutely nothing in common with Christ’s teachings and therefore we had to send them back from where they came.”[68] Nosek saw no problems with using legal mechanisms to dismantle and deconstruct organizations he disagreed with.

Nosek and other contemporary Communist leaders sought to maintain a rigid control of society by excluding and muzzling religiosity and belief. Foreign entities such as North American Latter-day Saint missionaries were viewed as a possibly subversive force by Nosek and others. The government’s view of missionaries, according to Wallace Toronto, was that they were a “threat to the peace and security of the state.”[69] In spring 1950 Nosek asked for an almost tripled budget for internal policing to counteract “spies, diversionists, terrorists, murderers, thieves, and similar outcasts.”[70] Nosek and the StB could not prove Latter-day Saints were a threat to the state, but legal mechanisms were increasingly used to break down religious freedoms.

Another formerly secret State Security report dated February 17, 1950, recognized that although the mission was not actively undertaking any kind of activism, they were “reasonably suspected of working intelligence against the CSR.”[71] The same report identified several persons who were prospective members of the Church. At that time various secretive intelligence agencies were working together to keep track of those suspected of involvement in the Church. “It is suspected the Mormons,” the report continued, “who already know that they will be expelled from the CSR, are building a transfer network,” which was presumably the process of turning leadership and church administration matters over to local leaders.[72] The secret police prepared the deportation orders and fines for the missionaries.[73] Finally, on February 21, 1950, permission was given to begin interrogating missionaries in Czechoslovakia.[74]

Missionaries were questioned on a range of subjects including their education, what they did during the war, and how they got into missionary work. Other questions surrounded their language abilities, Czechoslovakians they had met, and their missionary methods. Accompanying the questions to be asked was a notice stating that the missionaries should be interviewed quickly because there was “a danger that they will leave the CSR without being questioned.”[75]

In the days following, missionaries were summoned for interrogation. William Martini was one of the last two young American Latter-day Saint missionaries in Czechoslovakia when he and his companion, Melvin Mabey, were interviewed on February 28, 1950.[76] William stated his purpose for being in Czechoslovakia and tried to explain that he was there solely as a missionary to preach Christian teachings and to support The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was, however, to no avail. The StB officials were instructed to fine and deport missionaries if their passes were out of date. Several missionaries, including William, had permission to be in the country until April or May 1950, but despite having time left on their passes, they were forced to leave the country. With no new permits being granted, however, it was obvious that it was time for the mission to close. As missionaries left Czechoslovakia thorough checks of their luggage were undertaken, but in every case “nothing objectionable was found.”[77]

On March 1, 1950, President Toronto’s family was forced to leave the country along with the final American missionaries.[78] Other religious leaders shared their fate. Word had reached the United States Embassy that month that all American missionaries and clergy were about to be expelled from the country regardless of their denominational affiliation.[79]

Several weeks later, on March 30, Wallace Toronto left the country. He was given seven days’ notice to leave, which gave him time to call and orient the local leaders who would carry on the work after he left.

In April 1950 Latter-day Saint meetings were formally banned. Although the Church existed as a legal entity, it was not permitted to hold public meetings. As a result, the new acting mission presidency, led by Rudolf Kubiska, developed a system to enable Latter-day Saints to maintain their faith while limiting the risk of persecution. The acting mission presidency met with members separately and verbally distributed a proclamation that although the Church could not function publicly, membership of the Church remained valid. The Saints were instructed by Kubiska to strengthen their testimony, hold regular family home evenings and gospel study sessions, research their genealogy, and periodically meet in a member’s home to partake of the sacrament. They were also asked to continue paying tithes and fast offerings by opening a savings account and paying the funds into it. Priesthood leaders would make occasional visits to families and individuals to lift them and to instruct them, but they had to be careful. One Czechoslovakian Church leader later recounted that each Latter-day Saint household was considered “an individual, self-reliant ‘unit’ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” albeit in an unofficial manner.[80]

Rudolf Kusbiska, who was a member of the Communist Party, was chosen to implement StB dictates to the Church. On April 6, 1950, he was summoned to the State Office of Religious Affairs to meet with Josef Chmelař, the head of religious affairs. Rudolf was instructed that all activities by Church members were to be ended.[81] At that moment the church in Czechoslovakia was no longer a legal or formally recognized organization.[82] The majority of the approximately 250 members were split between five branches with approximately thirty-five to forty active members isolated from attending a congregation on account of distance.[83] The five congregations were soon consolidated into three: Plzeň, Brno, and Prague.

That same day the StB issued an internal report providing an update on Latter-day Saints in Czechoslovakia. With the missionaries now removed from the country, the State Security forces declared that they were turning their attention to those the missionaries had lived with during their time in Czechoslovakia. Frustratingly for the StB, surreptitious meetings continued to be held under the leadership of Rudolf Kubiska. Agents were assigned to gather intelligence on the three branches so “more knowledge about their activities will be gained.”[84]

Because of the StB ban, the Latter-day Saints met for the last time on April 6, 1950, where it was announced that there were to be no more public meetings.[85] In their report StB agents noted the public announcement. They were likely pleased as they considered the Church an illegal organization on account that it was not organized according to federal law and that there should be no further meetings. At that point StB agents did not know if the Saints were going to try and meet privately so they recommended that local authorities should keep an eye out for meetings.[86]

Latter-day Saint Stoicism

StB efforts to repress The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continued despite the removal of American leaders and missionaries. Olga Kozáková and Miloslava Dobrová were nineteen-year-old Latter-day Saints who had been members of the Church for only around six months when they were taken in for questioning by the StB. Questions were asked about the magazines they borrowed from the missionaries, their callings in the Church, whether the branch still met, and if so, where.[87] Minutes produced by the interrogators were then sent to the press, presumably for use to further discredit the Church. Again, personal letters were seized and copied. Each page of the transcripts was signed by those interrogated, presumably to ensure authenticity. There is currently no evidence to suggest those interrogated were forced to sign false statements, but there is an absence of material relating to the verification process.

In June 1950 the StB compiled a list of Latter-day Saint converts with directions to intelligence officers to interrogate the members and to discover the instructions presented to them by President Toronto before his departure.[88] The state also wanted to know who had been close to the missionaries, and many interrogations followed. One of those was with Božena Roháčková, who had been baptized a Latter-day Saint in April 1932 at age forty-two with her husband, Josef, in what was described as “a beautiful service, simple yet impressive + beautiful.”[89] Božena had been an active Latter-day Saint in the Prague Branch, but after the country’s liberation in 1945 and as a widow, she attended meetings only occasionally. In 1945 she joined the Communist Party, and after an interrogation with the StB she stopped attending meetings altogether. “She has a really positive attitude towards the party,” Božena’s interrogator reported. “She stopped attending the lectures because, as a member of the party, she recognized that the party and the said church had nothing to do with each other.”[90]

Interrogations of Czech members were pieces of a larger pattern. Around the same time, the CIA published a secret report entitled “The Soviet-Satellite Drive Against Western Influence in Eastern Europe.” It noted that Czechoslovakia had expelled numerous organizations based in Western Europe or North America, including “missionaries of the Mormon Church.”[91] The report suggested that there was a wholesale effort to repress religious and cultural thoughts, beliefs, and organizations perceived as being Western by expelling them or taking control of them.

Interrogations continued throughout the summer. On July 20, 1950, Stanislav and Miroslava Brádle were independently interrogated about their association with the Church. He had first attended meetings in Benešov during 1939 following Miroslava’s decision to be baptized in June 1938. In 1941, while stationed in Prague during World War II, Stanislav attended Latter-day Saint meetings at Josef Roubicek’s home, where he listened to lectures by men and women of the Church. He was subsequently baptized in 1944.[92] He, like many other Czechoslovakian Saints, attended meetings with the missionaries when they returned in 1946. The Brádle family had been supported during and after the war. He reported, “Because I was the weakest financially of the whole organization, I was given two worn-out suits and some laundry, some canned goods. When I was in prison, I got financial support twice for 500.-Kcs. Besides, I got several boxes of B vitamins.” Stanislav also noted that he had never had any political discussions with the missionaries and that he was not aware of “any of their activities outside of religious speeches.” He added, “I am aware that as a result of the illegal activities of the missionaries in the CSR, this religion is not allowed and as a result we are not allowed to hold divine services.”[93]

The persecution necessitated a shutdown of operations. Under the leadership of Rudolf Kubiska, members had to formally disassociate themselves from the Church and agree not to meet. On April 10, 1950, he wrote to every member explaining the situation and asking them to respond to him later stating they understood the restrictions now in place.[94] Zdenka Kučerová was one of those Saints. She had been baptized in Prague on December 1, 1935, and she assisted with the translation of James Talmage’s Articles of Faith. In her interrogation she detailed the process whereby the mission was shut down. In February 1950 she went away for a month for a medical treatment and on return found that the Torontos had left. She noted, “Whether he gave any orders to the members I do not know, only that he told the members that the church would continue to exist under the leadership of Mr. Kubiska and that the activities would continue as they were.”[95]

Wallace Toronto and others in the Czechoslovakian mission had anticipated a time when the mission would close and made contingency plans. Local leaders had been instructed to pursue legal means of meeting, but if that failed, they were to take the Church underground and to stop holding public meetings. Zdenka continued, “In April of this year I received a letter from Mr. Kubiska stating that I was giving up all religious activity in the church and that I would not be attending. I thanked him and sent it back with my signature to his address. I have never seen the Mormons since then, nor have I seen the members.”[96]

Thankfully we know a little more about Zdenka’s experience. She fled Czechoslovakia with her husband Frank and daughter Marta around the time of the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968. Frank was baptized in 1973, and the couple were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1977. While some members fell away from the persecution and liquidation of the Church, others managed to hold firm and persist in living the gospel of Jesus Christ.[97]

Despite the government’s restrictions on religious activity, Latter-day Saints tried to operate surreptitiously. Miroslava Bezakova met missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ in 1948 and was baptized by local members on May 21, 1950, along with her husband and daughter just a few months after the final missionaries were withdrawn. To avoid suspicion the Bezakovas and members of the Brno Branch caught a bus to the edge of town before walking an hour to the edge of a riverbank.[98]

The plan to be baptized in secret was threatened when they saw a crowd of people enjoying themselves on the Sunday afternoon. They could not risk proceeding with the baptism while there were onlookers. It was impossible to know who could be trusted. Branch president Cenek Vrba and two other priesthood holders walked into the woods to pray for help. Minutes later, as they returned, the crowd dispersed, and the Saints were alone and able to proceed. For Miroslava it was a miracle. In the following months and years, the Saints continued to observe their faith in their homes, and on the rare occasion they met together to partake of the sacrament. “The penalty for practicing religion or holding meetings of any kind,” wrote Miroslava, “was prison.” Her faith was subsequently practiced and nurtured in private until her escape to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1968.[99]

The StB fabricated evidence against Latter-day Saint involvement in anti-Communist activities. In September 1950, students at Litomyšl grammar school were mass arrested for anti-Communist activities. A year earlier a torn portrait of Stalin had been discovered in the toilet of the school and reported to local officials. Investigators began searching through the students’ possessions and questioning them. Ultimately it was determined that there were three suspicious groups of anti-Communists in the school. One of the groups, which was led by a young student by the name of Miloslav Kohout, was identified as a terrorist group that was seeking to commit anti-state activities and to connect to “the Mormons.” There were allegedly nineteen members of the group, but many met for the first time only when they were brought to court for trial. The allegation that the group had tried to coordinate or connect to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or its members, was a fabrication. Two public talks had been given at the school by missionaries in 1948, but there were no links to the students, let alone a conspiracy to commit mischief. Despite the forged connection between the students and the Church, Kohout and his group were handed heavy prison sentences.[100] Belonging, associating, or initiating some form of interaction with the Church, imagined or real, was a tool used by the Communist government to oppress those in opposition to them.

Conclusion

At the time that Czechoslovakia came under the control of a Communist government, it was the opinion of Elder Alma Sonne, president of the European Mission, that “in no other country in Europe is there more interest in the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”[101] The mission baptized seventy people in its final full year of operation and growth was occurring around the country. Despite the promising prospects, the Communist takeover spelled an unmitigated disaster for religious freedom. The new codified constitution greatly hampered the Saints’ efforts to live and share their faith.

Contemporary accounts show that Communist leaders could not understand why or believe that young Latter-day Saints would travel to another country to work full time in sharing their message without some ulterior motive. The expulsion of missionaries was also a clear intention to limit information about life in Czechoslovakia being spread in the West.[102] Elders Abbott and Johnson were just two of the twenty-nine missionaries expelled from Czechoslovakia during the late 1940s and 1950. Although an uncomfortable and frustrating experience, Latter-day Saint missionaries either continued their missionary service in the British Mission or in the United States.[103] For Czechoslovakian Latter-day Saints, however, what followed was decades of living a life and the gospel with the threat of punishment hanging over them. Over the years members were subjected to continued religious persecution.[104] Suspicion and distrust were features of everyday life. Who they visited, talked to, how long they spent in someone’s house, and how many people were gathered were just some of the issues that people had to consider. It proved to be a prolonged, weighty mental load for the Saints who stuck with their faith. The fact that many stood up to this burden and remained faithful is a testament to the power of the gospel in the lives of deeply committed Latter-day Saints.

The Czechoslovakian opposition to and persecution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was seemingly driven by ardent Communists, antireligiosity, and anti-American attitudes arising from the developing Cold War.[105] Anti-West attitudes permeated throughout society to include society, culture, and religion.[106] In 1950, when writing about the hazardous nature of missionary work, the Washington Religious Review noted, “The attacks on missionaries in Communist-dominated countries invariably come from state authorities,” and, “Every American, regardless of business or intentions, is suspect by Russian leaders, hence the continuing pressure by the satellite governments not only to rid their nations of American emissaries—but to prevent indigenous religious groups from maintaining effective contact with representatives of similar denominations in Western Europe or American countries.”[107]

The declassified State Security documents demonstrate the 1948 constitution failed to do what it assured. Religious freedom was not protected. Denominations were not free to carry out the acts connected with their faith. Ludvik Nemec argues that the 1948 constitution was “a masterpiece of propaganda, a clever facade behind which the true circumstances were successfully camouflaged.”[108] For Latter-day Saints and others, the constitution did the opposite of what it stated it would do. It offered no protection for religious faiths and was instead used to limit and stop activity.

There are several important lessons to learn from this episode of religious history. First, codification of religious freedom alone was not enough. There were not adequate definitions of terms in the constitution to enable the public to know how it was to be interpreted and implemented. Phrases such as “inconsistent with public order and morality” or “misused for non-religious ends” were wide open to interpretation and were abused by officials. Second, the document professed religious freedom, but there was no organization that owned and managed it. If there is no entity that arbitrates between political, civic, and religious groups regarding the interpretation of such a document, there is no protection against governmental overreach. Third, religious organizations in Czechoslovakia were not free from suspicion on account of international association. Disestablishment and persecution affected all religious organizations, but particular attention was meted out to those who originated from and were headquartered in Western countries. Association resulted in suspicion, even when there was no evidence or incriminating material to justify such attitudes.

Soviet influences on Czechoslovakia had resulted in a sudden and radical reconfiguration of Czechoslovakian society. By the early 1950s, Czechoslovakia was subject to repression “as brutal as any in the Soviet sphere,” and the Communist officials appear to have adopted approaches seen in other Communist states such as using legal processes to restrict others.[109] This brazen process of distorting and abusing processes served to mask the truth of what was going on, a well-established technique known as maskirovka that was practiced by Communists across Eastern and Central Europe.[110] In a remarkably short space of time, Communist goals were accomplished by abusing legal means intended to protect religious freedom. In this impossible situation, Latter-day Saints did the best they could to maintain their faith despite the public practice of it being forbidden.

While religious freedoms were supposedly guaranteed by the constitution in principle, in practice they were denied, which caused considerable hardship and disruption for Czechoslovakian Latter-day Saints. The Saints should have had a medium through which they could air their opposition, seek recourse, and be protected from discrimination, but they were instead forced to cease activities and their religiosity was viewed with suspicion. Yet, despite the restrictions in place, Latter-day Saints would continue to valiantly hold on to their beliefs for the next forty years when religious freedom would return to Czechoslovakia—in principle and in practice.

Notes

[1] Assembly of Captive European Nations, Czechoslovakia (New York: Assembly of Captive European Nations, 1964), 26.

[2] See Paul E. Zinner, Communist Strategy and Tactics in Czechoslovakia, 1918–48 (New York: Frederick A. Praegar, 1963).

[3] Mary Heimann, Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed (London: Yale University Press, 2009), 170–71. See also Spencer L. Taggart, “The Communist Seizure of Power in Czechoslovakia,” talk delivered at Georgetown University, 1954, unpublished manuscript in author’s possession.

[4] Zdenek L. Suda, Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Communist Part of Czechoslovakia (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1980), 226–28.

[5] Assembly of Captive European Nations, Czechoslovakia, 26.

[6] 150/1948 Coll. Constitutional Act of 9 May 1948 Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic, .

[7] Central Intelligence Agency, OR 50-49, “Significance of the Council of Economic Mutual Assistance,” April 13, 1949, 2. Declassified January 25, 1978, and approved for release through the historical review program on May 19, 1997. National Archives, 6924339, .

[8] Central Intelligence Agency, NIE 3, “Soviet Capabilities and Intentions,” November 15, 1950, 1. Declassified November 5, 1993, and approved for release through the historical review program on June 24, 1993. National Archives, 7326841, .

[9] Daniel Reeves, “Saints in Communist Czechoslovakia: Trial by Fire,” in Selections from the Religious Education Student Symposium, 2004 (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 159.

[10] Hoyt Palmer, “Young Czech Convert Guides Mission During War Period,” Church News, February 14, 1951, 7, 13.

[11] Kahlile Mehr, “Czech Saints: A Brighter Day,” Ensign,August 1994, 50.

[12] Martha Toronto Anderson, A Cherry Tree Behind the Iron Curtain: The Autobiography of Martha Toronto Anderson (Salt Lake City: self-published, 1977), 47.

[13] Heber C. Jacobs, “First Czech Mission Post-War Conference,” Church News, December 6, 1947, 4.

[14] Anderson, Cherry Tree, 43–47.

[15] “1948 Sees First Welfare Supplies Headed for Czechoslovakia,” Church News, January 31, 1948, 10.

[16] Wallace R. Toronto, “President Toronto Reports on Missionary Food Situation,” Church News, March 27, 1949, 15.

[17] Heber C. Jacobs, “Czechoslovak Conference Held in Prague,” Church News, September 8, 1948, p. 14.

[18] Toronto, “President Toronto Reports on Missionary Food Situation,” 15.

[19] S. E. Abbott, “My Mission to Czechoslovakia” (unpublished manuscript, July 1986), 6, MS 18574, box 1, folder 1, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

[20] Melvin P. Mabey journal, 1948–1950, May 5, 1949, MS 17721, box 1, folder 1, CHL.

[21] Jiři Otava, “Religious Freedom in Czechoslovakia,” Index on Censorship 6, no. 1 (1977): 25.

[22] See Miloš Doležal, Jako bychom dnes zemřít měli: Drama života, kněžství a mučednické smrti číhošťského faráře P. Josefa Toufara (Pelhřimov: Nová tiskárna Pelhřimov, 2012).

[23] Karel Kaplan, The Short March: The Communist Takeover in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1948 (London: C. Hurst, 1981), 133–50.

[24] Declassified State Security Report, “Donald Whipperman Eugene,” undated, MS 21265, box 1, folder 3, CHL.

[25] Declassified State Security Report, “Misionáři ‘Cirkve Ježiše Krista Svatých posledních dnů’—zprava,” May 11, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[26] Declassified State Security Report, untitled, May 13, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[27] Karel Kaplan, “Church and State in Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1956, Part I,” Religion in Communist Lands 14, no. 1 (1986): 59.

[28] Jaroslav Stransky, “State and Church in Czechoslovakia: Struggle for Religious Freedom,” Scotsman, June 24, 1949, 4.

[29] Declassified State Security Report, “Ježiše Krista Svatých posledních dnů-šetř,” June 2, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[30] Albert L. Zobell Jr., “Twenty Years in the Czechoslovakian Mission,” Improvement Era 53, no. 1 (1950): 32–33, 76.

[31] Declassified State Security Report, “Cirkev Ježiše Krista,” June 20, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[32] Declassified State Security Report, “Přednáška Mormonů-zákaz,” April 12, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[33] Zobell, “Twenty Years in the Czechoslovakian Mission,” 33.

[34] Carl Aldon Johnson, “My Heritage,” unpublished document in author’s possession.

[35] Anderson, Cherry Tree, 50.

[36] Declassified State Security Report, “Navrh cinne patrnosti,” January 13, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[37] Declassified State Security Report, “Mormoni-zmena misionaru,” May 10, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[38] Declassified State Security Report, untitled, January 28, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[39] Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný dnešniho dne na zdejším velitelství s/ Kudrna Vlastimil,” March 7, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[40] Spencer L. Taggart, Witnessing Freedom’s Loss (unpublished manuscript in author’s possession), 16.

[41] Václava Jandečková, “Ota Tulačka a tajné akce zaměstnanců amerického velvyslanectví v Praze 1948–1949 Protikomunistická činnost a souvislosti s akcemi StB ‘Kámen’, ‘Praha–Žatec’ a ‘Hansa,’” Securitas Imperii 22, no. 1 (2013): 56. See also Igor Lukes, “The Czechoslovak Special Services and Their American Adversary during the Cold War,” Journal of Cold War Studies 9, no. 1 (2007): 5–6. See also Igor Lukes, The Cold War: American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar Prague (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 155–56.

[42] Taggart, Witnessing Freedom’s Loss, 4.

[43] Scott L. Taggart, “Sixty Years—Personal Glimpses, 1931–1990” (unpublished talk in author’s possession), 2–3. Delivered to the Ex-Libris Literary Club, Logan, Utah, on September 26, 1990.

[44] Lukes, Cold War, 154–57.

[45] Igor Lukes, “Ein nachrichtendienstliches Versagen: Die Amerikaner und die kommunistische Machtergreifung in der Tschechoslowakei 1948,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 55, no. 2 (2007): 232–33.

[46] “Další porážka pokusu o špionáž a rozvrat,” Rudé právo, October 23, 1949, 7.

[47] “LDS Quartet Quits Prague under Orders,” Salt Lake Tribune, November 22, 1949, 3.

[48] Abbott, “My Mission,” 10.

[49] Abbott, “My Mission,” 11.

[50] Abbott, “My Mission,” 11–12.

[51] Declassified State Security Report, “Stanley E. Abbott z Brandysa n.L.—korespondence,” September 9, 1949, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[52] Abbott, “My Mission,” 12.

[53] “U.S. Requests Data on Missing Mormons,” New York Times, February 10, 1950, 14.

[54] “U.S. Prodding Czechs to Free Missionaries,” New York Times, February 21, 1950, 15.

[55] “2 Mormons Missing in Czechoslovakia,” New York Times February 9, 1950, 5.

[56] Abbott, “My Mission,” 13; and Kahlile Mehr, “Enduring Believers: Czechoslovakia and the LDS Church, 1884-1990,” Journal of Mormon History 18, no. 2 (1992): 142–43.

[57] “Czechs Release Two Missionaries After 27-Day Imprisonment,” Church News, March 5, 1950, 3; and Anderson, Cherry Tree, 59.

[58] “Two U.S. Mormons Ousted by Czechs,” New York Times, February 25, 1950, 4.

[59] Dana Adams Schmidt, “Prague Discloses Mormons’ Arrest,” New York Times, February 15, 1950, 6.

[60] “Mormons Ship 11 Missionaries Out of Prague,” Chicago Tribune, February 21, 1950, 6; and “Family of Missionary Arrives from Prague,” Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1950, 10.

[61] Abbott, “My Mission,” 13.

[62] Abbott, “My Mission,” 13.

[63] Abbott, “My Mission,” 16.

[64] Abbott, “My Mission,” 17–18.

[65] ‘O mně,’ Nový Hlas 28, no. 3 (1948): 9–10.

[66] Mehr, “Enduring Believers,” 141.

[67] “Communist Czechoslovakia: Diminishing Contacts with the West,” Scotsman, August 15, 1950, 6.

[68] “Czech Points to LDS in Spy Charges,” Deseret News, March 23, 1950, 1.

[69] “Czechs Expel Twelfth Mormon,” New York Times, December 19, 1949, 19.

[70] “Budget for Police Trebled in Prague,” New York Times, March 24, 1950, 8.

[71] Declassified State Security Report, “Dílcí zpráva k ČP.9. a k objektu č. 162,” February 17, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[72] “Dílcí zpráva k ČP.9. a k objektu č. 162.”

[73] Declassified State Security Report, “Mormonsti misionari-vyslechy,” February 20, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[74] Declassified State Security Report, “Mormoni-misionari cirkve Jezise Krista, pobyt v CSR -vyslech,” February 21, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[75] “Mormoni-misionari cirkve Jezise Krista, pobyt v CSR-vyslech.”

[76] “Ousted Mormons Here from Europe,” New York Times, May 8, 1950, 6.

[77] Declassified State Security Report, “Mormoni—pobyt v ČSR—protokolární výslechy,” March 1, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[78] “11 LDS Elders Leave Prague,” Salt Lake Tribune, February 21, 1950, 13.

[79] “Prague Will Ban U.S. Missionaries,” New York Times, March 5, 1950, 36.

[80] Cenek H. Vrba, “Czechoslovak Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1950–1968,” 1–3, MS 30498, box 1, folder 20, CHL.

[81] Melvin and June Mabey, interview, March 12, 2003, 13, OH 3212, box 1, folder 1, CHL.

[82] Toronto, “President Toronto Reports Condition of Saints Left in Czechoslovakia,” 4.

[83] Toronto, “President Toronto Reports Condition of Saints Left in Czechoslovakia,” 4.

[84] Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný dnešního dne na zdejším velitelství s Kozáková, Olga,” May 16, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[85] Declassified State Security Report, “Mormoni—zpráva,” May 5, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[86] “M�ǰ����DzԾ������á����.”

[87] Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný dnešního dne na zdejším velitelství s Kozáková, Olga,” May 16, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL; and Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný u zdejšího velitelství s, Dobrová, Miroslava,” May 16, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[88] Declassified State Security Report, “Mormoni—zařazení do akce ‘I’,” June 7, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[89] Charles D. Miller, missionary journal (January–December 1932), April 14, 1932, MS 12120, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[90] Declassified State Security Report, “Roháčková Božena—styky s Mormony—zpráva,” June 30, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[91] Central Intelligence Agency, ORE 17-50, “Soviet Satellite Drive Against Western Influence in Eastern Europe,” June 2, 1950, 6. Declassified September 11, 1977, and approved for release through the historical review program on July 21, 1992. National Archives, 6924374, .

[92] Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný dnešního dne na zdejším velitelství s Brádle, Stanislav,” July 20, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[93] “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný dnešního dne na zdejším velitelství s Brádle, Stanislav.”

[94] Rudolf Kubiska to the Czechoslovakian Saints, April 10, 1950, DE-01-00001, CHL.

[95] Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi sepsaný u zdejšího velitelstvi s, Kučerová, Zdenka,” June 26, 1950, MS 21265, box 1, folder 2, CHL.

[96] Declassified State Security Report, “Zápis o výpovědi”

[97] Mehr, “Enduring Believers,” 144–45.

[98] Biography of Miroslava Vesela Bezakova, undated and unpublished manuscript in author’s possession, 4.

[99] Biography of Miroslava Vesela Bezakova, 4.

[100] Johana Heřmánková, “Za portrét Stalina ve školním záchodě vězení. Proces s nezletilými studenty,” Paměť národa, June 23, 2020, .

[101] Wallace G. Bennett, “Czech Mission Gains,” Church News, June 27, 1948, 15.

[102] Dana Adams Schmidt, “Czech Police Said to Hold Mormons,” New York Times, February 11, 1950, 3.

[103] Fred C. Goldthorpe papers, 1947–1949; 1991–1994, Reminiscences of mission, 1947–1949, MS 20582, box 1, folder 1, CHL.

[104] “Czechs Jail 14 Mormons,” New York Times, July 25, 1954, 3.

[105] “Prague Will Ban U.S. Missionaries,” New York Times March 5, 1950, 36.

[106] Dana Adams Schmidt, “Prague to Expand Anti-West Policy,” New York Times, March 6, 1950, 1.

[107] “Foreign Missionary Work Grows More Hazardous,” Washington Religious Review 104 (February 27, 1950): 1.

[108] Ludvik Nemec, “The Communist Ecclesiology during the Church-State Relationship in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1967,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 112, no. 4 (1968): 252.

[109] Philip Jenkins, A Global History of the Cold War, 1945–1991 (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), 41.

[110] Charles L. Smith, “Soviet Maskirovka,” Airpower 2, no. 1 (1988): 28.