#FlashbackFriday : Happy New Year 1964
In a rather dry New Year’s Day speech, President Antonín Novotný talks trade and tourism
Before current Czech President Miloš Zeman in 2013 moved the date of the annual speech back Christmas, it took place on New Year’s Day.
Zeman said that the change was to restore the speech to when it had been during the First Republic and up until the communist takeover in 1948.
On Jan. 1, 1964, the man giving the speech was First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Czechoslovakia Antonín Novotný. He was first secretary from March 1953 to January 1968 and president from November 1957 to March 1968.
Communist leaders were never known for their flashy media style, and Novotný is no exception.
His speech is also rather brief compared to modern ones. The clip of it on Youtube, uploaded by the Associated Press, runs two minutes and three seconds. Currently the speeches run about 20 minutes.
There is a little hint of production values in the 1964 speech, with the rather static wide shot eventually being exchanged for a close up, and Novotný finally taking off his glasses, which were creating rather distracting shadows due to poorly placed lights.
Historically, the speech catches Novotný in the middle of reluctantly implementing some reforms and replacing old-school Stalinist hardliners with a newer generation.
In the speech, in Czech without subtitles, he talks about the importance of maintaining the ideals of the socialist state while encouraging foreign trade. He also says that opening the borders for foreign tourism wouldn’t mean giving up on the socialist lifestyle. Czechoslovak citizens should be friendly but maintain their dignity.
He fills much of the speech with rather empty phrases about looking back over the past year and looking forward to what new experiences the new one will bring, with wishes for peace, success, contentment and so on, and thanks to the people and various political organs.
Four years later, Novotný would be replaced by Alexander Dubček as first party secretary. Dubček's Prague Spring reforms came to an end with the 1968 Soviet-led invasion followed by a policy of so-called Normalization.
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