Communist-era Czech dissidents get pension bump

Petruska Sustrova was a well-known Czech journalist, translator and expert on Eastern Europe. But she had no choice but to continue working even after she had reached retirement age.

"I will have to go on working for the rest of my life," she once said, "because I simply can't make ends meet on my pension." 

In the 21 years between the Soviet occupation of former Czechoslovakia in August 1968, which put an end to the period of reform known as the Prague Spring, and the collapse of Communist Party rule in the country in November 1989, Sustrova was part of a group of high-profile dissidents and critics of the regime.

She was also one of the first signatories and later spokeswoman of Charter 77, a document and civil rights initiative that criticized the Czechoslovakian government's failure to observe human rights as set out in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1975.

The charter was published across Europe on January 1, 1977 and resulted in a campaign of repression against those who had signed it. 

Low pensions for dissidents

Sustrova spent several years in prison for her involvement in the initiative and was not allowed to work for seven years in the 1980s. The rest of the time, she was only allowed to do menial, very poorly paid jobs. She was not alone: Hundreds of other dissidents shared her fate and ended up with tiny pensions as a result.

Until recently, the Czech authorities responsible for pensions calculated the former dissidents' pensions on the basis of the number of years they had worked and the wages they had earned.

However, because regime critics like Sustrova had little or no regular income over long periods, the pensions they received were tiny. Many lived in poverty or had to go on working well past retirement age.

Lasting impact of communist repression

"The repression committed by the communist regime had a major influence on the pensions of Czech dissidents, because they were not allowed to practice their professions. Moreover, the time they spent in prison was not considered when calculating their pensions," Kamil Nedvedicky, deputy director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR), told DW.

One of the USTR's main tasks is to manage and provide access to the archives of the communist state security apparatus and to publish academic papers on Czechoslovakia's totalitarian era, which ended with the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. This led to the election of dissident and playwright Vaclav Havel as president of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989 and free elections in the following year.

In 1993, Czechoslovakia was dissolved, creating the independent, democratic countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

High pensions for loyal communists

In sharp contrast to the circumstances of the dissidents, supporters of the former communist regime and party officials benefited from high pensions.

In addition, some former rulers amassed considerable private fortunes during the 40 years of communist rule. These fortunes included villas that they were allowed to keep even after the collapse of the communist regime and are now worth millions.

This injustice was the result of an intentionally soft approach to dealing with former communist officials adopted by successive democratic governments after the collapse of communism.

It was part of the strategy of the anti-communist Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ended with the peaceful handover of power and a swift transition to democracy.

There were also a number of young, high-ranking communists who benefited from the wave of privatization that followed the end of communism and became successful, wealthy entrepreneurs. One of these is the oligarch and former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis.

Justice after 35 years

Last year, Charter 77 signatories Jiri Gruntorad and John Bok decided that something had to be done to draw attention to the plight of elderly former dissidents.

They went on hunger strike outside government buildings in Prague, demanding higher pensions for themselves and fellow communist-era dissidents.

"Many of these people were put in prison or driven out of the country. It is absurd that they now have to beg for money," said Gruntorad at the time.

It was only as a result of this dramatic protest that change came about. The government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala amended the relevant laws and increased the pensions of several hundred opponents of the communist regime, raising them to the average Czech pension of about €800 ($840) a month. It was a considerable improvement.

For Petruska Sustrova, however, the change came too late. She died in 2023 at the age of 76.

Increased pensions for former dissidents

Speaking on the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution last week, Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Marian Jurecka said that the pension increase currently benefits 430 former dissidents who were either imprisoned or exiled by the communist regime and had consequently thus far only been entitled to small pensions.

The pensions of former dissidents were increased by an average 4,400 Czech crowns (around €175 or $185) a month.

"After 35 years," said Jurecka, "we can today draw a symbolic line under this issue. It is a symbolic reckoning with the past and several injustices that were done."

Pensions for former communist officials cut

The amendment to the relevant law, which was adopted last year, also led to cuts in the very high pensions paid to senior members of the former communist regime.

The USTR played an important role in deciding who was entitled to a higher pension and whose pensions had to be cut.

The Czech labor ministry confirmed that the pensions of 177 people were cut, the largest reduction amounting to 7,775 crowns (approx. €307 or $325).

The average pension cut for former senior communist officials was almost 1,500 crowns (approx. €59 or $62). Despite these cuts, most of this group have an average pension of almost €1,000 — which is still more than what former dissidents get.

Communists oppose the change

According to Nedvedicky of the USTR, the reasons why the pensions of the most senior communist functionaries were cut are also understandable: "The pensions of these people were well above average, because they were rewarded for their role in the oppression and their income was higher than that of the average wage-earner."

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and its chairwoman Katerina Konecna, on the other hand, opposed the amended pension law.

"After 35 years, I consider this to be a pure demonstration of power and yet another part of the unfair treatment of pensioners by the current government," Konecna, a member of the European Parliament, told DW.

The article was originally written in German and adapted by Aingeal Flanagan.