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In 1972, director Duan Hank made Pictures of the Old World with old people living in the Slovak countryside.

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The communist regime did not discourage Duan Hank from portraying reality, though he paid the price.

In the 1969 movie 322, the Slovak directors feature debut, he captures real life under communism through the story of a common man who regrets his past and tries to rediscover the actual meaning of life. Abundant in symbols, including the films title comparing communism to cancer, the regime banned the psychological drama in the late sixties. This year, it was named the best Slovak picture of the century.

Three years later, in 1972, Hank created Pictures of the Old World, a documentary that he wrote and directed. The stories of old, lonely and poor people, who were not actors at all and lived in the countryside of northern Slovakia under communism, were recounted through Slovak photographer Martin Martineks black-and-white pictures, film shots and interviews.

These are the stories of people who have been themselves, the film claims right at the start about the people living on the edge of society.

One photo captures an old woman rolling over a fence. A film sequence portrays a man who built a house and keeps on living, though he had lost both of his legs. There is a man living in the mountains who knows a lot about the universe and the widower who speaks several foreign languages. Another man drinks from a bottle of alcohol, the reason his wife left him.

The films budget was almost 1.6 million Czechoslovak crowns.

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Communists banned one of the greatest Slovak films due to ugly people - The Slovak Spectator

Millions of Chinese officials were investigated in the past 10 years amid Beijing's anti-corruption campaign

News Analysis

Chinese researchers recently developed artificial intelligence technology that can gauge Chinese officials loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. The technology could be a tool for Beijings anti-corruption campaign to monitor further and purge corrupt Party members, indicating the regimes growing fear oflosing its legitimacy and power.

More than 4.7 million officials at all levels were investigated, subjected to various forms of disciplinary punishment, or prosecuted in the past 10 years, according to data released by Chinas top watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), on June 20.

Beijings anti-corruption campaign was initialed in November 2012, when Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping first came to power.

Political corruption is the biggest corruption. Some corrupt elements have formed interest groups in the hope of stealing power from the party and the state, according to state-run mediaXinhua.

TheInstitute of Artificial Intelligence at Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center in eastern Chinas Anhui Province published a post, claiming that it developed technology that could directly support the CCP. A wonderfulconnection between AI and construction of the CCP, it touted onits official WeChat account on July 1, the 101st anniversary of the founding of the CCP.

The post included a video showinga man walking into an equipment room labeled Smart Political Thinking Bar, then sitting in front of a computer with a touch screen to take a test. After completing the test, his test score and analysis chart appeared on the screen.

The test, catered to Communist Party members, covers content taught in Party schools, including political indoctrination such as Xi Jinping Thought, communism, socialism, CCP history, and current policies and regulations.

The video introduced a device that could use AI technology to extract the biometric features of CCP members, including facial expressions, electroencephalography, and dermatological features, among others.

After integrating and analyzing personal data, it would evaluate how a person was able to understand the content he/she studied, such as gauging the level of concentration, recognition, and mastery of the various subjects.

The device can successfully integrate AI technology into the organizational life of CCP members, said the researchers in the short film. The organizational life refers tobehaviors the CCP imposes on its members, such as proving ones loyalty to the Party.

The research team said it designed the AI device for building up the CCPahead of the 20th Communist Party Congress. The Partys most important political meeting is expected to be held at the end of this year, which will determine whether Xi can secure a third term.

At the time of writing, the WeChat post was taken down.

However, it had been widely shared on social media before it was removed, triggering public criticism of the use of AI to monitor ideological indoctrination, with some denouncing it as technological brainwashing and digital authoritarianism.

U.S.-based media China Digital Timesobtainedsome of the posts content and video and published a report earlier this month.

According to public information, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Anhui provincial government established the Hefei tech institute. The institute is managed by the University of Science and Technology of China.

Speaking at a press briefing held by the CCPs propaganda department on June 30, Wang Jianxin, director of the CCDIs publicity department, said that in 10 years, from the Partys 18thCongress to the end of April this year, around 4.3 million corruption probes were carried out and over 4.7 million officials received punishment.

Those CCP members were accused of various charges such as corruption, ties with criminal groups, abuse of power, and immoral lifestyle. An official report on the CCPs image crisis, released in 2012 by Tang Jun, director of the Crisis Management Research Center of Renmin University of China, said thatas many as 95 percent of corrupt officials investigated had a mistress, and more than 60 percent of corrupt cadres had a second wife.

Zhang Lei, a law professor at Beijing Normal University, toldXinhua on June 30 that there are four major problems among the CCP cadres: formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism, and extravagance.

Gao Wenqian, a scholar of CCP history, told VOA on Oct. 28, 2016, that the CCPs institutional approach can only treat the symptoms of corruption but not the root cause, citing that one partys monopoly of power is the root cause of corruption in the CCP officialdom.

If you [the CCP] dont fight corruption from the system, its like fighting flies around a manure pit. Youll never get to the end; the more you fight, the more you get stuck. The result would be flies are as big as tigers and tigers are as many as flies, Gao said.

The CCPs so-called anti-corruption campaign is the equivalent of a restaurantproudly announcing that in the past year it has managed to find 100,000 flies in its dishes, 10,000 rats in its soup, and 50,000 worms in its rice, wrote anetizen in the comment section of the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times.

I wonder if the customers still think this restaurant is clean. Corruption is an Achilles heel that the autocratic regime cannot solve itselfthat is, the same interest groups cannot govern themselves from inside.

The AI surveillance tech and anti-corruption campaign indicate that the CCP, fearing its downfall, will impose stricter controls on its members, especially high-level officials.

Official media Qiushi Magazine recentlypublisheda speech that Xi delivered at a seminar for provincial and ministerial-level officials on Jan. 11. Xi stressed the Party shouldstrive to resolve the impurity of ideological thoughts, lifestyles, and organizations within the Partyanythingthat could undermine the CCPs authority.

Last year, Xi warned CCP members about the consequences of stepping out of line. In a speech, he pointed out that some officials have morphed into the spokesmen for various interest groups, power units, and privileged classes. Xi stressed that no matter who has the problem, they should be investigated and punished decisively and without mercy.

Moreover, at a June 17 meeting of the CCPs Politburo, Xi said that anti-corruption is a major political campaign that cannot afford to fail.

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Chinese Researchers Develop New AI Tech to Screen 'Loyalty' of Communist Party Members - The Epoch Times

Definition and Origins

Communism is a specific form of the broader philosophy of socialism. Communism is further left on the political spectrum than socialism. However, both communism and socialism share similar understandings of the relationships between economic structures and social conditions, and between the individual and the state. Although there are many versions of socialist philosophy, socialism generally retains private property ownership and calls for gradual political change. By contrast, communist theory holds that change will occur via a proletariat revolution that will abolish private property.

Communism originated with the German philosopher/intellectual Karl Marx (1818-1883). In 1848, he published The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). The Communist Manifesto argues that the story of history is the story of class struggle. Communism posits that industrial society is divided into two classes of people: the proletariat (workers) and the bourgeoisie (capitalists). The interests of the two classes are in conflict. The bourgeoisie, who own the factories and businesses, profit from the labor of the proletariatat the proletariats expense. Moreover, the problems of industrial society, such as the poverty Engels described in The Condition of the English Working Class (1844), are inherent in capitalism. The powerful elites could not be expected to voluntarily give up control. Therefore, communists predicted that the collective struggle of the working class would lead to the proletariat revolution and the elimination of capitalism in favor of a classless society based on the principle of From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.1

Soviet Union

Communist ideas spread rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Communist political parties formed in every state across Europe, but they achieved the most success in Russia under Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). Lenin was the leader of a faction of Russian communists known as the Bolsheviks. The term Bolshevism refers to Soviet-style communism. Bolshevism has significant departures from traditional Marxist communist theory.

Russia had been ruled by the Romanov dynasty since the 17th century. By the late 19th century, Russia faced a series of challenges that culminated in World War I. For Russia, World War I was a disaster, causing widespread hunger and popular unrest. In 1917, the country collapsed into revolution. The Romanov dynasty was deposed. Following several months of disorder and civil war, Lenin seized control and established the Soviet Union.

After Lenins death, Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) assumed power. Stalin consolidated his power by removing or killing real or perceived political dissenters. He implemented a series of Five Year Plans for the economic growth of the Soviet Union. These plans distorted Marxist communist theory into violent totalitarianism. Under Stalins dictatorship, the Soviet government exercised near-complete control over citizens private and public lives through terror and repression.

Germany

Socialist parties in Germany grew out of the trade union movement and began achieving electoral success in the late 19th century. By 1912, the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) was the largest party in the Reichstag (German parliament). In 1918, the left wing of the socialist movement split off to form the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany, KPD) under Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) and Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919). In the first election after the war, the Social Democrats won almost 40 percent of the vote. SPD leader Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925) became the first president of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1925. The Social Democrats remained the largest party in the Reichstag until the July 1932 elections.

The Communist Party was never as popular as the Social Democrats. It reached its electoral peak in November 1932 with 16.9% of the vote.2 Within six months of this election, however, Hitler had seized power. He banned political parties other than the Nazis and began imprisoning German communists at Dachau.

Anti-Communism

Socialist and communist philosophies had never been popular with Europes conservative elites. They considered these beliefs to be dangerous ideologies that threatened their traditional political and economic control. The Russian Revolution and emergence of the Soviet Union increased fears of violent revolution and a radical reordering of society. These fears played out both within Germany and across Europe. Within Germany, Hitler was able to become chancellor in 1933 in part due to President Paul von Hindenburgs (1847-1934) fears of communismthe Nazi party was reliably anti-communist.

Across Europe, a similar logic governed international reaction to Hitlers new Third Reich. By the 1930s, Stalin had initiated forced collectivization, or the replacement of private farms with state-run, collective farms. He had also established industrial production quotas. His efforts eliminated the free market. This also gave the rest of the world a glimpse of the type of communist revolution the Comintern, a Soviet-controlled, global communist organization, was encouraging internationally. If communism were to spread from the Soviet Union into Germany, it would reach into the heart of Europe. The fear of communism prompted several European leadersincluding British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlainto focus at first on Nazisms anti-communist credentials rather than its territorial ambitions or antisemitism.

Communism was antithetical to Nazism because communism prioritized class above nation and race. However, in the Nazi imagination, communism was recast as Judeo-Bolshevism. Judeo-Bolshevism claims that communism was a Jewish plot designed at German expense. Judeo-Bolshevisms threat was emphasized by Germanys proximity to the Soviet Union and competing Nazi-Soviet territorial ambitions in Eastern Europe. The existence of a communist state so close to Germany was not merely a political threat, but also an existential racial and ideological threat. For Nazis, both Jews and communists were made worse by their supposed identification with one another.

As soon as the Nazis rose to power, they began targeting communists, both inside and outside Germany. In 1933, the first concentration camp opened at Dachau to hold political prisoners. The first prisoners were all communists. Later in 1933 the Nazis banned all political parties. They intensified the targeting of Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists. As early as 1933before the Nazi regime had made any significant moves against Jews or the disabledGerman Communists were detained in mass arrests and tortured. Once the war began, the Commissar Order demonstrated the depth of Nazi fear and hatred of communism. Issued in June 1941, the Commissar Order directed German soldiers to shoot on principle all Soviet commissars (Soviet Communist Party officials) and POWs, in violation of international law.3

Last Edited: Jun 10, 2019

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Communism | Holocaust Encyclopedia

Alex Cejka doesnt think about the danger anymore.

He knows the treacherous journey his father led him on as they escaped Communist Czechoslovakia when he was 9 formed him as a person. But Cejka, 51 and in his second season on the PGA Tour Champions, wont say it still drives him.

Everybody has some kind of a story, Cejka said. That formed me in my early years, to appreciate everything you have, for the chances you are given, youve got to work on those chances, nobody gives you anything for free, youve got to earn everything.

Cejka (pronounced CHAY-kuh) and his dad traveled by foot and train, by swimming and biking through Yugoslavia, Italy and Switzerland before settling near Frankfurt, Germany. His father, an engineer with multiple college degrees, was forced to work in a restaurantbusing and cleaning tablesbefore he found a better-paying job.

My dad taught me a great lesson when we came when I was a young kid. We came to a different country, I didnt know how to speak the language, I didnt have any money and my dad didnt have any money, Cejka said Thursday at Firestone Country Club. You learn to fight, the survival is there, and that shows it doesnt matter if you are 15 or 23 or 40, that drive is there.

The whole trip, the whole situation formed me into a person who thrives, doesnt want to give up, if I fail, Ill try again. But I dont want to say its somewhere in the back of my mind. I was just too young to understand what situation my dad was in or how difficult or challenging or what dangers there were, but I think the whole trip formed me. It was tricky.

Inspired by German star Bernhard Langer to abandon ice hockey and soccer for golf, Cejka has called on all those lessons during his professional career.

He turned pro in 1989 and earnedthe first of 11 international victories in the 1990 Czech Open. He joined the PGA Tour in 2003, but in 2013 and '14 was forced to step downto theKorn Ferry Tour, wherehe wononce. Cjekas only victory on the PGA Tour came in the Puerto Rico Open in 2015, when he picked up a $540,000 first-place prize.

His PGA Tour earnings totaled nearly $13 million, but on the Champions Tour he picked up the pace, winning two majors in 2021.

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Coming into this weeks Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, Cejka had earned over $2.3 million in two seasons and stood 14th on the 2022 Schwab Cup list with two top 10s and seven top 25s in 13 events.

In his return to Akron for the fourth of five senior majors, Cejka fired a 6-under 64 on the famed South Course Thursday to claim the first-round lead.

Cejka knows whats working for him on the Champions Tour.

It's a big difference if you play on this tour or if you play on the PGA Tour against 23-year-old kids who hit it 50 yards past you, make every putt, make every chip, he said. The last couple years on the PGA Tour I played good, but the courses were just too long. You know, too much pressure. You're trying to make the cut and you're annoyed even if you make it but you finish 50th because physically, you just can't beat those guys on a weekly basis.

I can have a good week and I can finish up there, but that's not what we play for playing 30 tournaments and finish once up there. Those guys are just super good. The game has changed in the last couple years, everybody hits it so far now. So it's really pleasant to play like guys my distance with no cut. It's a totally different mindset than teeing it up on the PGA Tour on Thursday and you know you have to shoot 6 under to make the cut. That's the only difference.

Cejka has also found the lifestyle suits him. He and his wife travel by RV, which is parked across the street from the Firestone clubhouse. They bring their smallest dog on the road as well.

Its a great spot, I love it here, he said.

Cejka qualified for the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational at Firestone in 2003 and 2004, but was not in the field for the 2021 Bridgestone Senior Players. He loves the test of the difficult old course.

It's a great course. I played here a long, long time ago … I want to say 20 years ago maybe, and it was back then already really, really tough, really narrow, Cejka said. I just told myself I've got to miss it in good spots and I did. My thinking was great, my execution was great today.

Cejka is pushing for his third senior major with the same drive he learned when he was 9.

It made me what I am now, still humble, still appreciate every chance, he said. Im on it now. After playing so many years on the PGA Tour, you are 50 and you can still have a second chance. And Im playing here with guys Ive known for 20, 30 years who are major champions, my heroes when I was young, they are Hall of Famers.

You know what an honor it is for me to play with guys like this? It doesnt matter if its Fred Couples or Bernhard Langer or Vijay [Singh], you name them all.

"Weall want to beat each other. We are great friends. But when we step up there, everybody has an ego. Most of us dont do it maybe for the big money anymore, but its our drive, its our ego and you want to play good. That'swhat were here for.

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com.Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

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At age 9, golfer Alex Cejka and his father escaped Communism - Akron Beacon Journal

While reading Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Lowland', you're instantly taken to the 60s Naxalite movement in Kolkata.

The Naxalbari movement also saw differences in the Communist Party of India. Two years after the India-China War of 1962, the party split, leading to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Jyoti Basu, the beacon of Indian Communism, became one of the founding members of its politburo

Jyoti Basu had many achievements to his name, such as being Indias longest-serving chief minister (overtaken by Pawan Kumar Chamling) and a beacon of Indias Communist movement. But in 1996, he came close to adding another feather to his cap almost becoming Indias first Bengali and Marxist prime minister, eventually losing out to H.D. Deve Gowda when his Communist Party of India (Marxist) decided not to join the United Front government.

His watch saw many big initiatives, such as land reforms, minimum wages for agricultural labourers, a three-tier panchayati system, dole for the unemployed and widows, and the establishment of a separate department for youth services, as per his obituary in Frontline magazine.

Today, let's remember the Leftist stalwart and CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu on his birth anniversary.

Basu had served as the chief minister of the state from 1977 to 2000. Basu ruled West Bengal for 23 uninterrupted years between 1977 and 2000, and was known for his realpolitik at the height of the Vietnam War, he renamed the Calcutta street on which the American consulate stood after Communist icon Ho Chi Minh, and then went to Washington to seek investment.

Born into an upper middle-class family in Calcutta, Basu was introduced to politics through the Communist Party of Great Britain, becoming acquaintances with Harry Pollitt, Rajani Palme Dutt, Ben Bradley and other leaders. He also attended lectures of Harold Laski, a Marxist poet who later became chairman of the British Labour Party, and involved himself in organising various activities of Indian students in the UK.

The turning point in his political life came in 1938 when he joined the London Majlis and became its first secretary. The main function of the Majlis was to organise meetings of Indian leaders visiting England with those of the Labour Party and other Socialists, and this brought Basu into contact with the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.

Leading light of the Indian Left

Having developed a firm belief in the Communist ideals, Basu returned to India in 1940 and joined the Communist Party of India, also becoming secretary of the Friends of the Soviet Union and Anti-Fascist Writers and Artists Association in Calcutta.

In 1977, after the Emergency, the Left Front came to power in West Bengal, with Basu, who had switched to the Satgachia constituency, becoming CM.

He retired from active politics in 2000, leaving the Left Front government in the hands of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who ruled for 11 more years. Basu remained a member of the CPI(M) politburo till 2008, and a special invitee of the partys central committee till his death.

Basu suffered multiple organ failure on 1 January 2010, and passed away on 17 January 2010.

As per his wishes, his body and eyes were handed over to SSKM Hospital, Kolkata, for research.

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Jyoti Basu Birth Anniversary: Remembering the beacon of Indian Communism - Free Press Journal