Josef Smrkovský

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Josef Smrkovský

Josef Smrkovský (born February 26, 1911 in Velenka , Okres Nymburk , † January 15, 1974 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak politician and President of the Parliament of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring .

biography

Josef Smrkovský and Ludvík Svoboda
(Photo: Stanislav Tereba )

The son of a farmer and trained baker belonged to the communist youth association since the 1930s. In 1933 he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , in 1935 he was a delegate at the congress of the Communist Youth International in Moscow and worked illegally during the German occupation . In the Second World War he took over the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and was a leading member of the illegal Czech National Council .

From 1945 to 1948 he was chairman of the Czechoslovak Real Estate Fund and until 1951 a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Since 1946 he was a member of the Prague Parliament. In 1948 he led the people's militia as deputy commander during the communist takeover . Between 1949 and 1951 Smrkovský was deputy minister of agriculture and general director of state property under Gottwald .

In 1951 he was arrested on suspicion of an anti-state conspiracy, of which General Secretary Rudolf Slansky was later accused, and subjected to physical and psychological violence during interrogation. He was also accused of criminally abusing his position as managing director of Czechoslovak state assets, although no evidence was found and he did not make a confession. Instead, the Brno Party Secretary Otto Šling , who was also accused, was blackmailed into giving testimony, which served as the basis for arrest and charges against Smrkovský and other officials. Separately from the Slansky trial , Smrkovský was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for treason and sabotage, which he served in the Prague-Ruzyne prison . In 1955, following a recommendation by the Commission of Inquiry into the revision of the political processes of the CPC under Rudolf Barak , the prison sentence was suspended because some judicial methods were considered inadequate. However, his dismissal meant neither rehabilitation nor presumption of innocence and membership in the Communist Party was still denied.

After a year in the agricultural cooperative in Pavlovice ( Okres Česká Lípa ), he became its chairman in 1956, reformed its structure to one of the largest in Czechoslovakia (630 hectares, 80 farmers) and established fruit growing there. The village infrastructure was also improved, and in 1961 Pavlovice was named Village of the Year. In 1963 there was full criminal, civil and intra-party rehabilitation of Smrkovský and other economists.

He immediately became deputy chairman of the Central Commission for People's Control and Statistics in the Ministry of People's Control. In 1964 he was again a member of the National Assembly and then underwent a stay in the sanatorium for a medical examination of his legs, which had ached since his imprisonment. From 1965 the central administration headed the water management. When Smrkovský was re-elected to the party presidium in March 1968, the Soviet state and party leader Leonid Brezhnev demanded his resignation. On August 21, 1968 Smrkovský was arrested along with party leader Alexander Dubček and Prime Minister Oldřich Černík and taken to Moscow, where he was forced to sign the Moscow Protocol . After the crackdown on the Prague Spring , he initially remained in office, but lost all offices in 1970 and was expelled from the Communist Party.

Smrkovský developed fundamental ideas for reforming the communist party. It was very popular with the population of Czechoslovakia and was a symbol of the democratization that had taken place in the Czechoslovakia up to that point.

See also

literature

  • Jan Skala: The CSSR. From the Prague Spring to Charter 77 . In the appendix the Smrkowsky Memoirs, Verlag Olle & Wolter, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-921241-38-3
  • Wolf Oschlies: Josef Smrkovský (1911-1974). On the death of the Czechoslovak politician in: Reports of the Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies; Cologne 1974, 19

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Smrkovský, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smrkovsky, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech politician; Czechoslovak Parliament Speaker during the Prague Spring
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Velenka , Okres Nymburk
DATE OF DEATH 15th January 1974
Place of death Prague