Government of Zdeněk Fierlinger I

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The government of Zdeněk Fierlinger I , also known as the Kaschau government ( Košická vláda in Czech ) or the Fierlinger provisional government , was the first government of Czechoslovakia to rule the country after the Second World War . She held office from April 5 to November 6, 1945. Prime Minister was the Social Democrat Zdeněk Fierlinger . She succeeded the exile government of Jan Šrámek II and was replaced by the government of Zdeněk Fierlinger II .

occurrence

In March 1945, representatives of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London met with leading officials of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , including Klement Gottwald . Here not only the composition of the future government was discussed, but above all its tasks, which were laid down in the government program, the so-called Kaschau program , which, with the approval of the exile President Edvard Beneš, laid down a clear foreign policy and economic orientation towards the Soviet Union and the position of the communist Party underlined.

In the opinion of President Beneš, the new government should only come into being in the liberated territory of Czechoslovakia (until then the London government-in-exile should remain in office), it should be formed as a government of the national front, and it should remain provisional until things are resolved are and elections are taking place.

The government took office on April 5, 1945 in Košice (Kaschau) in eastern Slovakia, after the area had already been liberated. Here the previously worked out Kaschau program was adopted as a government program and the previous ambassador of the London government-in-exile in Moscow, the social democrat and later communist Zdeněk Fierlinger, was appointed Prime Minister. Edvard Beneš remained president.

Program: cornerstones for further development

This first government of Fierlinger ruled for only a few months, but it shaped the future development of the country. There were primarily six laws that were introduced by the government in accordance with the specifications of the Kaschau program, but were passed as presidential decrees at the request of the president and therefore did not have to be passed through parliamentary channels:

  • The first phase of land reform was initiated with Decrees Nos. 12 and 21 (of June 21, 1945 and July 20, 1945, respectively). About 2.946 million hectares of land (including agricultural buildings) were confiscated; 1.22 million hectares were distributed to small farmers or farmers without property, the rest went to the state. A large part of this area was in the border area, i.e. in the former Sudetenland . That is why it could also be claimed that the land distributed to Czechs and Slovaks had been taken from "Germans, Hungarians, collaborators and traitors". At the same time, the border areas, which were often almost deserted as a result of the displacement, could be repopulated.
  • With Decrees Nos. 100, 101, 102 and 103 (all of October 24, 1945) substantial parts of industry and finance capital were nationalized. This affected mines and some industrial companies as well as all banks and insurance companies. 3348 companies with 55.3% of the industrial employees, who generated about two thirds of the production, were placed under government administration with other smaller companies.

The economic changes also had far-reaching consequences for the social structure; The expropriations resulted in large property shifts, which initially allowed the lower social classes to improve their position. These measures were continued by the following government, Zdeněk Fierlinger II .

Government composition

The government of Zdeňek Fierlinger I. was in office from April 5 to November 6, 1945 on the territory of (liberated) Czechoslovakia and was composed of the following members of the government:

There were no personnel changes during the term of office.

Party affiliation

Party membership was already prejudiced in Article I. of the government program. The government of the National Front was defined there as the government "of all social components and political directions that have led the national liberation struggle at home and abroad for the overthrow of German and Hungarian tyranny". As a result, some parties were not accepted into the National Front in advance and were therefore not represented in the government.

With a few exceptions (some Slovak politicians), the government consisted of members of political exile. They represented a total of six political parties:

There were also some non-party members of the government. The Communist Party of Slovakia, KSS, founded in 1939, was formally an independent party, not subordinate to the Czechoslovakian KSČ, while there was no separate (“Czech”) communist party for the countries of Bohemia and Moravia.

References

See also

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Karel Kaplan, The fatal alliance. Infiltration, conformity and annihilation of the Czechoslovak Social Democracy 1944–1954, Pol-Verlag, Wuppertal 1984, ISBN 3-9800905-0-7 (Chapter I., pp. 25ff.)
  2. ↑ a b Quoted from: Doba poválečná 1945–1948, a publication by the Czech government, online at: www.vlada.cz (PDF; 85 kB), Czech, accessed on December 2, 2010
  3. ↑ www.vlada.cz/cz/clenove-vlady/