Rudolf Barák

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Rudolf Barák (born May 11, 1915 in Blansko ; † August 12, 1995 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak communist functionary, interior minister and deputy prime minister who was involved in illegal activities in the 1950s and later excluded from the KSČ ( Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ) has been.

Political career

Barák, originally a typesetter , joined the KSC in 1945 and quickly made a career. From 1945 to 1952 he held various party functions in Brno and in the Brno district. In 1952 he was elected a candidate of the Central Committee (ZK) of the KSČ, in 1954 a full member and at the same time a member of the Politburo of the KSC.

From 1953 to 1961 Barák was Minister of the Interior, from 1959 to 1962 also the Deputy Prime Minister of the country in the governments of Viliam Široký I , Viliam Široký II and Viliam Široký III . As Minister of the Interior, he took part directly in the show trials in the first half of the 1950s with numerous death sentences such as the Slansky trial . In the late 1950s, Barák ended Operation Grenzstein of the Czechoslovak State Security .

In February 1962 he was arrested spectacularly as a result of a closed power struggle between him and Antonín Novotný , then First Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSČ. Barák lost all his party and government posts and was expelled from the KSČ. The party decided to present his case as a criminal act; Barák was sentenced to 15 years in prison on fabricated charges.

He was released in May 1968 during the Prague Spring . in July 1968 the 1962 judgment was overturned as illegal.

Barák was never again politically active until his death (1995).

swell

  • Zakázaný document. Zpráva komise ÚV KSČ o politických procesech a rehabilitacích v Československu 1949–68 (Prohibited document. Report of the Commission of the Central Committee of the KSČ on the political processes and rehabilitation in Czechoslovakia 1949–68), Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1970 (Czech edition), Introduction and closing words by Jiří Pelikán (appendix with biographies)
  • Milan Churaň a kolektiv, Kdo byl kdo v našich dějinách ve 20. století (Who was who in our history of the 20th century), Libri, Prague 1998, part 1 and 2, ISBN 80-85983-44-3 and ISBN 80- 85983-64-8 , online at: www.libri.cz
  • Barak Purged, Report dated February 8, 1962, Open Society Archives, online at: www.osaarchivum.org , accessed December 17, 2010

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard CS Trahair: Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations . Enigma Books, 2013, ISBN 978-1-936274-26-0 , pp. 612 ( full text in Google Book Search). Joseph Frolik : The Frolik Defection . Leo Cooper, London 1975.
  2. ^ Die Zeit / Wolfgang Leonhard 28/1962 (July 13, 1962): The leadership crisis in Prague
personal data
SURNAME Barák, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak communist politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Blansko
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1995
Place of death Prague