Svatopluk Rada

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Svatopluk Rada (born September 21, 1903 in Zlín , † April 16, 1952 in Prague ) was a Czech mining engineer and secret service worker .

Life

Svatopluk Rada, who initially worked as a miner , received the engineering title in 1928 after studying in Příbram at the College of Mining. After a time as an assistant at the mining school in Ostrava , he was employed in the Upper Silesian mining district as well as in mining regions in the Donets Basin , the Balkans and Turkey. In Bulgaria and Yugoslavia from 1936 onwards he built up a network of agents for the Czechoslovak secret service with the help of his company contacts. In 1941 he joined a unit of the Czechoslovak Army in Exile , which was stationed in Buzuluk , Russia , under the command of General Heliodor Píka .

In 1945 he was Minister of Industry in the new Czechoslovak government, and from 1946 Rada was director of the Central Mining Administration at the Ministry of Industry. He was also a member of the commission that was supposed to oversee the implementation of the Czechoslovak-Soviet uranium treaty on November 23, 1945. At the beginning of the 1950s, Rada was drawn into the maelstrom of the Stalinist show trials . After the general secretary of KSČ Rudolf Slánský was arrested as the head of a “subversive conspiratorial center”, the follow-up trials did not omit the sensitive area of ​​the uranium industry. Rada drew the state security's attention to itself through contacts with West German companies and authorities. He had also promoted employees who were reserved about socialism. He was investigated from 1951 and Rada was finally placed under house arrest in Prague on April 16, 1952. The following night he died from a pistol shot. The official cause of death was suicide. When the incident was re-examined in 1962, a murder could not be ruled out, but it could no longer be proven.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Rada, Svatopluk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech mining engineer and secret service worker
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Zlín
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1952
Place of death Prague