Czechoslovak Republic (1948–1960)
| Československá republika (Czech) Československá republika (Slovak) |
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| Czechoslovak Republic | |||||
| 1948 - 1960 | |||||
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Motto : The truth wins! ( Czech Pravda vítězí ) |
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| Official language | Czech , Slovak | ||||
| Capital | Prague | ||||
| Form of government | republic | ||||
| Head of state | President of Czechoslovakia | ||||
| Head of government | Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia | ||||
| surface | (until July 1948) 140.800 km², (from July 1948) 127.900 km² | ||||
| population | 14.3 million (1956) | ||||
| currency | Czechoslovak crown | ||||
| founding | March 1948 | ||||
| resolution | July 11, 1960 (new constitution) | ||||
| National anthem | Kde domov můj and Nad Tatrou sa blýska | ||||
| Area and population refer to the year 1956 | |||||
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The Czechoslovak Republic (1948–1960) (Czech Československá republika (1948–1960) ) was the official successor state of the Third Czechoslovak Republic and a satellite state of the Soviet Union and a member of the Warsaw Pact . The system of the republic was determined by the February coup and the ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and ended with a new constitution and the change of state symbols in 1960. The state was henceforth called the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR).
history
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1948
After the February revolution in 1948, the state was now under the rule of the Communist Party and, since its proclamation in March 1948, has turned to the Stalinist policy of the Soviet Union. Edvard Beneš resigned because he did not want to sign the new constitution of May 1948. The communist leader Klement Gottwald proclaimed a new republic, the Czechoslovak Republic. He became President and First Secretary of the Communist Party.
State terror and the Gottwald era
The show trials of Jihlava (Iglau) also took place at this time . The reason for this was the murder of three local communist functionaries in the Moravian village of Babice on July 2, 1951 , known as the Babice case . This crime provided an opportunity to set an example against peasants and the Catholic rural population around Moravské Budějovice , who openly rejected the new communist state doctrine. In the trials, eleven death sentences were passed and 111 people were sentenced to long term imprisonment, which included kinship-like disadvantages and resettlements. However, these were by no means the only show trials in the Stalinist era. In November 1952 Rudolf Slánský was sentenced to death along with eleven other defendants in the " Slansky Trial ".
De-Stalinization and the rule of Zápotocký
After Klement Gottwald's death in 1953, Antonín Novotný succeeded him as party secretary, while Antonín Zápotocký took over the office of president. The wave of de-Stalinization after the 20th party congress of the CPSU got stuck in verbal assurances in Czechoslovakia, since neither the Stalinist leadership was changed, nor were the victims of the purges rehabilitated. The successor to President Zápotocký, who died in 1957, was Novotný, who now combined both offices in his hand.
The End
In 1960 a new constitution was enacted and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) was proclaimed . The leading role of the KSČ was now even more firmly anchored in law, the centralization of the state tightened at the expense of Slovak institutions. The change to the name Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) had several reasons and was determined by the name changes of other Eastern Bloc countries and pressure from the Soviet Union.
administration
The Czech parts of Bohemia and Moravia as well as Silesia formed a unified centralized state with Slovakia until 1969. However, Slovakia was granted a certain degree of autonomy - more or less pro forma - by having its own government, the ministers of which were called Poverenik (German Commissioner). One can assume, however, that this should primarily form the extended hand of the central government in Prague (in which the Slovaks were also represented with ministerial posts). In addition to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Komunistická strana Československa , KSČ) there was also a Communist Party of Slovakia ( Komunistická strana Slovenska , KSS) of the same type.
religion
The state doctrine of the Czechoslovak Republic (1948–1960) was atheist. The practice of religion was forbidden at times or was subject to extensive state restrictions. B. Laws against public chanting of religious songs. In 1950, around 65% of the Czechoslovak population still belonged to Christianity, but by 1960 the number sank to below 35%. Many believers were exposed to the terror of the state security during Gottwald's rule, were tortured, shot or deported to labor camps. Under Gottwald's leadership, the government issued decrees and laws for the practice of religion which on paper - severely restricted - granted religious freedom, but numerous churches were expropriated and many religious treasures were destroyed. Thousands of priests were sent to labor camps under Antonín Zápotocký, whereby the brutality decreased and the deportations were slowly restricted.
politics
In 1948 a new constitution was passed - the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1948 . Nonetheless, violations of fundamental rights and humanity were accepted, which is why this political period is sometimes referred to as the period of illegality. The communist regime abused the power of the state to persecute its opponents, for example the law on the protection of the People's Democratic Republic , and subsequently the codified right to forced labor camps of October 25, 1948 was passed. Political influence was determined by the Soviet Union .
Victim and crime
In the Czechoslovak Republic from 1948 to 1960 numerous crimes were committed against the people of the country. There were numerous deportations to labor camps, many mass executions and murders of prominent communists in the party. B. was in November 1952 , Rudolf Slansky , along with eleven other defendants in the " Slánský process sentenced" to death, and in the same year, the STB murdered (s. U.) The Israeli ambassador. According to the reprocessing in the new democracy from 1989 to 1993, around 600,000 people died in these years.
State security
The ŠtB , which was founded in 1945, became the main source of power for the KSČ in the Ministry of the Interior as part of the state security apparatus from 1948 and, on Gottwald's instructions, committed numerous crimes against its own population.
army
After the February coup , Gottwald began, under pressure from Stalin, with the disarmament of the Czechoslovak army from approx. 1.3 million men to only 300,000 men. In 1954 the army was renamed the Czechoslovak People's Army . The armed forces were divided into two military districts. The western military district ( Tábor headquarters ) had two armies, the 1st Army in Příbram with a tank division and three motorized rifle divisions, and the 4th Army in Písek with two tank divisions and two motorized rifle divisions. In the eastern military district ( Trenčín ) there were two T-55 armored divisions . In addition, the Czechoslovak People's Army had the 22nd Airborne Regiment ( Kroměříž ). All troops were assigned to the Central Group of the Soviet Armed Forces ( Milovice nad Labem headquarters ).
Memberships
From the Third Czechoslovak Republic, the new republic took over membership in the United Nations and joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and in 1955 the Warsaw Pact .
See also
- Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
- February revolution
- Warsaw Pact
- Mutual Economic Assistance Council
- Third Czechoslovak Republic
- Eastern bloc
- State Security (Czechoslovakia)
- Czechoslovak People's Army
literature
- This constitution was fictitious. Šimáčková, Catherine. Imaginary constitution. In:. COMMUNIST RIGHTS in Czechoslovakia - Chapters from the History of Injustice at Masaryk University, International Institute of Political Science, Brno, 2009, pp. 123-133. (Especially p. 130) - Jager Petr Religious freedom and the legal relations of the churches and religious communities in 1948 to 1989 in: ... COMMUNIST RIGHTS in Czechoslovakia - Chapter from the history of The curtain fell. In: Der Spiegel. No. 9, 1948, p. 8 (February 28, 1948, online).
- As far as the armies come…. In: Der Spiegel. No. 39, 1984, pp. 179-188 (September 24, 1984, on-line).
- Torsten Hartleb: "Qui est (anti) munichois?" - Prague 1948 and the French Munich complex. In: Francia 3rd Vol. 23, No. 3, 1996, ISSN 0937-7751 , pp. 75-92, online.
- Injustice of Masaryk University, International Institute of Political Science, Brno 2009, pp. 769-810. (Especially page 777) http://proces-h.ic.cz/?s=50leta&ps=procesyCSR
- Prucha, Václav et al. Economic and social history of Czechoslovakia 1918–1992. Second part: Period 1945–1992 Brno :. Supplement 2009. p. 254, p. 262–263, p. 264, p. 265, p. 268, p. 269, p. 272, p. 273, p. 274 ...
- Kurt Erhart: The Czechoslovak People's Army. Publishing house of the Ministry for National Defense, Berlin 1960.
- Michael Sadykiewicz: Soviet-Warsaw Pact Western Theater of Military Operations: Organization and Missions. RAND, Santa Monica 1987.
- Helmut Roewer, Stefan Schäfer, Matthias Uhl : Lexicon of the secret services in the 20th century. Herbig, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7766-2317-9 .
- Igor Lukes: Showdown in the chapel. The Czechoslovak Secret Service 1968, In: Stefan Karner: Prager Frühling: Contributions, Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2008, ISBN 9783412202071
- Muriel Blaive, Zpřístupnění archivů komunistické tajné policie ..., online at: www.pwf.cz/cz/archiv ..., Czech, accessed on July 14, 2010
- Jan Pauer, The processing of dictatorships in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in: The Parliament, Supplement from Politics and Contemporary History, Issue 42 of October 16, 2006, online at: www.bundestag.de/dasparlament/2006/42/Beilage on October 14, 2010
- Zdena Salivarová-Škvorecká (ed.), Osočení. Pravdivé příběhy lidí z 'Cibulkova seznamu' (Defamation. True stories of the people from 'Cibulka's List'), Brno 2000 (1st edition 1993)
- O seznamy StB je enormní zájem, report of the Hospodářské noviny (business newspaper) of March 21, 2003, online at: hn.ihned.cz/c1-12519760, Czech, accessed on July 12, 2010
- Report of the TV broadcaster ČT24 of March 20, 2003 (2003: Ministerstvo vnitra zpřístupnilo seznam spolupracovníků StB), online at www.ct24.cz/kalendarium, in Czech, accessed on July 11, 2010
- A report by the radio station Český rozhlas (Jiřina Bohdalová není agentkou StB, přesto v jejich seznamech zůstane) of January 22, 2004, online at www.radio.cz, in Czech, accessed on July 11, 2010, available at svazky.cz, in Czech, Retrieved July 13, 2010
