Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia , Czech Československo , former federal republic, 49,370 sq mi (127,869 sq km), in central Europe. On Jan. 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (see Slovakia ) became independent states and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. (For history prior to 1918 as well as geographic and economic information, see Bohemia ; Czech Republic ; Moravia ; Slovakia .)

History

The Emergence of Czechoslovakia

The creation of Czechoslovakia was the culmination of the long struggle of the Czechs against their Austrian rulers. It was largely accomplished by the nation's first and second presidents, T. G. Masaryk and Eduard Beneš . The union of the Czech lands and Slovakia was officially proclaimed in Prague on Nov. 14, 1918; the Treaty of St. Germain (Sept., 1919) formally recognized the new republic. Ruthenia was added by the Treaty of Trianon (June, 1920).

Because Czechoslovakia inherited the greater part of the industries of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, it was economically the most favored of the Hapsburg successor states. Benefiting from a liberal, democratic constitution (1920) and led by able statesmen, the new republic appeared to have a bright future. Redistribution of some of the estates of the former nobility and the church generally improved the living conditions of the peasantry. In foreign policy Czechoslovakia relied on its friendship with France and on its Little Entente with Yugoslavia and Romania.

Yet the new state was far from being a stable unit. With its antagonistic and nationalistic ethnic elements, it reflected the inherent weakness of the Hapsburg empire. The Czechs and Slovaks had separate histories and greatly differing religious, cultural, and social traditions. The constitution of 1920, which set up a highly centralized unitary state, failed to take into account the important problem of national minorities. The Germans and Magyars of Czechoslovakia openly agitated against the territorial settlements. Although the constitution provided for autonomy for Ruthenia, in practice autonomy was constantly postponed. The Slovak People's party accused the Czech government of having denied Slovakia promised autonomous rights. Hitler's rise in Germany, the German annexation of Austria, the resulting revival of revisionism in Hungary and of agitation for autonomy in Slovakia, and the appeasement policy of the Western powers left Czechoslovakia without allies, exposed to hostile Germany and Hungary on three sides and to unsympathetic Poland on the fourth.

The nationality problem led to a European crisis when the German nationalist minority, led by Konrad Henlein and vehemently backed by Hitler, demanded the union of the predominantly German districts with Germany. Threatening war, Hitler extorted through the Munich Pact (Sept., 1938) the cession of the Bohemian borderlands (Sudetenland). Poland and Hungary obtained territorial cessions shortly thereafter. Beneš resigned the presidency in October and was succeeded by Emil Hacha. In Nov., 1938, the truncated state, renamed Czecho-Slovakia, was reconstituted in three autonomous units—Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, and Ruthenia.

The War Years

In Mar., 1939, Hitler forced Hacha to surrender Czecho-Slovakia to German control and made Bohemia and Moravia into a German "protectorate." Slovakia gained nominal independence as a satellite state. Ruthenia was awarded to Hungary. After the outbreak of World War II, Beneš set up a provisional government in London, and Czech units fought with the Allied forces. Except for the brutalities of the German occupation, Czechoslovakia suffered relatively little from the war. In Apr., 1944, Soviet forces, accompanied by a Czech coalition government headed by Beneš, and American troops entered Czechoslovakia; the fall (May 12, 1945) of Prague marked the end of military operations in Europe. Soviet and American troops were withdrawn later in the year.

At the Potsdam Conference of 1945 the expulsion of about 3,000,000 Germans from Czechoslovakia and an exchange of minorities between Czechoslovakia and Hungary were approved. The country's pre-1938 territory was restored, except for Ruthenia, which was ceded to the USSR. In the elections of 1946 the Communists emerged as the strongest party (obtaining one third of the votes) and became the dominant party in the coalition headed by the Communist Klement Gottwald. Beneš was elected president. Soviet pressure prevented Czechoslovakia from accepting Marshall Plan aid (June, 1947).

The Communist Era

During the summer of 1947, the Communists began a campaign of political agitation and intrigue that gave them complete control of the government in Feb., 1948. In March, Jan Masaryk , the non-Communist foreign minister, died in suspicious circumstances. After the adoption of a new constitution (Beneš resigned rather than sign it), a new legislature was elected and enacted a program for nationalizing the economy. Czechoslovakia became a Soviet-style state.

Political and cultural liberty was curtailed, and purge trials were conducted from 1950 to 1952. Riots occurred in 1953, reflecting economic discontent. A very modest liberalization trend was begun in response but was reversed in Nov., 1957, when Antonin Novotný became president. In 1960 a new constitution was enacted. Another cautious movement toward liberalization was initiated in 1963. Restrictions on the press, education, and cultural activities were eased, and local authorities received increased economic autonomy. Profit considerations were introduced into the economy. Czechoslovakia became celebrated internationally for its experimental theater work and its many fine films. But political power remained the exclusive possession of a small circle in the Communist party.

That factor, the sluggishness of the economy (despite the reforms), and Slovak resentment over Novotný's Czech-dominated administration, produced the startling developments of 1968. Alexander Dubček , a Slovak, replaced Novotný as party leader in January; Ludvik Svoboda became president in March. Under Dubček, in what is known as Prague Spring, democratization went further than in any other Communist state. Press censorship was reduced, and the restoration of a genuinely democratic political life seemed possible. Slovakia was granted political autonomy.

Seriously alarmed at what it construed to be a threat to Soviet security and to the supremacy within the USSR of the Soviet Communist party, the USSR with some of its Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia in Aug., 1968. Dubček and other leaders were taken to Moscow. Despite opposition by the populace, the USSR forced the repeal of most of the reforms. A revised constitution was promulgated. (Slovakian autonomy was retained.) In Apr., 1969, Dubček was replaced as party leader, and in June, 1970, he was expelled from the party.

In the early 1970s there were many efforts to stamp out dissent, including mass arrests, union purges, and religious persecution. The repressive policies and rigid Soviet-style economic policies continued throughout the 1970s despite inflation and a sluggish economy. In 1977, the appearance of a declaration of human rights called Charter 77, which was signed by 700 intellectuals and former party leaders, instigated further repressive measures.

The Velvet Revolution

In late 1989, massive antigovernment demonstrations in Prague were at first suppressed by the police, but as democratization swept through Eastern Europe, the Communist party leadership resigned in November. In December, a new, non-Communist cabinet took over, and the playwright and former dissident Václav Havel was elected president. Under Communist rule, Czechoslovakia had a Soviet-style planned economy in which its highly developed industry as well as trade, banking, and agriculture were under state control. In 1990, the nation began the transition to a market economy with a broad program designed to encourage private enterprise and outside investment. The "Velvet Revolution" was successfully completed with the departure of the last Soviet troops in May, 1991, and a free parliamentary election in June, 1992.

The new government was faced with several difficulties, including a distressed and inefficient economic system in need of drastic reform, high unemployment, widespread social discontent, and environmental pollution. Under the 1968 constitution, Czechoslovakia was a federal republic. The two component parts were the Czech Republic, with its capital in Prague, and the Slovak Republic, with its capital at Bratislava. There was a bicameral federal legislature elected every five years. The federal president, who was elected by the legislature, appointed the premier and ministers. Each republic had a council and assembly. The federal government dealt with defense, foreign affairs, and certain economic matters. A strong secessionist movement in Slovakia, however, led to the formal declaration on Aug. 26, 1992, that the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic would separate into independent states on Jan. 1, 1993, thus dissolving the 74-year-old federation. In response to the imminent breakup, the federal government was dismantled and drafts of new Czech and Slovak constitutions were begun.

Bibliography

See historical studies by R. J. Kerner (1940) and S. H. Thomson (2d ed. 1953, repr. 1965); M. Rechcigl, Jr., ed., Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture (1964) and Czechoslovakia Past and Present (2 vol., 1968); Z. A. B. Zeman, Prague Spring (1969); W. Shawcross, Dubcek (1970); G. Golan, The Czechoslovak Reform Movement (1971); I. Sviták, The Czechoslovak Experiment, 1968-1969 (1971); J. Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia (1986); N. Stone and E. Strouh ed., Czechoslovakia: Crossroads and Crises, 1918-1988 (1989); J. Batt, Economic Reform and Political Change in Eastern Europe (1988).

Czechoslovakia (Czech Ceskoslovensko) A former state of central Europe comprising the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which separated and became independent republics in 1993. Czechoslovakia was created out of the northern part of the old Austro-Hungarian empire after the latter's collapse at the end of World War I. It incorporated the Czechs (who had enjoyed freedom within their own state of Bohemia until the rise of Habsburg power in the 16th and 17th centuries) of Bohemia and Moravia with the Slovaks of Slovakia. Czech history between the two World Wars represents a brave and enlightened attempt at integration, undermined by economic trouble and eventually crushed by the Nazi takeover of first the Sudetenland (1938) and then the rest of Bohemia and Moravia (1939). After World War II power was seized by the Communists and Czechoslovakia remained under Soviet domination, an attempt at liberalization being crushed by Soviet military intervention in 1968, until Communist supremacy was overthrown in a peaceful revolution in December 1989, followed by the introduction of democratic reforms and the eventual separation of Slovakia and the Czech Republic into independent states in 1993.

Czechoslovakia, democratic republic which in 1938 had a population of over 14 million. This was made up of 10 million Czechs and Slovaks, and some 3 million Germans (see Volksdeutsche), the balance being Hungarian (700,000), Polish (60,000), and Ukrainian (500,000) minorities. The German population, called Sudeten Germans, were largely a geographically compact group occupying the country's western, northern, and southern rim whose land, Sudetenland, had been given by the Versailles settlement of 1919 to Czechoslovakia, a new state which had been carved out of the remains of the Austro-Hungarian empire after the First World War. Despite its disparate people. Czechoslovakia was a working democracy that contained one of Europe's most important armaments industries. But the Munich agreement, and other factors, had undermined the will of its million-strong, relatively well-equipped army to resist when the Germans occupied the rump of the country in March 1939.

For Czechoslovakia, the Second World War effectively began with the signing of the Munich agreement in September 1938, when Britain, France, Germany, and Italy called for the cession of the Sudetenland to German control. The Czech government, under the leadership of President Edvard Beneš, accepted this crowning act of the British and French diplomacy of appeasement rather than resist the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

The territorial changes in the months following the Munich agreement were considerable. In the west, Sudetenland proper, with its heavily fortified borders, was incorporated into Germany while Poland seized the small industrial and mining border district of Teschen (Těšín in Czech, Cieszyn in Polish), where the Polish minority lived. In the east, Slovakia, ruled by the Slovak People's Party, became a vassal state of Germany; Hungary acquired pieces of southern Slovakia and Ruthenia; all that remained of Czechoslovakia was Bohemia and Moravia which was occupied by the Wehrmacht on 15 March 1939. Hitler then established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia with Baron von Neurath named the Reichsprotektor. This retained the Czech governmental institutions but subordinated them to German administrators. After the Czech Army was disbanded, Dr Emil Hácha, the powerless president, was allowed a small militia for ceremonial purposes.

The German occupation of the Czech lands was considerably less harsh than the treatment meted out to Poland, the USSR and Yugoslavia. In Czech society it was the middle class which bore the brunt of Nazi persecution while the Jews became victims of the Final Solution. German policy was to court industrial workers and peasants who generally benefited from better wages and market conditions. The German authorities allowed one political organization the Narodni Sourucenstvi (National Co-operation) headed by General Rudolf Gajda, a Czech fascist.

Protests against German rule occurred as early as October 1939. On the anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, university students took to the streets in Prague. This act of defiance led to the closure of Czech universities and the execution of nine students. Organized resistance against the German occupation was slow to develop and it was not until early 1940 that disparate underground organizations were merged into the ÚVOD—Ústředni vedení odboje domácího, or Central Leadership of Home Resistance. The most spectacular act of resistance was the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich who had replaced von Neurath and German reprisals for his death resulted in the destruction of the villages of Lidiče and Ležáky with almost all their populations.

Despite the assassination of Heydrich, and the increasing burden of oppression borne by the Czech people, the level of resistance was relatively low. The Czech underground organization was more important for the intelligence it provided the Allies than for its active resistance to the Nazi occupation. But in May 1945 the Prague rising helped the advancing Red Army enter the Czech capital.

The less oppressive character of occupation in the Czech lands was not the product of any German benevolence but simply a means to the end of maximizing economic exploitation of Bohemia and Moravia. Long-term German plans envisaged the deportation and elimination of the bulk of the Czech population. During the war, more than 350,000 people perished as a result of Nazi oppression.

However, the Czechs' political and military activity conducted abroad played a crucial role in keeping alive the idea of a Czechoslovak state. In October 1938, Beneš went abroad with the view of launching a Czechoslovak political organization when suitable circumstances arose. With the outbreak of war in September 1939 Beneš formed the Czechoslovak National Committee in Paris which received French and British official endorsement in October– November 1939. The fall of France in June 1940 led to the transfer of Beneš's political activities to London and by the summer of 1941 he was leading a Provisional government of Czechoslovakia which received full recognition from the Allied powers.

The diplomacy of Beneš aimed at the re-establishment of Czechoslovakia after the war. A major success was the British and Free French repudiation in August– September 1942 of the Munich agreement and its territorial changes. Beneš also made some half-hearted attempts at confederation with Poland in 1942 until Soviet objections put an end to this project.

Relations with the USSR were the centrepiece of Beneš's foreign policy. In general, he mistrusted the western powers after Munich and wanted to ensure Czechoslovakia's security through an alliance with the Soviet Union and to this end he signed a Czech–Soviet Treaty of Alliance on 18 July 1941. Beneš understood that the only way he could return to Czechoslovakia lay in co- operation with Stalin. He reckoned that his return would ensure the preservation of democracy, but in the end he miscalculated, just as he had at the time of the Munich crisis.

Czechoslovak military activity abroad consisted of air and land forces formed in the UK and the Soviet Union. In the UK, a Czechoslovak armoured brigade exceeding 5,000 men was formed which served in the Normandy campaign. Four Czech squadrons flew with the RAF: Nos. 310, 312, and 313 were equipped with fighters, while No. 311 was a bomber squadron. The transfer of important members of the Czechoslovak intelligence service in 1939 to London proved to be among the most valuable military contributions to the Allied war effort (see Thümmel, for example).

As a result of the Soviet–Czechoslovak rapprochement in 1941, military units were formed on Soviet territory, (see Svoboda). By the summer of 1943, the First Czechoslovak Parachute Brigade had been formed there and numbered approximately 2,500 men, most of whom were Ukrainians from Czechoslovakia. In 1944, a Second Czechoslovak Parachute Brigade was formed from captured Slovak prisoners-of-war and saw action in the Slovak rising in August 1944 (see Slovakia). Czechoslovak army units in the USSR eventually evolved into the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps which distinguished itself in bloody fighting to force the Dukla Pass in Soviet operations to cross the Carpathians. Complementing the army units was the 1st Czechoslovak Fighter Regiment which also saw action in the Slovak rising and eventually evolved into the 1st Czechoslovak Air Division.

Paul Latawski

Bibliography

Korbel, J. , Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History (New York, 1977).
Kulka, E. , Jews in Svoboda's Army in the Soviet Union: Czechoslovak Jewry's Fight Against the Nazis During World War II (New York, 1987).
Mastny, V. , The Czechs Under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance 1939–1942 (New York, 1971).
Seton-Watson, H. , The East European Revolution (New York, 1968).