Klement Gottwald

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Klement Gottwald

Klement Gottwald , 1896-1953, Czechoslovak Communist leader, b. Moravia. After World War I he helped found the Czechoslovak Communist party and served on the party's central committee from 1925. From 1928 to 1943 he was on the executive committee of the Comintern , serving as Comintern secretary from 1935. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938), Gottwald went to Moscow, where he edited a newspaper that propagandized for Czechoslovakian liberation. In 1945 he became deputy premier in the coalition government of President Eduard Beneš. He was named premier in 1946 and also became chairman of the Czechoslovak Communist party. After the Communist coup in Feb., 1948, Gottwald succeeded Beneš as president of Czechoslovakia, a post he held until his death. He dominated government and party through a system of purges and trials, making Czechoslovakia into a satellite of the USSR. His large-scale purge of his opponents in the party culminated in the execution (Dec., 1952) of 11 prominent Communists. Gottwald's death inaugurated a cautious, but short-lived liberalization of the Czechoslovak Communist regime.

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Gottwald, Klement

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | Â© A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Gottwald, Klement (1896–1953) Czechoslovak politician. He was a founder-member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1921, becoming General Secretary in 1927. After the MUNICH PACT (1938) Gottwald went to the Soviet Union. After World War II he returned to Czechoslovakia. He was Prime Minister in a coalition government (1946–48) and, after the communist coup in 1948, President (1948–53) in succession to BENEŠ. He dominated the country through purges, forced labour camps, and show trials, culminating in the Slansky trial and the execution (1952) of leading communists. He acquiesced in Stalin's plan of reducing Czechoslovakia's industries to satellite status within COMECON.

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	IN OUR PAGES: 100, 75 AND 50 YEARS AGO 1948: Gottwald Replies Newspaper article from: International Herald Tribune; 2/28/1998; 205 words ; International Herald Tribune 02-28-1998 PRAGUE Communist Prime Minister Klement Gottwald, after watching his twelve new ministers sworn in today [Feb. 27] by President Eduard Benes, assailed the tripartite denunciation...
	Europe: Survival in the East Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 1/9/1990; ; 700+ words ; ...Milan Kundera's description of Klement Gottwald temporarily borrowing a colleague...a snowstorm in February 1948. Gottwald was about to address a crowd of...Czechoslovakia. Four years later Gottwald's comrade, Vladimir Clementis...
	Judge on Trial. Magazine article from: The Nation; 7/12/1993; ; 700+ words ; ...appeared beside Commurust Party leader Klement Gottwald in a famous photograph marking...Clementis had placed his own fur cap on Gottwald's head. "Four years later Clementis...photographs as well. Ever since, Gottwald has stood on that balcony alone...
	Prague, 1948: the February revolution Magazine article from: New Statesman; 2/18/2008; ; 700+ words ; ...As a result of [Prime Minister Klement] Gottwald's statesmanship, and the spontaneous...score a tactical victory by making Gottwald concede on a single minor issue...accept the resignations, and Gottwald might have to sacrifice his Minister...
	Poland Without Tears: There's more to Poland than death camps. Jewish Newspaper article from: The Jewish Week; 5/13/1994; ; 700+ words ; ...the following story: In 1948, Klement Gottwald, a Communist leader, steps out...takes off his hat and gives it to Gottwald. The men are photographed. Four...official photos. In the old photo, Gottwald now stands alone. All that remains...
	Czechoslovakia 20 (and 40 and 50) years later. Magazine article from: The New Leader; 4/4/1988; ; 700+ words ; ...Czechoslovakia. When paramount Party leader Klement Gottwald announced the 1948 coup that ended...standing next to him, lent the older Gottwald his fur hat. In 1952 Clementis...Ever since," writes Kundera, "Gottwald has stood on that balcony alone...
	Signposts to the third way. (Socialism in Eastern Europe) (Beat the Devil) (column) Magazine article from: The Nation; 4/9/1990; ; 700+ words ; ...a British Labor Party delegation visiting Moscow. Klement Gottwald, Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, reported...only way forward to the shining city. Later that year Gottwald publicly said the same sort of thing, as did Dimitrov...
	The name game in Eastern Europe. (place name changes in Eastern Europe) Magazine article from: The Economist (US); 3/3/1990; 676 words ; ...pasted over the name of Gottwaldova Station (after Klement Gottwald, founder of communist Czechoslovakia), with the...While Czechoslovakia has quietly removed all statues of Gottwald, the Poles tend to prefer more destructive methods...
	10,000 CZECHS RALLY TO RECALL 1968 'SPRING' Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 8/22/1988; ; 700+ words ; ...hallmark of Czechoslovakian communism since the 1948 takeover of a democratic government by Klement Gottwald. The postwar democratic hero displaced by Gottwald, the martyred Jan Masaryk, was not forgotten as the crowd frequently shouted his name...
	E. Germans ready to erase marks of Marx Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times; 4/1/1990; ; 618 words ; ...example, a letter to the editor of a newspaper decried the fact that the old Leipziger Strasse is now Klement-Gottwald-Strasse. Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist leader credited with sending hundreds of political opponents to death...