Czechoslovakia

Československo Czechoslovakia ← 1918 – 1992 →   → Flag Coat of arms Motto Czech: Pravda vítězí ("Truth prevails"; 1918-1989) Latin: Veritas Vincit ("Truth prevails"; 1989-1992) Anthem Kde domov můj and Nad Tatrou sa blýska Capital Prague Language(s) Czech, Slovak Government President  - 1918-1935 Tomáš Masaryk  - 1989-1992 Václav Havel Prime Minister  - 1918-1919 Karel Kramář  - 1992 Jan Stráský History  - Independence from Austria-Hungary 28 October  - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia 31 December Area  - 1993 127,900 km² (49,382 sq mi) Population  - 1993 est. 15,600,000       Density 122 /km²  (315.9 /sq mi) Currency Czechoslovak crown

Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: Československo, or (increasingly after 1990) in Slovak Česko-Slovensko) was a country in Central Europe that existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992 (with a government-in-exile during the World War II period). On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Transportation and communications, Education, Religion, Health, social welfare and housing, Mass Media, Sports and Culture.

Basic Facts

Form of statehood:

• 1918–1938: democratic republic
• 1938–1939: after annexation of the Sudetenland region by Germany in 1938, Czechoslovakia turned into a state with loosened connections between its Czech, Slovak and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Ruthenia was annexed by Hungary, and the Zaolzie region went under Poland's control
• 1939–1945: split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia (1939-1945). De jure Czechoslovakia continued to exist, with the exiled government, recognized by the Western Allies, based in London. Following the German invasion of Russia, the USSR recognized the exiled government as well.
• 1945–1948: democracy, governed by a coalition government, with Communist ministers setting the course
• 1948–1989: Communist state with a centrally planned economy
  • from 1960 on the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
  • 1969–1990: a federal republic consisting of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic
• 1990–1992: a federal democratic republic consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic

Neighbours: West Germany and East Germany, Poland, Soviet Union, Ukraine), Hungary, Romania, and Austria.

Official Names

• 1918–1920: Czecho-Slovak Republic or Czechoslovak Republic (abbreviated RČS); short form Czecho-Slovakia or Czechoslovakia
• 1920–1938 and 1945–1960: Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR); short form Czechoslovakia
• 1938–1939: Czecho-Slovak Republic; Czecho-Slovakia
• 1960–1990: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR); Czechoslovakia
• April 1990: Czechoslovak Federative Republic (Czech version) and Czecho-Slovak Federative Republic (Slovak version),
• afterwards: Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (ČSFR, with the short forms Československo in Czech and Česko-Slovensko in Slovak)

History

File:Czech and Slovak peoples in Austro-Hungarian Empire.gif

Czechoslovak lands inside Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1911 ██ Czechs ██ Slovaks ██ Ruthenians/Ukrainians ██ Poles ██ Austrians/Germans ██ Hungarians ██ Romanians

Foundation

Czechoslovakia came into existence in October 1918 as one of the successor states of Austria-Hungary following the end of World War I. It comprised the present-day Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Carpathian Ruthenia and some of the most industrialized regions of the former Austria-Hungary. Until the outbreak of World War II, it was a democratic republic, albeit with ethnic tensions stemming from the dissatisfaction of Germans and Slovaks, the second and third largest ethnic groups, respectively, with the political and economic dominance of the Czechs. Moreover, most ethnic Germans and Hungarians never accepted the creation of the new state. These ethnic groups, including Ruthenians and Poles, felt disadvantaged within Czechoslovakia, because the country's political elite introduced a centralized state and was reluctant to safeguard political autonomy for the ethnic groups. This policy, combined with an increasing Nazi propaganda, particularly in the industrialized German speaking Sudetenland, fueled the growing unrest among the Non-Czech population.) and also some Slovaks,

Czechoslovakia in 1928

World War II

End of the State

Following the German annexation of Austria with the Anschluss, Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland (the German-border regions of Bohemia and Moravia) would be Adolf Hitler's next demand. The Munich Agreement, signed on September 29, 1938, by the representatives of Germany—Adolf Hitler, Great Britain—Neville Chamberlain, Italy—Benito Mussolini, and France—Édouard Daladier, deprived Czechoslovakia of one-third of its territory, mainly the Sudetenland, which was crucial to Czechoslovakia as most of its elaborate and costly border defences were situated there. Ethnic Germans formed a majority of the region’s population. Many Sudeten Germans rejected affiliation with Czechoslovakia because their right to self-determination pledged by US president Wilson in his Fourteen Points of January 1918 had not been honored by the Czechoslovak government. Wehrmacht troops occupied the Sudetenland in October 1938. Within ten days, 1,200,000 Czechs and Slovaks living in the Sudetenland areas were forced to leave their homes. The greatly weakened Czechoslovak Republic was forced to grant major concessions to the non-Czechs.Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš resigned on October 5, 1938, and Emil Hácha, a highly respected independent and lawyer by training, was appointed president. Hitler thus defeated Czechoslovakia without armed action and without Czechoslovakia’s participation in the deal. In November, the First Vienna Award gave Hungary territory in southern Slovakia.

On March 14, 1939, Hácha set out for Berlin to meet with Adolf Hitler; the same day, Slovakia declared independence and became an ally of Nazi Germany, which served Hitler well and provided him with a pretext to declare that Czechoslovakia had collapsed from within and thus occupation of Bohemia and Moravia would forestall a chaos in Central Europe. The Czechoslovak President described the signing away Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, ruled directly by the German state, for which he had been referred to as traitor of the nation, as follows: “You can withstand Hitler’s yelling, because you are not necessarily a devil for yelling. But Göring, with his jovial face, was there as well. He took me by the hand and softly reproached me, asking whether it is really necessary for the beautiful Prauge to be leveled in a few hours… and I could tell that the devil, who is capable of carrying out his threat, was speaking to me.” The Czechoslovak President was also asked the following by Göring: “You do not want or cannot understand the Führer, who wishes that lives of thousands of Czech people are spared?”

Hácha had been subjected to enormous psychological pressure, in the course of which he collapsed. The next morning, Wehrmacht occupied what remained of Czechoslovakia. After Hitler personally inspected the Czech fortifications, he privately admitted that ‘We would have shed a lot of blood.[4] [Czechoslovakia’s factories thus began churning out products for the Third Reich. Slovakia's troops fought on the Russian front until the summer of 1944, when the Slovak armed forces staged an uprising against their government. German forces crushed this uprising after several weeks of fighting.

Czechoslovakia in 1969

A Czechoslovak government-in-exile was established in London by Edvard Beneš, who was recognized as President of Czechoslovakia by the British and other Allied governments and returned to power after Czechoslovakia's liberation in 1945, re-elected to office in 1946. Under the exiled government, Czechoslovak foreign units were being formed by recruits from the ranks of exiled Czechoslovak citizens. Military units were formed in Poland, France and Great Britain. Czechoslovakia was swept by massive demonstrations on October 28, 1939, the anniversary of the establishment of the country, emboldened by hopes for an early restoration of the independence of Czechoslovakia. Medical student Jan Opletal was killed in the confrontations with the occupants, which was met with further demonstrations. The Nazi Germany responded with terror targeting students, and executed without a trial nine student officials and closed down universities. These brutal reprisals showed that further open encounter with the occupation forces were not possible, and resistance movement shifted to illegal organizations and their links to resistance networks. The goal was to resotre the independent Czechoslovakia.

The resistance movement in Czechoslovakia had three phases: before Heydrich's arrival, Heydrich's rule, and after Heydrich and was sustained by both national and foreign-based representative offices formed in European countries that rejected Nazism. Gradually, these offices oversaw forming of Czechoslovak units abroad. On the home turf, resistance movement continued chiefly through massive demonstrations, which culminated in 1941. Its peak spanned 1939-1941, with the entire nation involved. The first stage did not involve the whole country, and in the third one, many Czechs sympathized with Communism.

the society was split in three streams with respect to their stance on the Nazi occupation: the largest stream consisted of people who did not agree with the occupation but remained passive for various reasons and would swing both ways, those who supported the resistance movement, and, lastly, members of the resistance movement groups and organizations, who were seeking the restoration of the independent Czechoslovak Republic. From the first days of the Protectorate, Jews were being cut off from the society at large as the first step towards the “Final Solution” of the Jewish issue. The widespread arrests severely disrupted illegal resistance movement networks, adn the Czechoslovak Central National Revolutionary Committee was crushed in October 1941. That is why paratroopers were being dispatched into the Protectorate to restore severed radio networks between domestic and foreign resistance movement, restore intelligence networks and carry out acts of sabotage.

Operation Anthropoid

The Czechoslovak-British Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the assassination of the top Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of RSHA, an organization that included the Gestapo (Secret Police), SD (Security Agency) and Kripo (Criminal Police). Heydrich was the key planner in removing all Hitler's opponents, as well as the key planner of the genocide of the Jews. He was involved in most of Hitler's intrigues, and a valued political ally, advisor and friend of the dictator. Due to his abilities and power he was feared by Nazi generals. Thanks to his accomplishment as the liquidator of resistance movements in European countries, Hitler in September 1941 sent him to Prague to make order as the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, replacing Konstantin von Neurath whom Hitler considered too moderate. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was of strategic importantance to Hitler’s plans, and Heydrich did not waste time upon his arrival, starting to hand out death sentences for Czech military officials, resistance movement fighters and political figures the next day following his arrival in Prague.

The exiled military officials started planning an act that would wake up Czechoslovakia from lethargy, as Heydrich, dubbed the “Butcher of Prague”, "The Blond Beast" or "The Hangman", exhibited great skill at liquidating Czech resistance movement. At the same time, paratroopers were being chosen in Great Britain based on their conduct, discipline, character and sense of duty, and they were given an option to choose, in front of a committee, whether they want to participate in the resistance movement. Those who said yes were sent to Special Training School in Scotland, where they underwent rigorous training. Among them were six Czechs and one Slovak, who were chosen for the assassination of Heydrich, and two of them— Czech Josef Valčík and Slovak Josef Gabčik, carried out the act. Heydrich died of complications following surgery.

All hell broke lose in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, with the Gestapo tracking the paratroopers’ contacts thanks to a treason of one of the paratroopers, and eventually discovered their hideaway, the Church of Cyril and Methodius in Prague. Three of the paratroopers died in a shootout in the choir area, trying to buy time for their fellow soldiers so that they could dig out an escape route, but the Gestapo found out and used tear gas and water to chase the remaining four out. However, the four men used their last bullets to take their lives rather than have the Gestapo capture them alive. Heydrich’s successor Karl Herrmann Frank had 10,000 Czechs executed as a warning, and two villages that assisted the paratroopers were leveled down, with all adults executed and young children sent to German families for re-education.

Czech resistance movement was virtually paralyzed by the combined actions of the Gestapo and confidantes; on the other hand, the assassination bolstered Czechoslovakia’s prestige in the world and was crucial to the country’s enforcement of demands for an independent republic following the end of WWII.

End of War

Toward the end of the war, partisan movement was gaining momentum, and once the Allies were on the winning side, the political orientation of the future restored Czechoslovakia was high ont eh agenda of the two most influential exiled centres, the exiled government in London with E. Benes at the helm and the communist officials in Moscow led by Klement Gottwald. Both centers saw the agreement on friendship, mutual assistance and postwar cooperation between Czechoslovakia and the USSR as an efficient roadblock in the way of German expansion and the USSR’s mingling into internal affairs of Czechoslovakia.

A meeting was held in Moscow nin March 1943 with the composition of the new Czechoslovak government, with communists to be part of it, on the agenda. On May 1, 1945, an uprising against German occupation broke out in the Czech lands , with Prague hit the worst. With the assistance of the US Army and particularly the Red Army, the war ended in the Czech lands on May 9.

Communist Czechoslovakia

CHARTA 77, DISSIDENTS, HAVEL, DIENSTBIER

After World War II, pre-war Czechoslovakia was reestablished, The Beneš decrees concerned the expropriation of wartime "traitors" and collaborators accused of treason but also all ethnic Germans (see Potsdam Agreement) and Hungarians. They also ordered the removal of citizenship for people of German and Hungarian ethnic origin who decided to acquire the German and Hungarian citizenship during the occupation. (These provisions were cancelled for the Hungarians, but not for the Germans, in 1948). This was then used to confiscate their property and expel around 90% of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia. The people who remained were collectively accused of supporting the Nazis (after the Munich Agreement, in December 1938, 97.32% of adult Sudetengermans voted for NSDAP in elections). Almost every decree explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti-fascists although the term Anti-fascist was not explicitly defined. Some 250,000 Germans, many married to Czechs, some anti-fascists, but also people required for the post-war reconstruction of the country remained in Czechoslovakia. The Benes Decrees still cause controversy between nationalist groups in Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Hungary. .

Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied by (and in June 1945 formally ceded to) the Soviet Union. In 1946 parliamentary election the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia emerged as the winner in the Czech lands (the Democratic Party won in Slovakia). In February 1948 the Communists seized power. Although they would maintain the fiction of political pluralism through the existence of the National Front, except for a short period in the late 1960s (the Prague Spring) the country was characterized by the absence of liberal democracy. While its economy remained more advanced than those of its neighbors in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia grew increasingly economically weak relative to Western Europe. In the religious sphere, atheism was officially promoted and taught. In 1969, Czechoslovakia was turned into a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic. Under the federation, social and economic inequities between the Czech and Slovak halves of the state were largely eliminated. A number of ministries, such as Education, were formally transferred to the two republics. However, the centralized political control by the Communist Party severely limited the effects of federalization.

The 1970s saw the rise of the dissident movement in Czechoslovakia, represented (among others) by Václav Havel. The movement sought greater political participation and expression in the face of official disapproval, making itself felt by limits on work activities (up to a ban on any professional employment and refusal of higher education to the dissidents' children), police harassment and even prison time.

After 1989

http://www.totalita.cz/1989/1989_11.php

ROLE OF STUDENTS IN REVOLUTION; ARTISTS, OBCANSKE FORUM, HAVEL

In 1989, the country became democratic again through the Velvet Revolution. In 1992 the growing nationalist tensions led to dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as of January 1, 1993.

Government

Heads of state

• List of Presidents of Czechoslovakia
• List of Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia

International agreements and membership

After WWII, active participant in Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), Warsaw Pact, United Nations and its specialized agencies; signatory of conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia

• 1918–1923: different systems on former Austrian territory (Bohemia, Moravia, small part of Silesia) and on former Hungarian territory (Slovakia and Ruthenia): 3 lands [země] (also called district units [obvody]) Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia + 21 counties [župy] in today's Slovakia + 2? counties in today's Ruthenia; both lands and counties were divided in districts [okresy]
• 1923–1927: like above, except that the above counties were replaced by 6 (grand) counties [(veľ)župy] in today's Slovakia and 1 (grand) county in today's Ruthenia, and the number and frontiers of the okresy were changed on these 2 territories
• 1928–1938: 4 lands [in Czech: země / in Slovak: krajiny]: Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia; divided in districts [okresy]
• late 1938–March 1939: like above, but Slovakia and Ruthenia were promoted to "autonomous lands"
• 1945–1948: like 1928–1938, except that Ruthenia became part of the Soviet Union
• 1949–1960: 19 regions [kraje] divided in 270 districts [okresy]
• 1960–1992: 10 regions [kraje], Prague, and (since 1970) Bratislava; divided in 109–114 districts (okresy]); the kraje were abolished temporarily in Slovakia in 1969–1970 and for many functions since 1991 in Czechoslovakia; in addition, the two republics Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic were established in 1969 (without the word Socialist since 1990)

Politics

GOTTWALD, HUSAK, DUBCEK

After WWII, monopoly on politics held by Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Gustáv Husák elected first secretary of KSC in 1969 (changed to general secretary in 1971) and president of Czechoslovakia in 1975. Other parties and organizations existed but functioned in subordinate roles to KSC. All political parties, as well as numerous mass organizations, grouped under umbrella of the National Front. Human rights activists and religious activists severely repressed.

Constitutional development

Czechoslovakia had the following constitutions throughout its history (1918 – 1992):

• Temporary Constitution of November 14 1918 [democratic], see: Czechoslovakia: 1918 - 1938
• The 1920 Constitution (The Constitutional Document of the Czechoslovak Republic) [democratic, in force till 1948, several amendments], see: Czechoslovakia: 1918 - 1938
• The Communist 1948 Ninth-of-May Constitution
• The Communist 1960 Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic with major amendments in 1968 (Constitutional Law of Federation), 1971, 1975, 1978, and in 1989 (at which point the leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was abolished). It was amended several more times during 1990-1992 (e. g. 1990, name change to Czecho-Slovakia, 1991 incorporation of the human rights charter)

Economy

After WWII, economy centrally planned with command links controlled by communist party, similar to Soviet Union. Large metallurgical industry but dependent on imports for iron and nonferrous ores.

• Industry: Extractive and manufacturing industries dominated sector. Major branches included machinery, chemicals, food processing, metallurgy, and textiles. Industry wasteful of energy, materials, and labor and slow to upgrade technology, but country source of high-quality machinery and arms for other communist countries.
• Agriculture: Minor sector but supplied bulk of food needs. Dependent on large imports of grains (mainly for livestock feed) in years of adverse weather. Meat production constrained by shortage of feed, but high per capita consumption of meat.
• Foreign Trade: Exports estimated at US$17.8 billion in 1985, of which 55 % machinery, 14 % fuels and materials, 16 % manufactured consumer goods. Imports at estimated US$17.9 billion in 1985, of which 41 % fuels and materials, 33 % machinery, 12 % agricultural and forestry products other. In 1986, about 80 % of foreign trade with communist countries.
• Exchange Rate: Official, or commercial, rate Kcs 5.4 per US$1 in 1987; tourist, or noncommercial, rate Kcs 10.5 per US$1. Neither rate reflected purchasing power. The exchange rate on the black market was around Kcs 30 per US$1, and this rate became the official one once the currency became convertible in the early 1990s.
• Fiscal Year: Calendar year.
• Fiscal Policy: State almost exclusive owner of means of production. Revenues from state enterprises primary source of revenues followed by turnover tax. Large budget expenditures on social programs, subsidies, and investments. Budget usually balanced or small surplus.

After WWII, country energy short, relying on imported crude oil and natural gas from Soviet Union, domestic brown coal, and nuclear and hydroelectric energy. Energy constraints a major factor in 1980s.

Population and ethnic groups

Czechoslovakia's ethnic composition in 1987 offered a stark contrast to that of the First Republic (see History). The Sudeten Germans that made up the majority of the population in border regions were forcibly expelled after World War II, and Carpatho-Ukraine (poor and overwhelmingly Ukrainian and Hungarian) had been ceded to the Soviet Union following World War II. Czechs and Slovaks, about two-thirds of the First Republic's population in 1930, represented about 94 % of the population by 1950.

The aspirations of ethnic minorities had been the pivot of the First Republic's politics. This was no longer the case in the 1980s. Nevertheless, ethnicity continued to be a pervasive issue and an integral part of Czechoslovak life. Although the country's ethnic composition had been simplified, the division between Czechs and Slovaks remained; each group had a distinct history and divergent aspirations.

From 1950 through 1983, the Slovak share of the total population increased steadily. The Czech population as a portion of the total declined by about 4 %, while the Slovak population increased by slightly more than that. The actual numbers did not imperil a Czech majority; in 1983 there were still more than two Czechs for every Slovak. In the mid-1980s, the respective fertility rates were fairly close, but the Slovak fertility rate was declining more slowly.

From creation to dissolution — overview

	Czechoslovakia (or Czecho-Slovakia) | 1918 - 1939; 1945 - 1992
Austria-Hungary (until 1918) (Bohemia, Moravia, a part of Silesia, northern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary (Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia)	Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938)	Sudetenland + other German territories (1938-1945) "Upper Hungary" territories of Hungary (1938-1945)		Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR) (1945-1960)	Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR) (1960-1990) Czech Socialist Republic Slovak Socialist Republic	Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (ČSFR) (1989-1992) Czech Republic Slovak Republic	Czech Republic (since 1993) Slovakia (since 1993)
		Czecho-Slovak Republic (ČSR) incl. autonomous Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ukraine (1938-1939)	Protectorate (1939-1945) WWII Slovak Republic (1939-1945)
			(further) "Upper Hungary" of Hungary (1939-1945)	part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945/1946-1991)		Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine (since 1991)
		German occupation		Communist era (part of the Eastern bloc) 1948-1989
			govern. in exile

References

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Czechoslovak Republic

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Czechoslovakia

External links

• Orders and Medals of Czechoslovakia including Order of the White Lion (in English and Czech)

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