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Third Czechoslovak Republic

The Third Czechoslovak Republic (Czech: Třetí Československá republika, Slovak: Tretia česko-slovenská republika), officially the Czechoslovak Republic (Czech: Československá republika, Slovak: Československá republika), was a sovereign state from April 1945 to February 1948 following the end of World War II.

Czechoslovak Republic
Československá republika

Czechoslovak (Czech and Slovak)

8 May 1945

24 October 1945

25 February 1948

After the fall of Nazi Germany, the country was reformed and reassigned coterminous borders as its pre-war predecessor state, First Czechoslovak Republic; it likewise restored the predecessor's international recognition. During to the rise of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence, and this circumstance dominated any plans or strategies for post-war reconstruction. Consequently, the political and economic organisation of Czechoslovakia became largely a matter of negotiations between Edvard Beneš and the Communist Party members exiled in Moscow.


In February 1948, the Communist Party seized full power in a coup d'état. Despite the country's official name remaining the Czechoslovak Republic until 1960, when it was changed to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, events of February 1948 are considered the end of the Third Republic.

History[edit]

1945[edit]

The Third Republic came into being in April 1945 with the creation of the Košice Programme.[1] All of the remaining German armed forces also surrendered to the Allies on 8 May 1945. President Beneš flew from his exile in London to Košice in eastern Slovakia, which had been taken by the Red Army and which became the temporary capital.[2] In Košice the new National Front government was formed, based on discussions dating back to 1943,[3] with Beneš remaining president, Zdeněk Fierlinger becoming prime minister with Klement Gottwald as deputy primier.[4]


In the National Front coalition three socialist parties—KSČ, Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, and Czechoslovak National Social Party—predominated. The Slovak Popular Party was banned as collaborationist with the Nazis. Other conservative yet democratic parties, such as the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (RSZML), were prevented from resuming activities in the postwar period.[5] Certain acceptable nonsocialist parties were included in the coalition; among them were the Catholic People's Party (in Moravia) and the Slovak Democratic Party.


The government moved back to Prague after its liberation on 10 May. Beneš was pressured by the Soviet Union to grant them the Carpathian Ruthenia territory as a sort of war reparation, and a treaty was signed on 29 June 1945 annexing it to the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.[6]


Industries, employing 61.2 percent of the industrial labour force, were nationalised.


14 October 1945 saw a new provisional national assembly voted in.[7]


Beneš had compromised with the KSČ to avoid a postwar coup; he naïvely hoped that the democratic process would restore a more equitable distribution of power. Beneš had negotiated the Soviet alliance, but at the same time he hoped to establish Czechoslovakia as a "bridge" between East and West, capable of maintaining contacts with both sides. The KSČ leader Klement Gottwald, however, professed commitment to a "gradualist" approach, that is, to a KSČ assumption of power by democratic means.


The popular enthusiasm evoked by the Soviet armies of liberation benefited the KSČ. Czechs, bitterly disappointed by the West at the Munich Agreement, responded favourably to both the KSČ and the Soviet alliance. Communists secured strong representation in the popularly elected national committees, the new organs of local administration. The KSČ organised and centralised the trades union movement; of 120 representatives to the Central Council of Trades Unions, 94 were communists. The party worked to acquire a mass membership, including peasants and the petite bourgeoisie, as well as the proletariat. Between May 1945 and May 1946, KSČ membership grew from 27,000 to over 1.1 million.

1946[edit]

In the May 1946 election, the KSČ won in the Czech part of the country (40.17%), while the anti-Communist Democratic Party won in Slovakia (62%). In sum, however, the KSČ won a plurality of 38 percent of the vote at the Czechoslovak level. Beneš continued as president of the republic, and Jan Masaryk, son of the revered founding father, continued as foreign minister. Gottwald became prime minister. Most important, although the communists held only a minority of portfolios, they were able to gain control over such key ministries as information, internal trade, finance and interior (including the police apparatus). Through these ministries, the communists were able to suppress noncommunist opposition, place party members in positions of power, and create a solid basis for a takeover attempt.