*
•Central Europe after WWII





•The Soviet Red Army
•Since March 1943 to May 1944 – the territories in the Ukraine were liberated
•August 1944 – Nazi regime in Romania was overthrown
•September 1944 – also Bulgaria became a member of anti-Nazi alliance
•Yugoslavia – strong resistance movement – communists (Partisans) under the leadership of Josip
Broz Tito, in October 1944 – Belgrade was liberated with the help of Red Army, the rest of
Yugoslavia liberated mostly by Partisans
• From October 1944 till February 1945 – fights in Hungary, siege of Budapest
•

•In April 1945 German-Hungarian forces finaly pushed from Hungary to Austria
•February 1945 Poland (17th February – liberation of Warsaw)
•In January 1945 – the Provisional Governement in Poland – with Soviet support
•Members of anti-German resistance movement that remained loyal to London exile government were
arrested by the Soviets, many of them exiled
•The conflict in Poland continued – since 1943 – Polish-Ukrainian War
*

*
•From 29th August 1944 till the end of October 1944 – the Slovak National Uprising – Partizans and
members of so called First Czechoslovak Army against German occupation
•September to November 1944 – Red Army crossed border mountains after cruel fights and entered
Slovakia (Battle of the Dukla Pass – 22,000 soldiers of Red Army were killed)
•Then the Red Army advanced throw Slovakia towards Vienna, during this advance Bratislava was
liberated (4th April 1945), then Brno (26th April) and Ostrava (30th April)
*

•Western part of Bohemia was liberated by American troops (Western Allied Army) under the command
of general George S. Patton but the Soviets asked Americans to stop in Pilsen and not to continue
to Prague
•5th May 1945 – the May Uprising of Bohemian People in Prague and then in the whole country
•Soviet Generals refused an offer of General Eisehower – he wanted to send American troops to help
the uprising but the Soviets wanted to liberate Prague themselves
•8th May 1945 – liberation of Prague and the end of the WW II in Europe
•

•States of Central and Southeast Europe were liberalized mainly by Red Army
•From Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia Red Army left immediately, but in Romania, Hungary, Poland,
Finland and in occupied zones (Austria, Germany) stayed
•30th April – Hitler committed suicide
•2nd May – Fall of Berlin
•7th May – capitulation of Germany – confirmed again at night from 8th to 9th May
•July 1945 – the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany – this conferrence confirmed earlier
agreements about Germany – so called “Programme of four D“ (denazification, demilitarization,
democratization and decartelization)
•Also the resettlement of German minority from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia
•August 1945 – International Trial in Nüremberg – after almost one year of trial 12 prominent Nazis
sentenced to death
•
•
•
•
•
•







*February 1945
*Germany would be divided into occupied zones administered by US, British, French, Soviet
*Accepted the principle that the Allies had no duty toward the Germans except to provide minimum
subsistence, declared that the German military industry would be abolished or confiscated, and
agreed that major war criminals would be tried before an international court, which subsequently
presided at Nüranberg
*The determination of reparations was assigned to a commission
*

*Britain and the US supported a Polish government-in-exile in London, while the USSR supported a
communist-dominated Polish committee of national liberation in Lublin
*Poland´s future frontiers were also discussed but not decided

*United Nations organization charter had already been drafted, and the conferees worked out a
compromise formula for voting in the Security Council
*
*

*
*After the agreements reached at Yalta were made public in 1946, they were harshly criticized in
the United States - because, as events turned out, J. Stalin failed to keep his promise that free
elections would be held in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria
*Instead, communist governments were established in all those countries, non-communist political
parties were suppressed, and genuinely democratic elections were never held
*At the time of the Yalta Conference, both Roosevelt and Churchill had trusted Stalin and believed
that he would keep his word
*Neither leader had suspected that Stalin intended that all the popular front governments in Europe
would be taken over by communists”

*
*Roosevelt and Churchill were further inclined to assent to the Yalta agreements because they
assumed, mistakenly as it turned out, that Soviet assistance would be sorely needed to defeat the
Japanese in the Pacific and Manchuria
*In any case, the Soviet Union was the military occupier of eastern Europe at the war’s end, and so
there was little the Western democracies could do to enforce the promises made by Stalin at Yalta
*The formulation by American delegation member James F. Byrnes, soon to be secretary of state
(1945–47), was apt: “It was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we could
get the Russians to do

•J.V. Stalin, H. Truman, W. Churchill /C. Attlee



•Main goals: unification of Germany – 4 occupation zones only temporary; Austria also divided into
4 occupattion zones
•Plan 4 “D” demilitarization, democratization, denazification, decartelization
(+dismantling and decartelization)
• New boards – polish boards; German annexations in Europe were to be reversed,
including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, and the westernmost parts of Poland
•Expulsion of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary
•War reparations - products and raw materials
•Punishment of war criminals
*

•Germany divided into four ocuppation zones – French in the southwest, British in the northwest,
United States in the south, and Soviet in the east, also Berlin, which was situated in the Soviet
zone, was divided into four occupation zones
•All the territorries that Germany had occupied (Austria, Czechoslovakia …) were detached
•Germany lost some territories: Poland and Russia, new Polish frontiers on the Oder-Niesse line
•Millions of ethnic Germans: expelled from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary and  returned to
Germany
•

*
•Occupations zones in  Berlin


•
•Occupations zones in  Germany


•August 1945 – transfer of German populatin from Czechoslovakia and Poland, expulsion of Hungarian
population was not agreed
•Related President´s  Decrees - revoke citizenship, National Administration of firms, confiscation
of land
•Immovable property, valuables
•Personal luggage 30 – 50 kilos
•Organized transfer – 1946 - Allied Control council. 2, 256,000
•1947 – 48 - Additional transfer - family reunification – 80,000
•Expulsion of German population from Czechoslovakia
•May 1945 – wild expulsion (15,000 – 30,000)!! - displacement and expulsion of German populations,
Saxon, Austria – 660, 000
•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IFfQdM7EI&feature=related
•







•Expulsion of German population from Czechoslovakia
•
*

•Paris Peace Conference (29 July - 15 October 1946) – Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Romania
•Allied powers (UK, USSR, US,France) negotiated the details of peace treaties with Italy and
minor Axis powers (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria), and Finland
•With Germany and Japan – problematic (conference in Moscow - contradictions between the powers –
how should be Germany organized – centralized x federated, Treaty on the Final Settlement With
Respect to Germany 1990)
•The Treaty of San Francisco or San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan came
into force 1952




•WW II lasted for 2.194 days
•30 states, operations – 40 states
•110 millions of men and women (army)
•Neutral – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Swiss
•Soviet Union – 27 millions, China – 10 millions, Germany – 6 millions, Poland – 6 millions, Japan
– 2.5 millions,…
•Germany - the principle of collective guilt




•New superpowers: US and Soviet Union (defeated Nazi Germany), in Asia – growing China
•New trend in European policy – left
•US – the strongest world economy
•April 1945 – OSN - United Nations charter, Security Council, General Assembly (50 states, today
more then 193,   international law, international security, economic development, social progress,
human rights, and achievement of world peace, replaced the League of Nations, to stop wars between
countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to
carry out its missions)

•After the common enemy was defeated – relation between US and USSR became worse and slowly the
rivalry began
• US – better economy, atomic bomb, technically better equipped army
•USSR – huge material lost, but still very powerful army –  aroused American respect
•After Japan was defeated – H. Truman – stop supplying – first step: from alliance to enemies
(Lend-Lease aid)

• J.V. Stalin – new wave of terror, no criticism, labor camp
•http://www.google.cz/search?q=soviet+working+camps&hl=cs&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=p
R2ZUMrwCIjEswaM8oHIBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1008&bih=619
•Extreme poverty x extreme investment – army
•Crises of agriculture, 1946 - crop failure
•Soviet policy - Soviet-bloc countries were subordinate Moscow, Soviet advisers in Security forces
•1949 - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
•1949 Council for Mutual Economic Assistance  - Soviet Union – economical power – control over the
national economies, members: Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Hungary, East Germany,…Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam
•Political (Show)trials – ag. Communist and non – communists - accused of subversive activities,
effort to find the culprit responsible for economic problems and effort to discourage people from
disagreeing with the regime
•50´s Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,…
•Milada Horaková
•

*
•1949 Council for Mutual Economic Assistance  - Soviet Union – economical power – control over the
national economies, members: Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Hungary, East Germany,…Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam
•Political (Show) trials – againts Communist and non – Communists - accused of subversive
activities, effort to find the culprit responsible for economic problems and effort to discourage
people from disagreeing with the régime (50´s Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia - Milada Horaková)
•Nationalization of industry, prohibitions and restrictions on private enterprise and the peasants
were forced to join the collective farm
•Hardest enforcement - Soviet interests ended in 1953
•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-EwVVm89og
•Nationalization of industry, prohibitions and restrictions on private enterprise and the peasants
were forced to join the collective farm
•Hardest enforcement - Soviet interests ended in 1953
•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-EwVVm89og
•
•
•
•

•1947 - H. Truman – Doctrine against Communism
•http://www.history.com/speeches/the-truman-doctrine
•1946 – W. Churchill – Iron Curtain
•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvax5VUvjWQ
•1946 – G. Marshall – Marshall Plan, Czechoslovakia and Poland had to refuse – definitive line
between East and West
•http://www.oecd.org/general/themarshallplanspeechatharvarduniversity5june1947.htm
*
*
*

*Pronouncement by U.S. Pres. Harry S. Truman (March 12, 1947) declaring immediate economic and
military aid to the governments of Greece, threatened by communist insurrection, and Turkey, under
pressure from Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean area
*US As and USSR struggled to reach a balance of power during the Cold War, Great Britain announced
that it could no longer afford to aid those Mediterranean countries, which the West feared were in
danger of falling under Soviet influence
*US Congress responded to a message from Truman by promptly appropriating $400,000,000 for this
purpose

*Formally European Recovery Program, (April 1948 – December 1951), US sponsored program designed to
rehabilitate the economies of 17 western and southern European countries in order to create stable
conditions in which democratic institutions could survive
*

*June 1947- at Harvard University - Secretary of State George C. Marshall advanced the idea of a
European self-help program to be financed by US
*US Congress authorized the establishment of the European Recovery Program, which was signed into
law by President Harry S. Truman on April 3, 1948
* Aid was originally offered to almost all the European countries, including those under military
occupation by USSR

*The Marshall Plan was very successful
*The western European countries involved experienced a rise in their gross national products of 15
to 25 percent during this period
*H. Truman extended the Marshall Plan to less-developed countries throughout the world under the
Point Four Program, initiated in 1949

*US policy of technical assistance and economic aid to underdeveloped countries, so named because
it was the fourth point of President Harry S. Truman’s 1949 inaugural address
*The first appropriations were made in 1950

•No open military conflict
•Rivalry: policy, economy, science, culture and sport,…very dangerous phenomenon of was armaments


*



•1st phase: Berlin Blockade (1948–49) was the first major crisis of the Cold War; Chinese Civil
War and the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–53). USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin
America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of
1956 was stopped by the Soviets. The expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez
Crisis (1956), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
•2nd phase: Sino-Soviet split. 1968 Prague Spring and Occupation of Czechoslovakia, and Vietnam
War (1955–75).
•3rd phase (period of détente - easing of strained relations, especially in political situation): -
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the US opening relations with the People's Republic of China as
a strategic counterweight to the Soviet Union. Détente collapsed with the beginning of
the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979.
•4th phase - elevated tension: Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983), and the "Able
Archer" NATO military exercises (1983).  In the mid-1980s -Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the
liberalizing reforms. 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully (with the exception of
the Romanian Revolution) overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe.
Dissolution of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse of communist regimes in other countries
such as Mongolia, Cambodia and South Yemen. The United Statas remained as the world's only
superpower.

•Extreme poverty
•Allied Control Council
•The black market  - American cigarettes
•Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing
controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a
particular day or at a particular time
•US and GB – 1. 1. 1947 – Bizone and April 1948 Trizone
•June 1948 – decision to establish Germany (3 zones) – Soviet reaction – occupation of western ways
to Berlin - collapse in supplying the city- Berlin Crises
•Common control of Germany was finished
•J.V. Stalin – to oust western army from Berlin – centre of the soviet zone
•June 1948 Soviet army started to block Berlin
•
•
•

*
*The German state had ceased to exist, and sovereign authority passed to the victorious Allied
powers
*The physical devastation from Allied bombing campaigns and from ground battles was enormous: an
estimated one-fourth of the country’s housing was destroyed or damaged beyond use, and in many
cities the toll exceeded 50 percent
*Germany’s economic infrastructure had largely collapsed as factories and transportation systems
ceased to function, rampant inflation was undermining the value of the currency, and an acute
shortage of food reduced the diet of many city dwellers to the level of malnutrition

*For purposes of occupation, the Americans, British, French, and Soviets divided Germany into four
zones
*The American, British, and French zones together made up the western two-thirds of Germany, while
the Soviet zone comprised the eastern third
*Berlin, the former capital, which was surrounded by the Soviet zone, was placed under joint
four-power authority but was partitioned into four sectors for administrative purposes
*Allied Control Council was to exercise overall joint authority over the country

•Interest: USSR x West Bloc
•In western occupation zones – 4 political parties, election, institutions under the occupation
power gave the political power to new local governments
•In soviet zone – one party (communists and social democrats), land reform, nationalization of some
factories and denacification (schools, offices)
•June 1948 - 3 zones – monetary reform, reparation was cancelled, Marshall Plan

*Summer 1945 -  occupation authorities permitted the formation of German political parties in
preparation for elections for new local and regional representative assemblies
*Two of the major leftist parties of the Weimar era quickly revived: the moderate Social Democratic
Party and the German Communist Party - loyal to the Soviet Union
*These were soon joined by a new creation, the Christian Democratic Union
*The leaders of this Christian Democratic coalition had for the most part been active in the
moderate parties of the Weimar Republic, especially the Catholic Centre Party.
*Germans who favoured a secular state and laissez-faire economic policies formed a new Free
Democratic Party (in the Western zones) and a Liberal Democratic Party in the Soviet zone
*Numerous smaller parties were also launched in the Western zones.

*Under pressure from the occupation authorities - April 1946 Social Democratic Party leaders in the
Soviet zone agreed to merge with the Communists, a step denounced by the Social Democrats in the
Western zones
*The resulting Socialist Unity Party (SED) swept to victory with the ill-concealed aid of the
Soviets in the first elections for local and regional assemblies in the Soviet zone
*However, when in October 1946 elections were held under fairer conditions in Berlin, which was
under four-power occupation, the SED tallied fewer than half as many votes as the Social Democratic
Party, which had managed to preserve its independence in the old capital
*Thereafter SED, which increasingly fell under communist domination as Social Democrats were
systematically purged from its leadership ranks, avoided free, competitive elections by forcing all
other parties to join a permanent coalition under its leadership

*Occupying powers soon approved the formation of regional governmental units called Länder or
states
*By 1947 the Länder in the Western zones had freely elected parliamentary assemblies
*Institutional developments followed a superficially similar pattern in the Soviet zone, but there
the political process remained less than free because of the dominance of the Soviet-backed SED




*1947 - USSR would not permit free, multiparty elections throughout the whole of Germany, the
Americans and British amalgamated the German administrative organs in their occupation zones in
order to foster economic recovery
*The resulting unit, called Bizonia
*Its federative structure would later serve as the model for the West German state

*
*Western powers tdecided to extend to their occupation zones American economic aid, which had been
instituted elsewhere in western Europe a year earlier under the Marshall Plan (to enhance the
effectiveness of that aid, the Americans, British, and French effected a currency reform in their
zones that replaced Germany’s badly inflated currency with a new, hard deutsche mark - Western
Germany’s economy responded quickly, as goods previously unavailable for nearly worthless money
came onto the market)

*The Soviets responded angrily to the currency reform, which was undertaken without their approval
*When the new deutsche mark was introduced into Berlin, the Soviets protested vigorously and
boycotted the Allied Control Council
*June 1948 they blockaded land routes from the Western zones to the Western sectors of Berlin
*Western powers mounted an around-the-clock airlift that supplied the West Berliners with food and
fuel throughout the winter of 1948–49 - May 1949 the Soviets relented and lifted the blockade

*April 1949 the French began to merge their zone into Bizonia, which became Trizonia
*September a Parliamentary Council of 65 members chosen by the parliaments of the Länder began
drafting a constitution for a West German government
*Council completed its work in the spring of 1949, and the Federal Republic of Germany
(Bundesrepublik Deutschland), commonly known as West Germany,
*Document specified that it was designed only for temporary use until a constitution had been
freely adopted

*Basic Law was approved by the Western Allied military governors with certain reservations, notably
the exclusion of West Berlin, which had been proposed as the federation’s 12th Land
*11 constituent Länder of West Germany
*Basic Law, the Federal Republic of Germany was established with its provisional capital in the
small city of Bonn
*State took shape as a federal form of parliamentary democracy

•US and GB – 1. 1. 1947 – Bizone and 1948 Trizone (France)
•23 May 1949, the Trizone became the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany
•Berlin Blockade – Berlin Airlift (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major
international crises of the Cold War: June 1948 – decision to establish Germany (3 zones) → Soviet
reaction – occupation of western ways to Berlin - collapse in supplying the city- Berlin Crises
(https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/BERLIN_A/INDEX.HTM)
*

*Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of France, Great
Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin, which lay within
Russian-occupied East Germany
*Western powers instituted an airlift that lasted nearly a year and delivered much-needed supplies
and relief to West Berlin
*Coming just three years after the end of World War II, the blockade was the first major clash of
the Cold War and foreshadowed future conflict over the city of Berlin

*
*Agreement after World War II to divide Germany and Berlin into occupation zones, with Berlin
located deep in the Russian zone, had come out of the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and had
included no arrangements for access to Berlin
*Since then, the relationship between the USSR and the West had deteriorated steadily, as reflected
in disputes at the United Nations, Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech in March 1946, growing
emphasis in U.S. foreign policy on containment of Russian expansion, Soviet hostility toward the
Marshall Plan, and growing Western commitment to establishing a separate capitalist West Germany

*
•Common control of Germany was finished
•September 1949 –  Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, Independent position – West Berlin
•October 1949 – German Democratic Republic, Wilhelm Pieck
•
*

*When it became clear - West German government would be established, a so-called election for a
People’s Congress was held in the Soviet occupation zone in May 1949
*But instead of choosing among candidates, voters were allowed only the choice of approving or
rejecting—usually in less-than-secret circumstances—“unity lists” of candidates drawn from all
parties, as well as representatives of mass organizations controlled by the communist-dominated SED
*Two additional parties, a Democratic Farmers’ Party and a National Democratic Party, designed to
attract support from farmers and from former Nazis, respectively, were added with the blessing of
the SED
*By ensuring that communists predominated in these unity lists, the SED determined in advance the
composition of the new People’s Congress

*
*October 1949 - following  formation of the Federal Republic, a constitution ratified by the
People’s Congress went into effect in the Soviet zone, which became the German Democratic Republic
known as East Germany, with its capital in the Soviet sector of Berlin
*The People’s Congress was renamed the People’s Chamber, and this body, together with a second
chamber composed of officials of the five Länder of the Soviet zone (which were abolished in 1952
in favour of centralized authority), designated the communist Wilhelm Pieck of the SED as president
of the German Democratic Republic on October 11, 1949
*The next day, the People’s Chamber installed the former Social Democrat Otto Grotewohl as premier
at the head of a cabinet that was nominally responsible to the chambre
*German Democratic Republic was constitutionally a parliamentary democracy, decisive power actually
lay with the SED and its boss, the veteran communist functionary Walter Ulbricht, who held only the
obscure position of deputy premier in the government
*In East Germany, as in the Soviet Union, the government served merely as the agent of an
all-powerful communist-controlled party, which was in turn ruled from above by a self-selecting
Politburo.

•1949 – 1990
•Communist party, known as the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
•President W. Pieck and General Secretary Walter Ulbricht
•After 1950, political power in East Germany was held by the First Secretary of the SED
•Soviet control
•Establishing - two German states - completed struggling for the post-war order in Europe




*
*December 1943 E. Beneš visited Moscow and signed a 20-year treaty of alliance, in which the
Soviets recognized Czechoslovakia’s pre-Munich agreement borders
*This treaty, as well as agreements made with Klement Gottwald, the leader of the Czechoslovak
communists exiled in Moscow, thenceforth determined Beneš’s policies toward the Czech protectorate
and Slovakia
*

*Slovakia - August 1944 -  popular uprising
*In contrast with the Warsaw Uprising, which also took place that August, the Soviets were directly
supporting the Slovak rebels
*Nazis crushed the uprising at the end of October, before Soviet troops were able to cross the
Carpathians
*Nevertheless, the advance of the Red Army through Slovakia—several months before the Western
Allies were able to advance closer to the Czech border—became of decisive importance

*March 1945 E. Beneš and his government in exile journeyed from London to Moscow to make a final
accord with Joseph Stalin and Klement Gottwald
*A program of postwar reconstruction was worked out under decisive communist influence
*Zdeněk Fierlinger, a former Czechoslovak diplomat and communist ally, became prime minister of a
new provisional government, set up at Košice in Slovakia on April 3

*Košice government exercised jurisdiction in the eastern portion of Czechoslovakia while fighting
continued in Moravia and Bohemia until early May 1945
*May 5 - uprising against the German troops concentrated in central Bohemia started in Prague
*Appeals for Allied help were largely ignored - troops under US Gen. George S. Patton reached Plzeň
but, complying with instructions from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, did not advance to Prague
*Finally, on May 9, Soviet troops under Marshal Ivan Konev entered Prague

*Fall 1945 E. Beneš nominated the Provisional National Assembly, which reelected him president and
confirmed in office the provisional government, headed by Z. Fierlinger
*Vice premier was K. Gottwald, and the leaders of the other political parties also held vice
premierships
*General election was scheduled to legitimize the provisional regime as well as to test the
nation’s acceptance of this new order, in compliance with the agreement of the Allies at the Yalta
Conference in February 1945

*May 1946 - Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won a great victory in the general election, polling
2,695,293 votes—38.7 percent of the total
*Several factors contributed to the success of the communists, particularly the Western powers’
betrayal of Czechoslovakia in the Munich agreement and a resuscitated sense of Pan-Slavic
solidarity, fed by strong anti-German feelings
*K. Gottwald became premier, and the communists took control of most of the key ministries,
including interior, information, agriculture, and finance
*Jan Masaryk retained foreign affairs, however, and Gen. Ludvík Svoboda remained minister of
defense

*The tension between the two factions developed into a crisis over the question of who was to
control the police
*Communist interior minister objected to the appointment of non-communist officials for senior
police posts
*In protest, most of the noncommunist ministers resigned on Feb. 20, 1948; they hoped the
government paralysis would force K. Gottwald and the communist ministers to resign as well
*Instead, the communists seized the ministries held by the resigning ministers as well as the
headquarters of the parties now in opposition

*
vEconomy
•Lack of food
•1947 - disastrous drought
•Prerequisite for economic recovery
•Monetary reform
•Payroll reform
üChild benefit
üXmas benefits
üExtension of paid leave
*
*X
•Volume of industry ½ compare to before WWII
•URNA
-

•United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), organization founded (1943)
during World War II to give aid to areas liberated from the Axis powers. 52 participating
countries, each of which contributed funds amounting to 2% of its national income in 1943. A sum of
nearly $4 billion was expended on various types of emergency aid, including distribution of food
and medicine and restoration of public services and of agriculture and industry. China,
Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Poland, the Ukrainian SSR, and Yugoslavia were the chief
beneficiaries. UNRRA returned some 7 million displaced persons to their countries of origin and
provided camps for about 1 million refugees unwilling to be repatriated. More than half the funds
were provided by the United States.

•3. 4. 1945 - President Beneš returned from exile
• National Front government - the first Czechoslovak government  declared  in Košice 4th April
1945, prime minister Zdeněk Fierlinger
• Composition of the goverment was agreed in advance – representatives of: London's resistance,
Moscow´s resistance (communists) and the representatives of Slovak National Uprising
• The most powerfull - Communist
• Right-wing parties forbidden!
• 5 April – Košice Govermant Program: punishment of war criminals, nationalization, land reform,
Czechs and Slovaks, two equal nations ...

•August 1945 – transfer of German populatin from Czechoslovakia and Poland, expulsion of Hungarian
Population was not agreed
•Related President´s  Decrees - revoke citizenship, National Administration of firms, confiscation
of land
•Immovable property, valuables
•Personal luggage 30 – 50 kilos
•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IFfQdM7EI&feature=related
•

•In Slovakia 600, 000 Hungarians
•Expulsion of Hungarians from Slovakia was not realized
•West powers did not agree with the transfer but 1946 - Czechoslovakian - Hungarian Agreement on
exchange of populations (limited population Exchange)
•Persecution of the Hungarian minority, denationalization Hungarians
•
*(The legal basis for the expulsion of the Germans and the intended explusion of the Hungarians
were Beneš Decrees)

•Loss Ruthenia (Czechoslovak Government in June 1945 signed in Moscow contract with USSR)
•Expulsion of Germans
-expulsion Wild (May-August 1945) - Revenge - Germans expelled about 660.000 + murdered: from
15.000 to 30.000
-organized evacuation (August 1945 - November 1946) - based on the Potsdam Conference – 2.250.000
Germans
-additional evacuation (1947-1948) - about 80.000
*Overall displaced about 3 million Germans, left in Czechoslovakia 300.000

•The Decrees of the President of the Republic and the Constitutional Decrees of the President of
the Republic known as the Beneš decrees
•Series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak
parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II
•Issued by President Edvard Beneš from 21 July 1940 to 27 October 1945 and retroactively ratified
by the Interim National Assembly of Czechoslovakia on 6 March 1946

•October 1945 Edvard Beneš decrees issued:
-nationalization of key industries, banks and insurance companies
-decrees of the punishment of Nazi war criminals → trials and executions
-confiscation of property – based on Potsdam Conference -expulsion of the German population +
confiscation of property traitors, collaborators and Germans

•28 October 1945 first meeting
•Unicameral (Senate was abolished)
•Formed by presidential decree
•Representatives of political parties and other organizations (non-elected)
•Confirmed: Edvard Beneš as President of the Republic and
•Zdeňka Fierlingera as Prime Minister
•Validity of presidential decrees was confirmed
•The National Assembly started to issue legal documents

•Land reform - land confiscated (the Germans and collaborators; assigned to the landless and small
peasants, especially in the border regions)
•Continued ration management Monetary reform (November 1945) - War deposits in Banks were frozen
("linked deposit")
•Introduced: obligation to work and child benefits

•Ration repository, ended 1953



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•1939 – 118,310 x 1945 14,045
•Open asylum policy, pro – Jewish state policy
•Anna Hanusová – Flachová
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•BRENNER, H.: The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope, and Survival in Theresienstad. New York 2009.
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•1946 – last “ democratic“ election - National Assembly
•Parties:
ü- Communists (mass party. 1,000,000)
ü- National Socialists
ü - The People's Party
ü - Social Democrats
üDemocratic Party – Slovakia,…
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-

•Czech lands:
üCommunists – 40%
•X
•Slovakia:
ü- Democratic Party – 62% x Communists – 30%

•May 1946 “half free“ elections - people can choose from several political parties but right-wing
parties were not allowed
•Elected National Assembly of Czechoslovakia
•June 1946 Edvard Beneš re-elected – President
•New Government: Prime Minister – Klement Gottwald – Communist Party
•

•1947 –  catastrophic drought → crop crop failure - food imports from the USSR
•Reduction of the supplying – growing black market
•Slovakia – real poverty
•1947 (June-July) - Marshall Plan - plan presented by US Secretary of State George Marshall –
Economic Recovery of Europe; Soviets promptly rejected it. Czechoslovakia was interested, but J.V.
Stalin did not agree
•Soviet Union help – 600,000 tons of grain x propaganda – Soviets saved Czechoslovakia again…
•Disputes: Communist Party x Democratic Party (non-communist)
•Communist Party controled Ministry of Interior → organized provocations against Democratic Parties
•

•Ministry of Interior during Fall 1947 revealed a "conspiracy" in the Democratic Party
•Communists managed to limit the influence of Democratic Party  provocations, but still alive
• "Millionaires" - Communists pushed through extraordinary tax - all propetry over 1 million

•Communists – mass POPULARITY
•Extra income to the Treasury
•Government succumbed to pressure – state budget + 6,000,000,000 Czechoslovak crown (76 304 993 000
Kčs)
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•Propaganda and publicity campaigns, mass protests, staged affair and assassination attempts, some
of the policy component – provocation and espionage + close ties to the Soviet Union
effort to influence opinion about situation in Czechoslovakia
•Convergence process of democratic forces began late – lack of unifying personality

vFebruary 1948 - two affairs at the National Security Corps:
•Affair of Most  - secret police agent tried to falsely accuse leaders Czechoslovak National
Socialist Party of preparing a coup d'état
•Case of Krčmaň - ministers of Czechoslovak National Socialist Party and minister Masaryk (all non
– comunists) received boxes with explosives. Minister of Interior Minister  Václav Nosek (KSC), it
"is not able to investigate" → non-communist parties in government are demanding to investigate
both  affairs. V. Nosek responded by strengthening the positions of the Communist Party in the
National Security Corps → Government decided to stop the implementation  but Václav Nosek refused

v 20th February  – 12 non-communist Ministers resigned
•They hoped that President E. Beneš will not accept it (new election or Communists retreat) but
Communists started coercive actions to force E. Beneš to accept the resignation →
manifestation,…and 24th February – General Strike
vJ.V. Stalin encouraged → K. Gottwald necessary to ask the Soviet Union for military aid (Soviet
Army was ready : Hungarian-Slovakian border)
•K. Gottwald aid refused, apparently handle the situation himself
•Action Committees of the National Front raise the power of the Communist Party, depriving
political functions of their opponents
vThe only one  public opposition action  to the Communist Party was a demonstration of University
students  on 25th February – suppressed manifestation
v25.2.1948 - President E. Beneš accepted the resignations of the non-Communist ministers and
appointed a new government in accordance with KSČ demands →  Final Victory of Communist Party
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*potato beetle



•Feis, H.: Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983.
•Roberts, G.: Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953. Yale University Press, 2006.
•Kaplan, K.: The Short March: The Communist Takeover in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. C. Hurst & Co.
Publishers, 1987.
•Zeman, Z.: The Life of Edvard Beneš, 1884-1948: Czechoslovakia in Peace and War. Clarendon Press,
1997.
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