The Cold War: Country Trends--Czechoslovakia

Figure 1.--The Soviet Uniin sent in its tanks to supress the Prague Soring as it had done in East Germany, Hungary, and threatened in Poland. As aresult therewere Red rmy armored vehicles allover the country. This wire service photograph dated September 11, 1968 was captioned,"Ignoring Ivan: Czech boys play soccer in recreation field yesterday in Prague, ignoring Russian soldiers who pass by on an armored vehicle." We are not familiar with the type of Soviet Armor here. It is not tracked armor and has four wheels so t looks like a type of advance scout car with one machine gun and an armored driver area for small arms protection.

The Soviets enginered a coup in Czechoslovakia (February 1948). Czechoslovakia was the last Eastern European country occupied by the Soviets that had any semblance of a democratic government. Stalin was not interested in bridge building. He wanted a reliable, compliant Czechoslovakia like the other satellite states of Eastern Europe. The Communists armed their supporters and staged street demonstragtions. They were supported by th police because the Ministry of the Interior was in the hands of the Communists. The army might have supoorted the Government if President Benes had decided to resist, but he believed that Soviet troops would intervene. Czecholslovakia at the time was almost entire surounded by Soviet satellites or Soviet occupied eastern Germanya nd Austria. He therefore yielded to the Communists and the country soon had a Stalinist Government. The Soviet takeover of Czecheslovakia in 1948 had many unintended consequences for Stalin. After the 20th Party Congress (1956), the capricious nature of Stalinist terror was regularized, but Czechoslovakia and the other Soviet Eastern Europeans satellites contunued to be governed as a police state, strictly controlling people's lives. Fear gradually diminished and social and artistic freedoms increased in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s. This led to increasing discussion of political freedom. The Prague Spring (Pražské jaro) refers to a brief period of political reform and liberalization began in Czechoslovakia (1968). Czech Communistl leader Alexander Dubcek who came to power January 5, 1968 initiated a series of liberal reforms. Dubchek replaced hard-line leader Antonin Novotny as First Secretary of the Czech Communist Party. In the end, the Soviet settled the debate--with Red Army tanks. The Prague Spring ended with and the invasion of 650,000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops (August 20, 1968). The period following the Prague Spring and Soviet invasion is known as the period of "normalization". The Soviets reinstalled the hard liners in power. They acted as apologists for the Soviet invasion. Any opposition to the reintroduction of Communist orthodoxy was quashed. The political, social, and economic life of the country stagnated. The first inkling of opposition to the Communist orthodoxy was Charter 77. More than 250 human rights activists signed the Charter 77 manifesto (January 1, 1977). They criticized the Communist government for failing to implement human rights provisions in several different commitments, including the United Nations \Charter an the Czechoslvakian constitution. Charter 77 was unsucessful in changing the nture of the Czech Communist government, but gradually police state tactics were softened, allowing a degree of discent and discussion as long as it was not to public. Gorbechov's reforms in the Soviet Union had repercussions in the Soviet Eastern European satellites. Communist leaders attempted to maintain Communist orthodoxy through police state actions. The Communist regimes were, however, clearly crumbling when Gorbechov signalled that the Red Army would not be used to keep the regimes in power. This essentially undercut the regimes because they had little domestic support. The Czech communist police violently broke up a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration and brutally beat many student participants (November 17, 1989). Charter 77 and other groups united to create the Civic Forum. The popular support afforded the Civic Forum was such that the Czechoslavkian Communist Party, with virtually no popular support, essentially collapsed. Husak and party chief Milos Jakes resigned (December 1989). Havel was elected President (December 29). The transition was a starteling transformation and occured along with similar changes in East Germany. The lack of violence resulted in it being named the Velvet Revolution.

World War II

Hitler remiliatized the Rhineland (1935) and conducted the Anschluss bringing Austria into the Reich (April 1938). Hitler's next target was the Sudetenland. The Czechs were prepared to fight. The British and French were not. British Primeminister Nevil Chamberlin delivered the Sudetenland to Hitler at the Munich Conferece (October 1938). The Sudetenland was incorporated into the Reich. Slovakia suceeded and a pro-NAZI regime seized power. Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to seize the rest of the country (March 1939). Here Hitler step over another milestone, for the first time he seized control of non-Germans. NAZI policies varied depending on the area of Czecheslovakia (the Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia, and Slovakia). We note that some Czechs were forcibly removed from the Sudentenland, but we have few details at this time. NAZI policies in Bohemia and Moravia were much more begin that later implemented in Pland, but vecame more secere as the occupation progressed, especially after the appointment of Teynhard Heydrich as Governor. The Czechs as the first occupied country, were the first to be drafted for forced labor in Germany. The Czech arms industry played an importan role in the German war effirt. Hitler convinced that the Czechs were being treated to lightly, appointed Reinhard Heydrich to replace the first NAZI governor. His assasination by British-trained patriots resulted in horendous reprisals by the SS.

Czech Government in Exile

After the siggning of the Munich Agreement, President Benes ordered the Czech Army not to resist the occupation of the Sudetenland. He then resigned (October 5, 1938). He flew to exile in London and with other exiles organized a Czechoslovakian Government-in-exile. The British hoping that Hitler had been apeased did not recognize Benes. Even after Hitler violated the Munich Agreement and invaded Czecheslovakia (March 1939), the British still did not recognize him. This only came with Hitler's invasion of Poland and the start of World War II (September 1939). The British organized Czech military units including a RAF detachment for those Czechs who managed to get to England. Benes was sensitive to the charge that the Cechs were cooperating with the German war effort. He spported a plan to asasinate Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich with British-trained agents, knowing that massive reprisals against civilians would occur. The Allies recognized the exiled government (Summer 1941) and repudiated the Munich Agreement (1942). Benes worked toward ensuring that the country's pre-War borders would be restored. He also sought to resolve the German minority problem. He received consent from the Allies for a solution based on the transfer of the Sudeten German population after the War.

Liberation of Czecheslovakia

Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Allies. The Soviets entere from the east and the Americans from the West. The Red Army liberated most of Czechoslovakia from the NAZIs. Civilians in Prague rose up against the Germans (May 1945). Russians fighting with the Germans played a role in driving the SS out of Prague. Patton's 3rd Army reached Pilsen and other areas in western Bohemia. The country fell into the Soviet area of control as agreed at Yalta.

Post-War Czech Government

After the German surrender, President Benes issued a decree expelling ethnic Germans. Under the Benes Secrees about 2.9 million ethnic Germas were expelled. These of course were mostly the Sudeten Germans that had demanded to be reunited with the Reich. Czechoslovakia was the last Eastern European country occupied by the Soviets that had any semblance of a democratic government. Elections had made the Communists the largest political party. Heavily industrialized Bohemia had a well-established Communist following before World War II. Many Czechs were sympathetic toward the Russians because they had challenged the German Hapsburgs which had dominated Bohemia and Slovakia. Also many Czechs were bitter with how the West had abandoned them at Munich in 1938. The Communists did not, however, have a majority in Parliament. This forced them to form a coalition with non-Communist parties. Many Czechs were hopeful that their country because of its geographic location and historical links coukld serve as a kind of political bridge between East and West. They were, however, occupied by the Red Army which mean that the security services were in the hands of the Soviets. The country held its first democratic elections since the German occupation (Spring 1946). The democratic elements were led by President Eduard Benes. The Czechoslovak Communist Party (CCP) won 38 percent of the vote. They took most of the key positions in the new government. The Communists gradually neutralized anti-communist forces. Some democratic politicans disappeared. Others were intimidated into silence. The Czech Government had welcomed the U.S.-funded Marshall Plan, but Soviet presure forced them to reject it.

Soviet-engineered Coup (1948)

Just as Czechoslovakiawas at center stage in the lead up to World War I. It was at center stage in the outbreak of the Cold War. The Soviets enginered a coup in Czechoslovakia (February 1948). Stalin was not interested in bridge building. He wanted a reliable, compliant Czechoslovakia like the other satellite states of Eastern Europe. The Communists armed their supporters and staged street demonstragtions. They were supported by the police because the Ministry of the Interior was in the hands of the Communists. The army might have suported the Government if President Benes had decided to resist, but he believed that Soviet troops would intervene. Czecholslovakia at the time was almost entire surounded by Soviet satellites or Soviet occupied eastern Germany and Austria. He therefore yielded to the Communists and the country soon had a Stalinist Government. [Hudson, p. 60.] The Soviet takeover of Czecheslovakia in 1948 had many unintended consequences for Stalin. It helped convince the Western Allies to unite their occupation zones in Germany and it helped build support in America for resisting Communist expandion in Europe. The result was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization--NATO (1949).

Stalinist Purges

The Stalinist era was a nightmare, notbonly for non-Communuists, but for some mmbers od the CCP as well. The leadership of the CCP, after seizing power, carried out a series of Stalinist purges. They followed the pattern of the other Stalinist purges that had already begun in the rest of the Soviet Eastern European empire. The CCP in 1948 included arange of members, not all of whom were slavish Soviet puppets. A show case trial of 14 former leaders was conducted (November 1952). The court sentenced 11 to death. CCP Chairman Antonin Novotny ruled Czecholovakia as an orthodox Communst dictatorship, religiously following directions from Moscow. People lost their businesses and often homes. Farmers became enemies of the state. Workers were glorifies, but rarely adeqyuately rewarded for their labor, in part because state owned enterorises were so inefficent in comparison to comanies in the West.

Soviet 20th Party Congress (1956)

Stalin's death (1953) meant change was possible in the Soviet Union. Soviet Primer Nikita Khrushchev oncde in firm control set in motion that change at the 20th Party Congress with his Secret Speech (1956). Eastrern European delegates were present and listened with the Soviet delegates in hushed tines. The Hungarian delegztes took him too seriously and played in blood. The capricious nature of Stalinist terror, however, was regularized, but that does not mean that democracy was ushered in or the new KGB and their secret police clones in each of the satellite countries did not actively supress basic freedoms. Czechoslovakia and the other contries trapped in the Soviet Eastern European empire continued to be governed as satallite police states, strictly controlling people's lives and expression. The savegery of the Stalinist era was gone, but oppresion and denial of badsic rights continued.

Soviet East-bloc Interventions

Stalin and his sucessors encountered much more difficulty subjecting the people of Eastern Europe to totalitarian rule than the Russian people. The Soviets brutally supressed attempts by Eastern Europeans to overthrow Soviet imposed governments: East Germany (1953), Poland (1956), Hungary (1956), Czecheslovakia (1978), and other outbreaks--especially in Poland. The first revolt broke out in East Germany after the death of Stalin. Efforts to end the mass terror and liberalize the Soviet system were met in East Germany by demands for real democratic rule. Soviet officials concluded that reforms were dangerous and threatened the Soviet system. [Harrison] As a resuly, for three decades efforts at reform were brutally supressed. The Hungarian Revolution ocurred in the midst of Nikita Khruschev's de-Stalinization program. One historian contends that Khruschev did not want to appear weak in the face of Western Operations in Suez, thus explaining the massive use of force in supressing the Hungarian rebellion. [Hitchcock] Finally it was in Eastern Europe that the whole Soviet system would begin unraveling. The Communist regime in Poland was brouhjt down by the very workers it claimed to represent. And it was in the Baltics, the most European area, that the Soviet Union itself began to implode.

Prague Spring (1968)

Reformers after the Soviet 20th Party Congress (1956) began to question Communist orthodoxy in the early 1960s. Fear gradually diminished and social and artistic freedoms increased in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s. This led to increasing discussion of political freedom. The Prague Spring (Pražské jaro) refers to a brief period of political reform and liberalization began in Czechoslovakia (1968). It is a term first coined in the West, but adopted by the Czechs themselves. It in part refers back to the Springtime of Peoples--the Revolutions of 1848. Czech Communistl leader Alexander Dubcek who came to power January 5, 1968 initiated a series of liberal reforms. Dubchek replaced hard-line leader Antonin Novotny as First Secretary of the Czech Communist Party. In the end, the Soviet settled the debate--with Red Army tanks. The Prague Spring ended with and the invasion of 650,000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops (August 20, 1968). Only Romania refused to join the Soviets. Dubcek was arrested and transported to Moscow.

Communist Normalization (1970s-80s)

The period following the Prague Spring and Soviet invasion is known as the period of 'normalization'. The Soviets reinstalled the hard liners in power. They acted as apologists for the Soviet invasion. Any opposition to the reintroduction of Communist orthodoxy was quashed. The political, social, and economic life of the country stagnated. Dsidents during the Stalinist era faced death. During the Communist normalization era, the rougher edges of Communisr rule we moderated, but opposition still had serious cinsequences. One author provides a good description, "Those who did not comply with socialism were not only interrogated, intimidated and put under surveillance but also subject to house searches, during which the Secret Police invaded citizens’ privacy while searching for illegal literature. Bribes abounded; the presence of bugs in homes prevented people from speaking openly; there were long lines at the shops; people were imprisoned for filing complaints or signing petitions. .... Members of the intelligentsia were forced to do menial jobs such as cleaning streets or washing windows. If a citizen defected, the family left behind was severely punished. People socializing with dissidents were interrogated and accused of subversion." [Burne] From the outside, despite brave soles like Charter 77 speaking out, the Czech Communist state looked secure and like the rest of the Soviet Eastern European Empire, a fixed feature of post-War Europe. What Czech Communist leaders could not deal with was the iron laws of economics. Thec Secret police backed ny the Soviet NKVS and Red Amy could keep Czechoslovakia Communist, but it could not make the economy efficent. And living standards could not approach those countries acrss the border in Western Europe. Most people acoided trouble with the police by keeping silent and were thus unaffected by politucal repression. All Czechs were, however, affected by Communist economics which relegated the country to a kind of genteel poverty.

Charter 77 (1977)

The first inkling of opposition to the Communist orthodoxy was Charter 77. More than 250 human rights activists signed the Charter 77 manifesto (January 1, 1977). Disent could be suppressed, but withoutna Stalinist NKVD executing disidents, it could not be totally eliminated. Charter 77 criticized the Communist government for failing to implement human rights provisions in several different commitments, including the United Nations Charter and the Czechoslovakian constitution. They pointed out international covenants on political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights. And they pointed to the Final Act of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe. There was no formal organization associated with Charter 77, but it was the beginning of domestic efforts to promote basic human rights. Charter 77 was unsucessful in changing the nature of the Czech Communist government, but gradually police state tactics were softened, allowing a degree of discent and discussion as long as it was not to public.

Mikhail Gorbechov

Soviet Secretary General Premier Mikhail Gorbachev played a central role in ending the Cold War. Thus is a role that often does not get the attention it deserves. Americans tend to focus on President Reagan. The Russians would lik to forget Gorbechov because he was largely respionsible for the implosion of the Soviet Inion. Unlike Reagan, he is not a popular figure in his own country. The relaxation of the police state role and the openness that he sought in effect destroyed the Soviet Union and its Eastern European Empire. Gorbachev was unwilling to use the instruments of state security to suppress the people of Eastern Europe and the nationalities within the Soviet Union. This seems to have been essentially a matter of morality. It is unclear to what extent he realized the consequences of his actions. Like many in the Soviet Union, he believed in Communism. This is understandable, because Soviet schools and universities, permitted no real discussion of the fundamental tennants of Communism. Gorbechov and his advisers thought it just needed to be reformed and given a humane force. As far as we can detrmine, he did not understand thefindamental flaws in Communism or the fact that Communist rule could only be sustained by brute force and a secte police. In the end the Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991. This was not Gorbachev's intention, but he inadvertently launched a new undivided and much freer Europe. [Hitchcock] He has survived the tumultuous events and lives quitely in Moscow. He has not, however, explained his decesions or subsequent imapct of those decesions.

Velvet Revolution (1989)

Gorbechov's reforms in the Soviet Union had repercussions in the Soviet Eastern European satellites. Communist leaders attempted to maintain Communist orthodoxy through police state actions. The Communist regimes were, however, clearly crumbling when Gorbechov signalled that the Red Army would not be used to keep the regimes in power. This essentially undercut the regimes because they had little domestic support. The Czech communist police violently broke up a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration and brutally beat many student participants (November 17, 1989). Charter 77 and other groups united to create the Civic Forum. This was an umbrella group which demanded bureaucratic reform and civil liberties. Noted Czech playright, philosopher, and dissident became a target of the secret police. He emerged as the Cibic Forum leader. The Civic Forum was essentially a political party demanding democratic reforms, but avoided the use of the term "part" because of the negative connontations to a state accustome to Communist Party dictatorship. The Civic Forum was embraced by millions of Czechs. A similar group organized in Slovakia--Public Against Violence. The popular support afforded the Civic Forum was such that the Czechoslavkian Communist Party, with virtually no popular support, essentially collapsed. Husak and party chief Milos Jakes resigned (December 1989). Havel was elected President (December 29). The transition was a starteling transformation and occured along with similar changes in East Germany. The lack of violence resulted in it being named the Velvet Revolution. Havel became Czechoslovakia's first democratic president following five decades of Communist dictatorship. He remains the Czech Republic's most popular modern politican.

American Role

The Cold War was a nealy five decade struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States. A huge amount of American blood and treasure was spent is this struggle. Especilly after the Chinese Revolution it looked like the Soviets might win the Cold War. They had many advntages. There are many revisionist views of the Cold War. Some claim the Americans werre responsible for it and not the Soviets. Other maintain that the Soviet Union would have collapsed of its own internal weaskenes. This was a poing made by a Czech interested in history whom which we discussed the issue. He basically believes that too much credit is given to America in both World War II and the Cold War. He tells us, "I do think, that both Hungary and Czechoslovakia would be almost the same with or without implosion of USSR. Once Gorby was in power, there was not much our commies could do about it." [Soukup] We believe this opinion is faulty. It avoids the role that america played in stopping Stalin's Red Army from extending Soviet conquests to Western Europe and what that would hv meant for the eventual liberation of Czechoslovakia and eastern Europe. There would have been no Radio Free europe wjich helped keep the spasrk of librty alive behind the Iron Curtain. Now we do agree that Gorbechev played a central role in the Velvet and other uprisings in tghe Soviet Empire, but what our Czech correspondent does not seem to have considered is why Gorbechev rose to power. The Soviets were under increasing economic pressure. The Cold war was very expensive, especually keeping up with American military technology. The inefficent Soviet economy simply could not bare the burden and the soviet economy as declining. So instead of a typical Apparatchik, the soviets turned to a reformer. Mikhail Gorbechev sincerely believed that the Soviet system could be reformed. He also did not think that the Soviet Union could aford the cost of Starwars (anti-balistic missle) program that President Reagan had launced in the West. Thus a generlly humane outlook and a desire to reach an accomodation with the United States led to his decision not to continue using force to sustain the Eastern European Communist regimes. And without Soviet security support, these regimes began to topple like dominoes.

Personal Experiences

Peter Sis, a noted author and illustrator of children's books, ecalls his childhood in Communist Czechoslovalia after World War II. It was a time when people informed on friends and neighborts, children even informed on their parents. There was compulsory political indoicrination in the schools and Young Pioneers, but what caused Sis to realize how he and his countrymen were being opressed was the censorship of culture. History and the news can be censored in a way that it is difficult for a child or teenager to understand. Culture is a different matter. Sis was an artistic boy who loved to draw. He didn't notice the closed world he lived in, but came to resent the restrictions imposed by the Communists--especially limitations on what he could draw. The Prague Spring changed that and seemed to open up endless possibilities. When Russian tanks closed those possibilities, Sis eventually defected to the West. [Sis]

Sources

Burne, Tracy A. "Life during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia," Custom Travel Services Blog.

Harrison, Hope. George Washington University. Library of Congress Panel, March 5, 2003.

Hitchcock, William I. The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent (Doubleday), 513p. This is a thought provoking, well researched book. He has gained access to never before used Soviet archives. We do not agree with all of his conclusions. The author in many instances, for example, tends to explain Soviet actions as response to American policies rather than the inherent nature of a brutal regime.

Hudson, G.F. The Hard and Bitter Peace: World Politics Since 1945 (Praeger: New York, 1967), 319p.

Sis, Peter. The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Farrar Straus Giroux: 2007). This book is written primarily for children, but is a fascinating account of growing up in a Soviet satellite.

Soukup, Michal. Blog exchanges (September 25, 2016).