Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia Československo[a] | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1918–1992 1939–1945: Government-in-exile | |||||||||||
Motto: ' Government First Republic | (1918–38) Second Republic (1938–39) Third Republic (1945–48) Socialist Republic (1948–89) Federative Republic (1990–92) Details
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President | |||||||||||
• 1918–1935 | Tomáš G. Masaryk | ||||||||||
• 1935–1938 · 1945–1948 | Edvard Beneš | ||||||||||
• 1938–1939 | Emil Hácha | ||||||||||
• 1948–1953 | Klement Gottwald | ||||||||||
• 1953–1957 | Antonín Zápotocký | ||||||||||
• 1957–1968 | Antonín Novotný | ||||||||||
• 1968–1975 | Ludvík Svoboda | ||||||||||
• 1976–1989 | Gustáv Husák | ||||||||||
• 1989–1992 | Václav Havel | ||||||||||
KSČ General Secretary / First Secretary | |||||||||||
• 1948–1953 | Klement Gottwald | ||||||||||
• 1953–1968 | Antonín Novotný | ||||||||||
• 1968–1969 | Alexander Dubček | ||||||||||
• 1969–1987 | Gustáv Husák | ||||||||||
• 1987–1989 | Miloš Jakeš | ||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1918–1919 (first) | Karel Kramář | ||||||||||
• 1992 (last) | Jan Stráský | ||||||||||
Legislature | Revolutionary National Assembly (1918–1920) Dissolution | 14 March 1939 | |||||||||
10 May 1945 | |||||||||||
25 February 1948 | |||||||||||
21 August 1968 | |||||||||||
17 – 28 November 1989 | |||||||||||
1 January 1993 | |||||||||||
+42 | |||||||||||
Internet TLD | .cs | ||||||||||
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Today part of | |||||||||||
Calling code +42 was withdrawn in the winter of 1997. The number range was divided between the +421). code is "CSHH".Current ISO 3166-3 |
Czechoslovakia
After World War II, Czechoslovakia was reestablished under its pre-1938 borders, with the exception of
Characteristics
- Form of state
- 1918–1937: A democratic republic championed by Tomáš Masaryk.[9]
- 1938–1939: After the annexation of annexed by Poland.
- 1939–1945: The remainder of the state was dismembered and became split into the German invasion of Soviet Union, it was also recognized by the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nationsand was a founding member of the United Nations.
- 1946–1948: The country was governed by a coalition government with communist ministers, including the prime minister and the minister of interior. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union.
- 1948–1989: The country became a command economy. In 1960, the country officially became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a satellite stateof the Soviet Union.
- 1989–1990: Czechoslovakia formally became a federal republic comprising the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. In late 1989, the communist rule came to an end during the Velvet Revolution followed by the re-establishment of a democratic parliamentary republic.[10]
- 1990–1992: Shortly after the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Slovak Republic (Slovakia) until the peaceful dissolution on 31 December 1992.[10]
- Neighbors[11]
- Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992
- Germany (both predecessors, West Germany and East Germany, were neighbors between 1949 and 1990)
- Hungary
- Poland
- Romania 1918–1938
- Soviet Union 1945–1991
- Ukraine 1991–1992 (Soviet Union member until 1991)
- Topography
The country was of generally irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands. The eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the
- Climate
The weather is mild winters and mild summers. Influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, the Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. There is no continental weather.
Names
- 1918–1938: Czechoslovak Republic (abbreviated ČSR), or Czechoslovakia, before the formalization of the name in 1920, also known as Czecho-Slovakia or the Czecho-Slovak state[12]
- 1938–1939: Czecho-Slovak Republic, or Czecho-Slovakia
- 1945–1960: Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR), or Czechoslovakia
- 1960–1990: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR), or Czechoslovakia
- 1990: Czechoslovak Federative Republic (ČSFR)
- 1990–1992: Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (ČSFR), or Czechoslovakia
History
Origins
The area was part of the
The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, when philologists and educators, influenced by
An advocate of democratic reform and Czech autonomy within Austria-Hungary, Masaryk was elected twice to the
During
First Czechoslovak Republic
Formation
The
Ethnicity
The new country was a multi-ethnic state, with Czechs and Slovaks as constituent peoples. The population consisted of Czechs (51%), Slovaks (16%), Germans (22%), Hungarians (5%) and Rusyns (4%).[17] Many of the Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Poles[18] and some Slovaks, felt oppressed because the political elite did not generally allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups.[citation needed] This policy led to unrest among the non-Czech population, particularly in German-speaking Sudetenland, which initially had proclaimed itself part of the Republic of German-Austria in accordance with the self-determination principle.
The state proclaimed the official ideology that there were no separate Czech and Slovak nations, but only one nation of Czechoslovaks (see Czechoslovakism), to the disagreement of Slovaks and other ethnic groups. Once a unified Czechoslovakia was restored after World War II (after the country had been divided during the war), the conflict between the Czechs and the Slovaks surfaced again. The governments of Czechoslovakia and other Central European nations deported ethnic Germans, reducing the presence of minorities in the nation. Most of the Jews had been killed during the war by the Nazis.
Ethnicities of Czechoslovakia in 1921[19] | ||
---|---|---|
Czecho slovaks | 8,759,701 | 64.37% |
Germans | 3,123,305 | 22.95% |
Hungarians |
744,621 | 5.47% |
Ruthenians | 461,449 | 3.39% |
Jews | 180,534 | 1.33% |
Poles | 75,852 | 0.56% |
Others | 23,139 | 0.17% |
Foreigners | 238,784 | 1.75% |
Total population | 13,607,385 | |
|
Ethnicities of Czechoslovakia in 1930[20] | ||
---|---|---|
Czecho slovaks | 10,066,000 | 68.35% |
Germans | 3,229,000 | 21.93% |
Ruthenians | 745,000 | 5.06% |
Hungarians |
653,000 | 4.43% |
Jews | 354,000 | 2.40% |
Poles | 76,000 | 0.52% |
Romanians | 14,000 | 0.10% |
Foreigners | 239,000 | 1.62% |
Total population | 14,726,158 | |
|
*Jews identified themselves as Germans or Hungarians (and Jews only by religion not ethnicity), the sum is, therefore, more than 100%.
Interwar period
During the period between the two world wars Czechoslovakia was a democratic state. The population was generally literate, and contained fewer alienated groups. The influence of these conditions was augmented by the political values of Czechoslovakia's leaders and the policies they adopted. Under
Foreign minister Beneš became the prime architect of the Czechoslovak-Romanian-Yugoslav alliance (the "Little Entente", 1921–38) directed against Hungarian attempts to reclaim lost areas. Beneš worked closely with France. Far more dangerous was the German element, which after 1933 became allied with the Nazis in Germany.
Czech-Slovak relations came to be a central issue in Czechoslovak politics during the 1930s.[21] The increasing feeling of inferiority among the Slovaks,[22][failed verification] who were hostile to the more numerous Czechs, weakened the country in the late 1930s. Slovakia became autonomous in the fall of 1938, and by mid-1939, Slovakia had become independent, with the First Slovak Republic set up as a satellite state of Nazi Germany and the far-right Slovak People's Party in power .[23]
After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe.[24]
Munich Agreement, and Two-Step German Occupation
In September 1938,
The
On 14 March 1939, the remainder ("rump") of Czechoslovakia was dismembered by the proclamation of the
The eventual goal of the German state under Nazi leadership was to eradicate Czech nationality through assimilation, deportation, and extermination of the Czech intelligentsia; the intellectual elites and middle class made up a considerable number of the 200,000 people who passed through concentration camps and the 250,000 who died during German occupation.
The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized under the direction of
For the Czechs of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia,
Despite the estimated 136,000 deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime, the population in the Reichsprotektorate saw a net increase during the war years of approximately 250,000 in line with an increased birth rate.[28]
On 6 May 1945, the third US Army of General Patton entered Pilsen from the south west. On 9 May 1945, Soviet Red Army troops entered Prague.
Communist Czechoslovakia
After World War II, prewar Czechoslovakia was reestablished, with the exception of Sub
Following the expulsion of the ethnic German population from Czechoslovakia, parts of the former
The currency reform of 1953 caused dissatisfaction among Czechoslovak laborers. To equalize the wage rate, Czechoslovaks had to turn in their old money for new at a decreased value. The banks also confiscated savings and bank deposits to control the amount of money in circulation.[31] In the 1950s, Czechoslovakia experienced high economic growth (averaging 7% per year), which allowed for a substantial increase in wages and living standards, thus promoting the stability of the regime.[32]
In 1968, when the reformer
In the week after the invasion there was a spontaneous campaign of civil resistance against the occupation. This resistance involved a wide range of acts of non-cooperation and defiance: this was followed by a period in which the Czechoslovak Communist Party leadership, having been forced in Moscow to make concessions to the Soviet Union, gradually put the brakes on their earlier liberal policies.[35]
Meanwhile, one plank of the reform program had been carried out: in 1968–69, Czechoslovakia was turned into a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic. The theory was that under the federation, social and economic inequities between the Czech and Slovak halves of the state would be largely eliminated. A number of ministries, such as education, now became two formally equal bodies in the two formally equal republics. However, the centralized political control by the Czechoslovak 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, manifested in limitations on work activities, which went as far as a ban on professional employment, the refusal of higher education for the dissidents' children, police harassment and prison.
During the 1980s, Czechoslovakia became one of the most tightly controlled Communist regimes in the Warsaw Pact in resistance to the mitigation of controls notified by Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
After 1989
In 1989, the Velvet Revolution restored democracy.[10] This occurred around the same time as the fall of communism in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany and Poland.
The word "socialist" was removed from the country's full name on 29 March 1990 and replaced by "federal".
Pope John Paul II made a papal visit to Czechoslovakia on 21 April 1990, hailing it as a symbolic step of reviving Christianity in the newly-formed post-communist state.
Czechoslovakia participated in the Gulf War with a small force of 200 troops under the command of the U.S.-led coalition.
In 1992, because of growing
Government and politics
After World War II, a political monopoly was held by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). The leader of the KSČ was de facto the most powerful person in the country during this period. Gustáv Husák was elected first secretary of the KSČ 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 the KSČ. All political parties, as well as numerous mass organizations, were grouped under umbrella of the National Front. Human rights activists and religious activists were severely repressed.
Constitutional development
Czechoslovakia had the following constitutions during its history (1918–1992):
- Temporary constitution of 14 November 1918 (democratic): see History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)
- The 1920 constitution (The Constitutional Document of the Czechoslovak Republic), democratic, in force until 1948, several amendments
- The Communist 1948 Ninth-of-May Constitution
- The Communist Constitutional Law of Federation), 1971, 1975, 1978, and 1989 (at which point the leading role of the Communist Party was abolished). It was amended several more times during 1990–1992 (for example, 1990, name change to Czecho-Slovakia, 1991 incorporation of the human rights charter)
Heads of state and government
Foreign policy
International agreements and membership
In the 1930s, the nation formed a military alliance with France, which collapsed in the
Administrative divisions
- 1918–1923: Different systems in former Austrian territory (Bohemia, Moravia, a small part of Silesia) compared to former Hungarian territory (Slovakia and Ruthenia): three lands (země) (also called district units (kraje)): Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, plus 21 counties (župy) in today's Slovakia and three counties in today's Ruthenia; both lands and counties were divided into districts (okresy).
- 1923–1927: As above, except that the Slovak and Ruthenian counties were replaced by six (grand) counties ((veľ)župy) in Slovakia and one (grand) county in Ruthenia, and the numbers and boundaries of the okresy were changed in those two territories.
- 1928–1938: Four lands (Czech: země, Slovak: krajiny): Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, divided into districts (okresy).
- Late 1938 – March 1939: As above, but Slovakia and Ruthenia gained the status of "autonomous lands". Slovakia was called Slovenský štát, with its own currency and government.
- 1945–1948: As in 1928–1938, except that Ruthenia became part of the Soviet Union.
- 1949–1960: 19 regions (kraje) divided into 270 okresy.
- 1960–1992: 10 kraje, Prague, and (from 1970) Bratislava (capital of Slovakia); these were divided into 109–114 okresy; the kraje were abolished temporarily in Slovakia in 1969–1970 and for many purposes from 1991 in Czechoslovakia; in addition, the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic were established in 1969 (without the word Socialist from 1990).
Population and ethnic groups
Economy
Before World War II, the economy was about the fourth in all industrial countries in Europe.[
After World War II, the economy was centrally planned, with command links controlled by the communist party, similarly to the Soviet Union. The large metallurgical industry was dependent on imports of iron and non-ferrous ores.
- Industry: Extractive industry and manufacturing dominated the sector, including machinery, chemicals, food processing, metallurgy, and textiles. The sector was wasteful in its use of energy, materials, and labor and was slow to upgrade technology, but the country was a major supplier of high-quality machinery, instruments, electronics, aircraft, airplane engines and arms to other socialist countries.
- Agriculture: Agriculture was a minor sector, but collectivized farms of large acreage and relatively efficient mode of production enabled the country to be relatively self-sufficient in the food supply. The country depended on imports of grains (mainly for livestock feed) in years of adverse weather. Meat production was constrained by a shortage of feed, but the country still recorded high per capita consumption of meat.
- Foreign Trade: Exports were estimated at US$17.8 billion in 1985. Exports were machinery (55%), fuel and materials (14%), and manufactured consumer goods (16%). Imports stood at an estimated US$17.9 billion in 1985, including fuel and materials (41%), machinery (33%), and agricultural and forestry products (12%). In 1986, about 80% of foreign trade was with other socialist countries.
- Exchange rate: Official, or commercial, the rate was crowns (Kčs) 5.4 per US$1 in 1987. Tourist, or non-commercial, the rate was Kčs 10.5 per US$1. Neither rate reflected purchasing power. The exchange rate on the black market was around Kčs 30 per US$1, which became the official rate once the currency became convertible in the early 1990s.
- Fiscal year: Calendar year.
- Fiscal policy: The state was the exclusive owner of means of production in most cases. Revenue from state enterprises was the primary source of revenues followed by turnover tax. The government spent heavily on social programs, subsidies, and investment. The budget was usually balanced or left a small surplus.
Resource base
After World War II, the country was short of energy, relying on imported
Transport and communications
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Slightly after the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, there was a lack of essential infrastructure in many areas –
Society
Education
Education was free at all levels[37] and compulsory from ages 6 to 15. The vast majority of the population was literate. There was a highly developed system of apprenticeship training and vocational schools supplemented general secondary schools and institutions of higher education.
Religion
In 1991, 46% of the population were
Health, social welfare and housing
After
Mass media
During the era between the World Wars, Czechoslovak democracy and liberalism facilitated conditions for free publication. The most significant daily newspapers in these times were Lidové noviny, Národní listy, Český deník and Československá Republika.
During
Sports
The
Well-known football players such as Pavel Nedvěd, Antonín Panenka, Milan Baroš, Tomáš Rosický, Vladimír Šmicer or Petr Čech were all born in Czechoslovakia.
The International Olympic Committee code for Czechoslovakia is TCH, which is still used in historical listings of results.
The
Věra Čáslavská was an Olympic gold medallist in gymnastics, winning seven gold medals and four silver medals. She represented Czechoslovakia in three consecutive Olympics.
Several accomplished professional
Culture
- Czech Republic / Slovakia
- List of Czechs / List of Slovaks
- MDŽ (International Women's Day)
- Jazz in dissident Czechoslovakia
Postage stamps
- Postage stamps and postal history of Czechoslovakia
- Czechoslovakia stamp reused by Slovak Republic after 18 January 1939 by overprinting country and value
See also
- Effects on the environment in Czechoslovakia from Soviet influence during the Cold War
- Former countries in Europe after 1815
- List of former sovereign states
Notes
- Yiddish: טשעכאסלאוואקיי, Tshekhaslavakey
References
- ^ "Human Development Report 1992" (PDF). hdr.undp.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ^ "THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS". Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0
- ISBN 978-0-521-15253-2
- ^ "Ján Kačala: Máme nový názov federatívnej republiky (The New Name of the Federal Republic), In: Kultúra Slova (official publication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics) 6/1990 pp. 192–197" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
- ^ Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛskoslovɛnsko], Slovak pronunciation: [ˈtʂeskɔslɔʋenskɔ].
- ^ "Milestones: 1961–1968 – Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
- ^ Rozdělení Československa, Vladimír Srb, Tomáš Veselý ISBN10809685335x
- ^ "16. Czechoslovakia (1918–1992)". uca.edu. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d "A Brief History of the Czech Republic – Live & Study – Czech Universities". czechuniversities.com. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
- ^ "Czechoslovakia". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
- ^ Votruba, Martin. "Czecho-Slovakia or Czechoslovakia". Slovak Studies Program. University of Pittsburgh. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
- ^ Czechs Celebrate Republic's Birth, 1933/11/06 (1933). Universal Newsreel. 1933. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3, pp. 8 – 52, 57 – 120, 124 – 128, 140 – 148, 184 – 190
- ^ Z. A. B. Zeman, The Masaryks: The Making of Czechoslovakia (1976)
- S2CID 146969818.
- ^ "The War of the World", Niall Ferguson Allen Lane 2006.
- Prague Post, 6 July 2005
- ^ Škorpila F. B.; Zeměpisný atlas pro měšťanské školy; Státní Nakladatelství; second edition; 1930; Czechoslovakia
- ^ "Československo 1930 (Sčítání)(2)". 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6.
- ^ "Nazis take Czechoslovakia". HISTORY. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6.
- ^ Gorazd Mesko; Charles B. Fields; Branko Lobnikar; Andrej Sotlar (eds.). Handbook on Policing in Central and Eastern Europe.
- ^ Universities in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1800–1945), Walter Rüegg Cambridge University Press (28 October 2004), page 353
- ^ "HITLER'S PLANS FOR EASTERN EUROPE Selections from Janusz Gumkowski and Kazimierz Leszczynski POLAND UNDER NAZI OCCUPATION". Archived from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
- ^ "Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Volume I Chapter XIII Germanization & Spoliation Czechoslovakia". Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ^ "Vaclav Havel – A Political Tragedy in 6 Acts" by John Keane, published 2000, page 54
- ^ "East European Constitutional Review". Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
- ^ "The Story of Greeks in Czechia". Radio Prague International. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ S2CID 249083197.
- ^ Chris Harman, A People's History of the World, 1999, p 625
- ^ "N. Korea Seize U.S. Ship - 1968 Year in Review - Audio - UPI.com". UPI. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
- ^ John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (New York: The Penguin Press), 150.
- ^ Philip Windsor and Adam Roberts, Czechoslovakia 1968: Reform, Repression and Resistance (London: Chatto & Windus, 1969), pp. 97–143.
- ^ Ladislav Cabada and Sarka Waisova, Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in World Politics (Lexington Books; 2012)
- ^ Murphy, Thomas K. (2018). Czechoslovakia: Behind the Curtain Life, Work and Culture in the Communist Era. McFarland. p. 27.
Sources
- "The First Czechoslovak Republic". The official website of the Czech Republic. Archived from the original on 4 March 2007.
Further reading
- Heimann, Mary. Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed (2009).
- Hermann, A. H. A History of the Czechs (1975).
- Kalvoda, Josef. The Genesis of Czechoslovakia (1986).
- Leff, Carol Skalnick. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918–87 (1988).
- Mantey, Victor. A History of the Czechoslovak Republic (1973).
- Myant, Martin. The Czechoslovak Economy, 1948–88 (1989).
- Naimark, Norman, and Leonid Gibianskii, eds. The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944–1949 (1997) online edition[permanent dead link]
- Orzoff, Andrea. Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe 1914–1948 (Oxford University Press, 2009); online review online
- Paul, David. Czechoslovakia: Profile of a Socialist Republic at the Crossroads of Europe (1990).
- Renner, Hans. A History of Czechoslovakia since 1945 (1989).
- Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (1943).
- Stone, Norman, and E. Strouhal, eds.Czechoslovakia: Crossroads and Crises, 1918–88 (1989).
- Wheaton, Bernard; Zdenek Kavav. "The Velvet Revolution: Czechoslovakia, 1988–1991" (1992).
- Williams, Kieran, "Civil Resistance in Czechoslovakia: From Soviet Invasion to "Velvet Revolution", 1968–89",
in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2009). - Windsor, Philip, and Adam Roberts, Czechoslovakia 1968: Reform, Repression and Resistance (1969).
- Wolchik, Sharon L. Czechoslovakia: Politics, Society, and Economics (1990).
External links
- Online books and articles Archived 1 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies, "Czechoslovakia"
- English/Czech: Orders and Medals of Czechoslovakia including Order of the White Lion
- Czechoslovakia by Encyclopædia Britannica
- Katrin Boeckh: Crumbling of Empires and Emerging States: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia as (Multi)national Countries, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
Maps with Hungarian-language rubrics: