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Czech HistoryPost-WWII political leader Prokop Drtina subject of new biography
The 1948 communist takeover of Czechoslovakia remains a trauma for many
Czechs today. Could the country’s fall under Soviet domination have been
prevented? Why did Czechoslovak politicians of the era so severely
underestimate the threat of communism? These are some of the issues
discussed in a new biography of the politician Prokop Drtina, one of the
key figures of the brief period between the end of the war and the start of
the communist regime. More
From the Archives“Business as usual” after the 1948 coup
In the immediate aftermath of the political coup in Czechoslovakia in
February 1948, the communists were keen to give the world the impression
that it was business as usual and that nothing out of the ordinary had
happened. In this respect Radio Prague as the international service of
Czechoslovak Radio was expected to play its part, and so the communists
asked the handful of British nationals working for one of
Czechoslovakia’s biggest companies to make a statement in English for the
radio. As a result one of the British staff of the shoe-making giant Baťa,
which had already been nationalized more than two years earlier, addressed
Radio Prague’s listeners on March 1 1948, exactly a week after the
communist coup: More
From the ArchivesFebruary 1948: a new political order enters by the back door
In last week’s programme we heard about the Communist-led government that
emerged from Czechoslovakia’s elections in May 1946. Although the number
of parties allowed to take part had been limited, Czechoslovakia was still
a multi-party democracy. But the governing coalition was an uneasy one,
with the non-communist parties pushed into ever greater isolation, while
the communists, with the weight of the Soviet Union behind them, gained an
ever stronger foothold. More
From the ArchivesEdvard Beneš: a choice of evils
In sombre tones the second Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš announced
his resignation on Czechoslovak Radio on October 5 1938. Since becoming
president in 1935, he had been haunted by the spectre of Nazi Germany, as
Hitler had fuelled separatist sentiment among the country’s 3.5 million
German speakers. Here is an extract from one of President Beneš’ vain
appeals for reconciliation, in April 1938. More
Current AffairsLeader of student resistance to 1948 Communist takeover Josef Lesák dies at 88
Josef Lesák, a leader of the student resistance to the Communist takeover
of Czechoslovakia in 1948, has passed away at the age of 88. Lesák was
also the youngest deputy in the country’s parliament when the Communists
seized power – and became the first MP they put in prison.
More
One on OneAuthor Peter Demetz: you could be of any nationality and still feel Czechoslovak
Pre-war Prague with its multi-national and multi-cultural environment has
inspired many scholars and writers who explore the life of Czechs, Germans
and Jews in the city of a hundred spires before it was swept away by the
two totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Our guest in this edition of
One on One is Professor Peter Demetz, the author of Prague in Black and
Gold, Stage: Prague, and other works. Mr Demetz was born in Prague in the
1920s to a German and Jewish family but left the country after the
communist takeover of 1948 and later became a professor of German studies
and literature at Yale University in the United States. Although Peter
Demetz was born in Prague, he actually grew up in Brno, so I first asked
him about the differences between the two cities.
More
From the Archives“Business as usual” after the 1948 coup
In the immediate aftermath of the political coup in Czechoslovakia in
February 1948, the communists were keen to give the world the impression
that it was business as usual and that nothing out of the ordinary had
happened. In this respect Radio Prague as the international service of
Czechoslovak Radio was expected to play its part, and so the communists
asked the handful of British nationals working for one of
Czechoslovakia’s biggest companies to make a statement in English for the
radio. As a result one of the British staff of the shoe-making giant Baťa,
which had already been nationalized more than two years earlier, addressed
Radio Prague’s listeners on March 1 1948, exactly a week after the
communist coup:
More
From the ArchivesFebruary 1948: a new political order enters by the back door
In last week’s programme we heard about the Communist-led government that
emerged from Czechoslovakia’s elections in May 1946. Although the number
of parties allowed to take part had been limited, Czechoslovakia was still
a multi-party democracy. But the governing coalition was an uneasy one,
with the non-communist parties pushed into ever greater isolation, while
the communists, with the weight of the Soviet Union behind them, gained an
ever stronger foothold.
More
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