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Current AffairsAnniversary of 1948 coup marked by calls for Communist Party to be banned
Hundreds of people attended a rally in Prague's Old Town Square on Friday
to mark the 57th anniversary of the communist seizure of power in February
1948. Under the very same balcony at which Klement Gottwald announced the
communist takeover, the crowd listened in respectful silence as a speaker
read out the names of the people executed by the communist regime that
ruled this country for over forty years. More
Current Affairs25 February 1948 - the Communists' "bloodless coup"
Exactly 57 years ago, on 25 February 1948 the Communists seized power in
post-war Czechoslovakia. This marked the beginning of more than four
decades of hard line communist rule, brought to an end by the Velvet
Revolution in 1989. Czechoslovak Communist leader Klement Gottwald on that
fateful day in 1948 announced on Prague's Old Town Square that the
resignation of several non-communist ministers had been accepted by the
president. Even though the change to a totalitarian system did not happen
just overnight, this event was symbolic of the start of one-party rule. I
met historian Jan Rychlik and asked him what happened on that cold
February day to make it so important in the Communists' rise to power.
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Current AffairsGot a hammer and sickle? Join the parade!
February 25th of 1948 - the day of the communist takeover in
Czechoslovakia- is a day that those who lived through prefer to forget and
the young generation usually has no idea what the date is linked to. But
Czechs wouldn't be Czechs if they couldn't poke fun at everything - even
the dark chapters of their history.
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Talking PointAbductions of Czechoslovak citizens to the Soviet Union after WWII
After the Soviet armed forces liberated most of Czechoslovakia from the
Nazis in 1944 and 1945, the Soviet Union started slowly but surely to
assert its influence in the country. Post-war Czechoslovakia was still a
country with democratic institutions and free elections. The end of
democracy was to come in 1948 when the communists took over, but the first
signs of what was to come appeared much earlier...
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Press ReviewPress Review
All the papers have found some way to remind readers of the 55th
anniversary of the communist take-over on 25 February,1948. In addition to
special supplements devoted to the years of communist rule, many
connections are made with the present day.
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Current AffairsPlaque unveiled on Nerudova street to commemorate 1948 student march
Tuesday is the fifty-fifth anniversary of what the Communists called
Victorious February. On the 25th February 1948, the Communist Party chief
and hardline Stalinist, Klement Gottwald, announced to ecstatic crowds on
Prague's Wenceslas Square that Czechoslovakia's government had resigned,
and that his Communists were now in power. This was the last nail in the
coffin of Czechoslovakia's fragile post-war democracy, and the start of
forty years of hardline communism. A service to mark one of the bleakest
anniversaries in modern Czech history was held on Tuesday morning at the
Church of the Virgin Mary in Prague's Nerudova Street, and a little
further up the same street a memorial plaque was unveiled. This was the
spot where the police had used force to turn back a march by non-communist
students. The students had been making their way up to Prague Castle to
express their support for President Edvard Benes, the last hope for
democracy. The suppression of the march was a taste of things to come.
Four months later President Benes was succeeded by one of the most brutal
post-war Communist dictators, Klement Gottwald. Dita Asiedu brings this
report from the ceremony:
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