Archive: History | Communism Communism
Stalin and Gottwald: together in life and death
When Joseph Stalin died on March 5 1953, it sent shockwaves round the
world. In Czechoslovakia his personality cult had been almost as
overwhelming as in the Soviet Union itself. At the time of his death, work
was already well under way to build the biggest statue of the Soviet
dictator in the world – unveiled two years later in Letná Park. Stalin
had a close ally and kindred spirit in the Czechoslovak President, Klement
Gottwald, and Gottwald ignored warnings from his doctors in order to attend
his friend and protector’s funeral. Before leading the Czechoslovak
delegation to Moscow, he had a few words for his country’s citizens. More
DVD series resurrects 1950s Czechoslovak Socialist Realist films
Filmy patří lidu (Films Belong to the People) is the title of a series of
Socialist Realist pictures that have been released on DVD in the Czech
Republic in recent months. These propaganda-filled films are from the
1950s, the harshest decade of the communist era, notorious for its brutal
repression, show trials and forced labour camps. More
Anniversary of Velvet Revolution marked by anti-government demonstrations
On Thursday, November 17th, the Czech Republic marked 22 years since the
start of the Velvet Revolution as well as the 72nd anniversary of the
events of November 1939 which resulted in the closure of all Czech
universities by the Nazis and reprisals against students and intellectuals.
But many Czechs used the holiday to voice their discontent with the current
government policies. More
Museum of Communism offers foreign visitors a glimpse of life behind the Iron Curtain
On Prague’s Na Prikope street, in the very heart of the city –right
next to McDonalds – is a Museum of Communism. What comes as a surprise to
many locals and foreign visitors is that this private venture is the work
of an American businessman who owns a number of bars and restaurants in the
Czech capital. Glenn Spicker came to Prague 17 years ago, on a wave of
interest in the post communist world. Unlike others he launched a
successful business venture and stayed. As Glenn gave me a tour of the
museum, he explained what made him branch out so far from his field of
enterprise. More
Post-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
“My first love was a drill”: building the socialist state
After the communist coup, Czechoslovak Radio was at the political vanguard
and transformed into a tool of propaganda. One of the first big changes at
Radio Prague was that our familiar call signal from Dvořák’s New World
Symphony was replaced by a stirring socialist anthem – “Ku předu
levá”. The words are simple: “Left foot forwards, left foot forwards,
and never a backwards step.” All broadcasts acquired a political hue.
Here, for example, is a factory worker, talking about his first love: More
Milada Horáková: dignity in the face of fanaticism
Many people in Czechoslovakia greeted the communist coup of February 1948
with enthusiasm, in the belief that the horrors of the war should never be
allowed to happen again. But following the model of Stalin’s Soviet
Union, it was not long before a period of political terror began, with
thousands of arrests and then a series of political show trials. The most
horrific symbol of the period was the trial and execution of Milada
Horáková. She had been one of the most enlightened politicians of the
pre-war Czechoslovak Republic, a champion of democracy and women’s
rights, and had spent most of the war in Nazi prisons and concentration
camps. More
Stories of Injustice film project tries to shed light on grey “normalization” period
The 2006 film “Swingtime” inspired by a communist-era secret police
operation as well as four documentaries will be screened in November at
primary and secondary schools around the country as part of a month-long
project called Stories of Injustice. Now in its seventh year the project
organized by the NGO People in Need covers a period often neglected in the
curriculum. Through film and subsequent discussions with survivors,
witnesses and victims of communist injustice, students are learning about
post-war Czechoslovak history – this year with a special focus on the
period of normalization and the subjects of emigration and exile. Radio
Prague talked to the project’s spokesman Filip Šebek. More
The unresolved mystery of the death of Jan Masaryk
“We are a small country with a great tradition of freedom. We shall not
give it up.” These are the words of Jan Masaryk, the son of
Czechoslovakia’s first President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, addressing
American servicemen in Plzeň in a tone of great optimism in November 1945.
During the wartime occupation Masaryk had served as Czechoslovak foreign
minister in exile in London, and he remained in the post after his return
home, deciding to stay on even after the communist coup of February 1948.
His immense popularity meant that the communists put up with his presence,
although his pro-Western views, reinforced by the fact that his mother had
been American, were totally at odds with the rest of the government. More
“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
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