The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (Czech: Rozdělení Československa, Slovak: Rozdelenie Česko-Slovenska) took effect on January 1, 1993, and was the self-determined split of the federal republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both mirrored the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic, which had been created in 1969 as the constituent states of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic.
It is sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce, a reference to the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989, which had led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Contents
1Background
2Partition into two entities
3Causes
4Legal aspects
4.1National symbols
4.2Territory
4.3Division of national property
4.4Currency division
4.5International law
5Aftermath
5.1Economy
5.2Citizenship
5.2.1Roma people
5.3Language contacts
5.4Sport
5.5Telecommunications
6Legacy
7See also
8References
8.1Citations
8.2Bibliography
9External links
Background
Main article: History of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia between 1968 (Constitutional Law of Federation) and 1989 (Velvet Revolution)
Czechoslovakia was created with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. In 1918, a meeting took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, at which the future Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and other Czech and Slovak representatives signed the Pittsburgh Agreement, which promised a common state consisting of two equal nations: Slovaks and Czechs. Soon afterward, he and Edvard Beneš violated the agreement by pushing for greater unity and a single nation.
Some Slovaks were not in favour of that change, and in March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak Republic was created as a satellite state of Germany with limited sovereignty. The alignment with the Soviet Union after World War II oversaw the reunification into the Third Czechoslovak Republic.
In 1968, the Constitutional Law of Federation reinstated an official federal structure of the 1917 type, but during the Normalization Period in the 1970s, Gustáv Husák, despite being a Slovak himself, returned most of control to Prague. That approach encouraged a regrowth of separatism after the fall of communism.
Partition into two entities
Map indicating locations of Czech Republic and Slovakia
Czech Republic
Slovakia
By 1991, the Czech Republics GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakias. Transfer payments from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in the past, were stopped in January 1991.
Many Czechs and Slovaks desired the continued existence of a federal Czechoslovakia. Some major Slovak parties, however, advocated a looser form of coexistence[citation needed] and the Slovak National Party sought complete independence and sovereignty. For a few years, political parties re-emerged, but Czech parties had little or no presence in Slovakia and vice versa. To have a functioning state, the government demanded continued control from Prague, but Slovaks continued to ask for decentralisation.[1]
In 1992, the Czech Republic elected Václav Klaus and others, who demanded either an even tighter federation ("viable federation") or two independent states. Vladimír Mečiar and other leading Slovak politicians wanted a kind of confederation. Both sides opened frequent and intense negotiations in June. On July 17, the Slovak parliament adopted the declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six days later, Klaus and Mečiar agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in Bratislava. Czechoslovak President Václav Havel resigned, rather than oversee the dissolution, which he had opposed.[2] In a September 1992 opinion poll, only 37% of Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution.[3]
The goal of negotiations switched to achieving a peaceful division. Peaceful division was prioritized as the process ran in parallel with the violent breakup of Yugoslavia (another socialist, Slavic federal state created after the Dissolution of Austria-Hungary).[4] On November 13, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541, which settled the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia.[5] With Constitution Act 542, passed on November 25, they agreed to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as of December 31, 1992.[5]
The partition occurred without violence and so was thus said to be "velvet", much like the "Velvet Revolution", which had preceded it and had been accomplished by massive peaceful demonstrations and actions. In contrast, other post-communist breakups (such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) involved violent conflict. Czechoslovakia is the only former Eastern bloc state that had an entirely-peaceful breakup. In the following years, as Slovakias economy struggled, Slovaks began to describe the dissolution as a "sandpaper divorce".[6]
Causes
A number of reasons have been given for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, with the main debates focusing on whether dissolution was inevitable or whether dissolution occurred in conjunction with or even in contrast to the events that occurred between the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the end of the joined state in 1992.[7]
Those who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the differences between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to other issues. There are differences between the Czechs and Slovaks, such as problems with the shared state during communism, the success of the state in the Czech lands, its failure in the Slovak lands that still resulted in the adoption of communism since the Czechs were more influential in the running of the state than Slovaks, and the 1968 constitution with its minority veto.[8]
Those who argue that events between 1989 and 1992 led to the dissolution point to international factors such as the breakaway of the Soviet satellite nations, the lack of unified media between Czechia and Slovakia, and most importantly the actions of the political leaders of both nations like the disagreements between Prime Ministers Klaus and Mečiar.[9][10]
Legal aspects
National symbols
Since the coat of arms of Czechoslovakia was a composition of those of the historic geographic areas forming the country, each republic simply kept its own symbol: the Czechs the lion and the Slovaks the double cross. The same principle was applied to the two-part bilingual Czechoslovak national anthem that comprised two separate pieces of music, the Czech stanza Kde domov můj and the Slovak stanza Nad Tatrou sa blýska. Disputes occurred only with respect to the Czechoslovak flag. During the 1992 negotiations on the details of dissolution of Czechoslovakia, as demanded by Vladimír Mečiar and Václav Klaus, a clause forbidding the use of the state symbols of Czechoslovakia by its successor states was inserted into the constitutional law on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.[11]
From 1990 to 1992, the red and white flag of Bohemia (differing from the Polish flag only by the proportion of the colours) officially served as the flag of the Czech Republic. Eventually, after a search for new symbols, the Czech Republic unilaterally decided to ignore the constitutional law on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (Article 3 of Law 542/1992 stated that the "Czech Republic and Slovak Republic shall not use the national symbols of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic after its dissolution.") and to keep the Czechoslovak flag, with an altered meaning.[12] Slovakia, meanwhile, adopted its traditional flag; however, just before independence, on September 3, 1992, the coat of arms was added in order to prevent confusion with the similar flags of Russia and Slovenia.
Territory
The national territory was divided along the existing internal borders, but the border was not clearly defined at some points and, in some areas, the border cut across streets, access roads and communities that had coexisted for centuries. The most serious issues occurred around the following areas:
U Sabotů or Šance (cs:Šance (Vrbovce)) – historically part of Moravia, awarded to Slovakia in 1997
Sidonie or Sidónia (cs:Sidonie) – historically part of Hungary (which contained all present-day Slovak territory until 1918), awarded to the Czech Republic in 1997
Kasárna (cs:Kasárna (Makov)) recreational area – historically Moravian, disputed between Moravia and Hungary since the 16th century, formally part of Hungary since 1734; accessible by car only from the Czech side until early 2000s; remained in Slovakia despite heavy objections from the mostly-Czech property owners, whose real estate effectively fell into a foreign country.
The new countries were able to solve the difficulties via mutual negotiations, financial compensation and then an international treaty covering the border modifications.[13]
People living or owning property in the border area, however, continued to experience practical problems until both new countries entered the Schengen Agreement Area in 2007, rendering the border less significant.
Division of national property
Most federal assets were divided in a ratio of two to one, the approximate ratio between the Czech and Slovak population in Czechoslovakia, including army equipment, rail and airliner infrastructure. Some minor disputes, such as gold reserves stored in Prague and federal know-how valuation, lasted for a few years after the dissolution.
Currency division
1000 korun československých from 1945
Initially, the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, remained in use by both countries. Czech fears of an economic loss caused the adoption of two national currencies as early as February 8, 1993. At the beginning, the currencies had an equal exchange rate, but the value of the Slovak koruna was then usually lower than that of the Czech koruna (in 2004, around 25–27% lower). On August 2, 1993, both currencies were distinguished by different stamps that were first affixed to and then printed on old Czechoslovak koruna banknotes.[14]
On January 1, 2009, Slovakia adopted the euro as its currency with an exchange rate of 30.126 SK/€, and the €2 commemorative coin for 2009, Slovakias first, featured the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in remembrance of the common struggle of the Czechoslovaks for democracy.[15] By a quirk of fate, the welcoming speech on the behalf of the European Union on the occasion of Slovakias entry to the eurozone was delivered by Mirek Topolánek, the prime minister of the presiding country, the Czech Republic, naturally in his native language, but the other guest speakers used English. The Czech Republic continues to use the Czech koruna, or crown.
International law
Neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia sought recognition as the sole successor state to Czechoslovakia. This can be contrasted to the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the Russian Federation was recognised as successor state to not only the Russian SFSR but also the Soviet Union itself. Therefore, Czechoslovakias membership in the United Nations ceased upon the dissolution of the country, but on January 19, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were admitted as new, separate states.
With respect to other international treaties, the Czechs and the Slovaks agreed to honour the treaty obligations of Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks transmitted a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations on May 19, 1993, to express their intent to remain a party to all haute qualité treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia and to ratify treaties signed but not ratified before dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The letter acknowledged that under international law, all treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia would remain in force. For example, both countries are recognised as signatories of the Antarctic Treaty from the date that Czechoslovakia had signed the agreement in 1962.
Both countries have ratified the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties, but it was not a factor in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia since it did not come into force until 1996.
Aftermath
Economy
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The dissolution had some negative impact on the two economies, especially in 1993, as traditional links were severed to accommodate the bureaucracy of international trade, but the impact was considerably less than expected by many people.[citation needed]
A customs union between the Czech Republic and Slovakia remained in place from the dissolution until May 1, 2004, when both countries entered the European Union.[citation needed]
Many Czechs hoped that dissolution would quickly start an era of high economic growth in the Czech Republic, which no longer had to sponsor the "less-developed Slovakia". Similarly, others looked forward to an independent unexploited Slovakia that might become a new "economic tiger".[citation needed]
According to The Prague Post, "Slovak GDP reached 95 percent of the Czech GDP, and it is likely to draw level with it. The Slovak gross national product (GNP), which includes citizens incomes abroad and deducts the money multinational companies move out of the country, is higher than the Czech one. Old-age pensions are more or less at the same level in both countries, and the consumption per capita is slightly higher in Slovakia. However, salaries are 10 percent lower on average in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic".[16]
However, Martin Filko, the head of the Institute of Financial Policy of the Slovak Finance Ministry, pointed out that Slovakia is among the EU countries whose salaries form the lowest portion of their GDP. In other words, some of peoples incomes come from sources other than their main employment, which reduces the real difference between the Czech and the Slovak salaries.[citation needed]
Slovaks have become a more integral part of the EU because of their adoption of the euro and are more resolved to take part in the banking and fiscal unions. In the Czech Republic, the right wing opened the economy, and the left wing privatised banks and attracted foreign investors.[citation needed]
Until 2005, the GDP of the two countries was growing at a similar rate. However, from 2005 to 2008, the Slovak economy grew faster than the Czech economy. Economists agree that this growth was caused by the right-wing reforms of the Mikuláš Dzurinda government and the promise to adopt the euro, which attracted investors.[citation needed]
When the left-wing populist Robert Fico replaced Dzurinda as Slovak prime minister after eight years in 2006, he reduced the right-wing reforms only moderately, but he did not abolish them, unlike the Czech Social Democrats (ČSSD).[citation needed]
Meanwhile, the Czechs had three ČSSD prime ministers in four years (2002–06), followed by a shaky centre-right cabinet, which cut and simplified taxes but failed to push through other reforms and did not want to adopt the euro because of the financial crisis and the Civic Democrats ideological stance.[citation needed]
Citizenship
Since federalisation in 1968, Czechoslovakia had divided citizenship, either of the Czech Socialist Republic or of the Slovak Socialist Republic, the word Socialist being dropped from both names shortly after the Velvet Revolution. That distinction, however, had little effect on citizens life. On January 1, 1993, all Czechoslovak citizens automatically became citizens either of the Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic, based on their previous citizenship, permanent residence address, birthplace, family ties, job and other criteria. Additionally, people had one years time to claim the other citizenship under certain conditions.[17][18]
Slovak legislation allowed dual citizenship until 2010, when it was abolished (see Citizenship Act (Slovakia)).[19] Only a handful of people have exercised that right, but its significance is lessened by both nations membership in the EU as the freedom of movement for workers, a policy that guarantees EU citizens the right to work and to live anywhere in the Union. In the case of movement between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the policy took effect from 2004.
By contrast, the Czech Republic has prohibited dual citizenship for naturalized citizens and requires them to give up existing citizenship(s) prior to receiving citizenship of the Czech Republic. That requirement can be waived only if giving up an existing citizenship might put the applicant or their relatives in danger of persecution in their homeland, which was not the case of applicants from Slovakia. That situation changed with the new Citizenship Act of 2013 (186/2013 Sb.), in force since January 1, 2014.[20] However, most Slovak citizens are still unable to become dual citizens of both the Czech Republic and Slovakia since they automatically lose Slovak citizenship upon voluntarily acquiring another one (see previous paragraph). Exempt from that law are only Slovak citizens who obtain a foreign citizenship by virtue of marriage with a foreign national. Some Slovak politicians[who?] have speculated in the media[example needed] about softening the Citizenship Act, but no change has yet materialised as of January 2015.
People of both countries were allowed to cross the border without a passport and were allowed to work anywhere without the need to obtain an official permit. Border checks were completely removed on December 21, 2007, when both countries joined the Schengen Agreement.
Under the current European regulations, citizens of either country are entitled to the diplomatic protection of any other EU country and so both have been considering merging their embassies, together with nations of the Visegrád Group, to reduce costs.[21]
Roma people
One of the problems not solved during dissolution was the question of a large number of Romani living in the Czech Republic born and officially registered in todays Slovakia. Most of them did not re-register their official place of stay during the months before dissolution and so the question of their citizenship was left open. The 1992 Czech Nationality Act allowed a grant of automatic citizenship only to those who were born on Czech territory. For others, the right to citizenship required proof of a five-year period of residence, an "unobjectionable" criminal record, significant fees and a complicated bureaucratic process, which reportedly excluded a rather large percentage of Roma.[22]
The Slovak government did not want to grant citizenship to nonresidents. Significant numbers of Roma living in Czech orphanages did not have their legal status clarified and were released from care as adult noncitizens without any right to work or live in the Czech Republic.[23] Under pressure from the European Union, the Czech government made amendments to its nationality law in 1999 and 2003, which effectively solved the problem, but compensation has not been provided to those rendered stateless in 1992.[22]
Language contacts
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In the former Czechoslovakia, the first television channel was a federal one and Czech and Slovak were languages that were used in equal ratios in the television news there, but foreign films and television series were almost exclusively dubbed into Czech, for example. That and the fact that the two languages are very similar made almost all people of both nations passively bilingual: they could understand but not necessarily speak the other language. After the dissolution in 1990s, the new television channels in the Czech Republic practically stopped using Slovak, and young Czech people now have a much lower understanding of Slovak. Also, the number of Slovak-language books and newspapers sold in the Czech Republic dropped drastically. The Czech television news, however, started to reintroduce Slovak-language coverage from Slovakia and Slovak television (STV2) rebroadcasts the Czech television newscast Události ČT daily, ten minutes after midnight.
On the public Radio and Television of Slovakia, it is common to have at least one daily newscast from the Czech Republic during prime time news. Furthermore, many programmes on Slovak television channels are still dubbed into Czech, some films in cinemas are subtitled in Czech and there are far more Czech-language books and periodicals on the market than there were before the dissolution. The major boost for the language interchange has come from private television channel providers like CS Link (Czech Republic) and Sky Link (Slovakia) that offer Slovak channels in the Czech Republic and vice versa. Additionally, several channels, regardless of their national origin, offer programs both in Czech and Slovak (CSFilm, TV Barrandov) or even mix like TV Novas Nova Sport coverage of the English Premier League. New impulses to mutual contacts coming via television are also common shows like the Intelligence Test of Nations, Czechoslovakias Got Talent, and Masked Singer[24] broadcast by PRIMA and TV JOJ, and Czecho-Slovak SuperStar, the latter being the first international edition of the Pop Idol song contest broadcast by TV Nova and Markíza (both owned by CME), which also organized joint versions of MasterChef and The Voice in 2012. Also, the New Years Eve Program for 2009 was prepared and broadcast jointly by ČT and STV and for 2010 by the Czech TV PRIMA and the Slovak TV JOJ, this time even including the singing of the Czechoslovak national anthem.
Young Slovak people still have the same knowledge of Czech as their predecessors, if not better.[citation needed] In Slovakia, Czech may still be used automatically in all judicial proceedings, and all documents written in Czech are acknowledged by Slovak authorities and vice versa. Further, the Slovak Official Language Act, passed in 2009, reconfirmed the right of Czechs to use their language in all official communication when dealing with Slovak authorities although it explicitly limited the use of Czech in Slovakia to persons with Czech as their mother tongue. The same is true about using Slovak in the Czech Republic because of the Administration Procedure Act of 2004.[25] Gustáv Slamečka, a Slovak citizen who was the Czech transport minister (2009–2010), used only Slovak exclusively during his official communication.
See also differences between Slovak and Czech languages.
Sport
The official breakup occurred right in the middle of the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which took place in Sweden. The team representing Czechoslovakia was renamed "Czech–Slovak" on January 1. In international ice hockey tournaments, the Czech Republic took over Czechoslovakias place in the A-groups, and Slovakia had to start in the lower divisions.
During the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 in Falun, Sweden, the ski jumping team competed as a combined Czech–Slovakia team in the team large hill event and won silver. The team had been selected prior to the dissolution. Jaroslav Sakala won two medals in the individual hill events for the Czech Republic at those games along with his silver in the team event.
In their qualifying section for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the Czechoslovakia national football team competed under the name RCS, which stood for "Representation of Czechs and Slovaks". It was afterward that it was officially split up into Czech and Slovak national teams. The team failed to qualify after it got only a draw in its final match against Belgium, a match that it needed to win to qualify.
The mutual encounters between the national teams of both countries in many sports are followed by most of the populations, and the number of players and coaches active in the other republic is significant. Martin Lipták, a Slovak handball coach, successfully led the Czech national team to the EHF 2010 Handball European Championship in Austria.[26] A Slovak team under his coaching, Tatran Prešov, won the Czech national league in 2008 and 2009.[27] Czech ice hockey coach Vladimír Vůjtek led the Slovak national team to the silver medal at the 2012 IIHF World Championship, having beaten the Czech team in the semifinals.
Several sports have featured a common league, and discussions about having a common football or ice hockey league continue.[28]
The road cyclist Ján Svorada earned Slovak citizenship in 1993. In 1994, he became the first Slovak rider ever to win a Tour de France stage. Two years later, he earned Czech citizenship, and he became the first Czech rider ever to win another Tour de France stage in 1998.
Telecommunications
The two successor states continued to use the country code +42 until February 1997,[29] when it was replaced by two separate codes: +420 for the Czech Republic[30] and +421 for Slovakia.[31] Since then, telephone calls between both countries have required international dialing.[32]
Legacy
Public perception of the dissolution has not changed much, with a December 2017 poll showing that just 42% of Czechs and 40% of Slovaks agree with what happened (compared to 36% and 37% in 1992, respectively). According to the Czech political analyst Lubomir Kopeček, many Czechs and Slovaks view the breakup process unfavourably because they had no say in the matter, and most would have rather had a referendum decide. In 2015, a Slovak movement called "Czechoslovakia 2018" was established to try to get a referendum by 2018. Its leader, Ladislav Zelinka, said that he had received thousands of emails and calls from supporters, but it was unable to reach the necessary 350,000 petition signatures. The younger generations of both countries are largely indifferent to the issue since they never experienced the previous period themselves, and older generations are more focused on present issues such as immigration and favour their own separate nationalism.[33]
Surveys from 2010 showed that the majority of the population of Prague (Czechs) still considers the division of the country a mistake;[34] similarly, the general representative survey in Slovakia (from 2008)[35] showed that society is still divided in opinion on the dissolution, with 47% favouring the dissolution and 44% considering it a mistake.
Political influences between the countries are minimal, but social democrats tend to cooperate very closely on regional and European topics in recent years. Furthermore, it has become customary that the elected presidents pay their first and last official foreign visits during their term to the other republic of the former Czechoslovakia. Appointed foreign ministers tend to follow that unwritten rule. On October 29, 2012, to commemorate Czechoslovakias declaration of independence, which occurred on October 28, 1918, the Czech and the Slovak governments held, for the first time, a joint cabinet meeting in the communities of Trenčín and Uherské Hradiště, near the common border.[36]
Also, peacekeeping troops stationed in the former Yugoslavia were put under joint command on several occasions. For example, from 2002 to July 2005, the Czech Armed Forces joined with the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic to form a joint Czech–Slovak KFOR battalion in Kosovo, which contributed to the Multinational Brigade CENTRE.[37] Trade relationships were re-established and stabilised, and the Czech Republic continues to be Slovakias most important business partner. After a short interruption, Slovakias resorts in the Carpathian mountains are again the destination of a growing number of Czech tourists.
Following the death of the last Czechoslovak (and the first Czech) president, Václav Havel, on December 18, 2011, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia observed a day of national mourning. During the funeral mass in Pragues St. Vitus Cathedral, prayers were recited in an equal ratio in Czech and Slovak.
See also
The Czechoslovak Republic (Czech: Československá republika, Slovak: Československá republika) or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic existed between 1948 and 1960 in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Czech and Slovak: Československá socialistická republika, ČSSR) was the official name of the country from 1960 to 23 April 1990. From 1948 until the end of November 1989, the country was under Communist rule and was a satellite state of the Soviet Union.[3]
Following the coup détat of February 1948, when the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power with the support of the Soviet Union, the country was declared a socialist republic when the Ninth-of-May Constitution became effective. The traditional name Československá republika (Czechoslovak Republic), along with several other state symbols, were changed on 11 July 1960 following the implementation of the 1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia as a symbol of the "final victory of socialism" in the country. In April 1990, shortly after the Velvet Revolution of November 1989, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was renamed to the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.
Contents
1Name
2History
2.1Background
2.2Czechoslovak Republic (1948-1960)
2.31968–1993
3Geography
4Politics
4.1Leaders of the Communist Party
4.2Heads of state and government
4.3Foreign relations
4.4Administrative divisions
5Economy
5.1Resource base
6Demographics
6.1Society and social groups
6.2Emigration
6.3Religion
7Culture and society
7.1Health, social welfare and housing
7.2Mass media
8Military
9See also
10Notes
11References
12External links
Name
The official name of the country was the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would be known as simply the "Czechoslovak Republic"—its official name from 1920 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1960. However, Slovak politicians felt this diminished Slovakias equal stature, and demanded that the countrys name be spelled with a hyphen (i.e. "Czecho-Slovak Republic"), as it was spelled from Czechoslovak independence in 1918 until 1920, and again in 1938 and 1939. President Havel then changed his proposal to "Republic of Czecho-Slovakia"—a proposal that did not sit well with Czech politicians who saw reminders of the 1938 Munich Agreement, in which Nazi Germany annexed a part of that territory. The name also means "Land of the Czechs and Slovaks" while Latinised from the countrys original name – "the Czechoslovak Nation"[4] – upon independence in 1918, from the Czech endonym Češi – via its Polish orthography[5]
The name "Czech" derives from the Czech endonym Češi via Polish,[5] from the archaic Czech Čechové, originally the name of the West Slavic tribe whose Přemyslid dynasty subdued its neighbors in Bohemia around AD 900. Its further etymology is disputed. The traditional etymology derives it from an eponymous leader Čech who led the tribe into Bohemia. Modern theories consider it an obscure derivative, e.g. from četa, a medieval military unit.[6] Meanwhile, the name "Slovak" was taken from the Slavic "Slavs" as the origin of the word Slav itself remains uncertain. During the states existence, it was simply referred to "Czechoslovakia", or sometimes the "ČSSR" and "ČSR" for short.
History
Background
Eastern Bloc
Republics of the USSR
Allied states
Related organizations
Dissent and opposition
Cold War events
Fall
vte
Before the Prague Offensive in 1945, Edvard Beneš, the Czechoslovak leader, agreed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalins demands for unconditional agreement with Soviet foreign policy and the Beneš decrees.[7] While Beneš was not a Moscow cadre and several domestic reforms of other Eastern Bloc countries were not part of Beneš plan, Stalin did not object because the plan included property expropriation and he was satisfied with the relative strength of communists in Czechoslovakia compared to other Eastern Bloc countries.[7]
In April 1945, the Third Republic was formed, led by a National Front of six parties. Because of the Communist Partys strength and Benešs loyalty, unlike in other Central and Eastern European countries, USSR did not require Eastern Bloc politics or "reliable" cadres in Czechoslovak power positions, and the executive and legislative branches retained their traditional structures.[8] The Communists were the big winners in the 1946 elections, taking a total of 114 seats (they ran a separate list in Slovakia). Thereafter, the Soviet Union was disappointed that the government failed to eliminate "bourgeois" influence in the army, expropriate industrialists and large landowners and eliminate parties outside of the "National Front".[9] Hope in Moscow was waning for a Communist victory in the 1948 elections following a May 1947 Kremlin report concluding that "reactionary elements" praising Western democracy had strengthened.[10]
Following Czechoslovakias brief consideration of taking Marshall Plan funds,[11] and the subsequent scolding of Communist parties by the Cominform at Szklarska Poręba in September 1947, Rudolf Slánský returned to Prague with a plan for the final seizure of power, including the StBs elimination of party enemies and purging of dissidents.[12] Thereafter, Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin arranged a communist coup détat, followed by the occupation of non-Communist ministers ministries, while the army was confined to barracks.[13]
Pro-Communist demonstrations before the coup détat in 1948
On 25 February 1948, Beneš, fearful of civil war and Soviet intervention, capitulated and appointed a Communist-dominated government who was sworn in two days later. Although members of the other National Front parties still nominally figured, this was, for all intents and purposes, the start of out-and-out Communist rule in the country.[14][15][16] Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, the only prominent Minister still left who was not either a Communist or fellow traveler, was found dead two weeks later.[17] On 30 May, a single list of candidates from the National Front, which became an organization dominated by the Communist Party, was elected to the National Assembly.
Czechoslovak Republic (1948-1960)
After passage of the Ninth-of-May Constitution on 9 June 1948, the country became a Peoples Republic until 1960. Although it was not a completely Communist document, it was close enough to the Soviet model that Beneš refused to sign it. He had resigned a week before it was finally ratified, and died in September. The Ninth-of-May Constitution confirmed that the KSČ possessed absolute power, as other Communist parties had in the Eastern Bloc. On 11 July 1960, the 1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia was promulgated, changing the name of the country from the "Czechoslovak Republic" to the "Czechoslovak Socialist Republic".
1968–1993
Main articles: History of Czechoslovakia, History of Czechoslovakia (1948–1989), and History of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992)
Czechoslovakia in 1969
With the exception of the Prague Spring in the late-1960s, Czechoslovakia was characterized by the absence of democracy and competitiveness of its Western European counterparts as part of the Cold War. In 1969, the country became a federative republic comprising the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic.
Under the federation, social and economic inequities between the Czech and Slovak halves of the country were largely eliminated. A number of ministries, such as Education, were formally transferred to the two republics. However, the centralized political control by the 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, making itself felt by limits on work activities (up to a ban on any professional employment and refusal of higher education to the dissidents children), police harassment and even prison time.
In late 1989, the country became a democracy again through the Velvet Revolution. In 1992, the Federal Assembly decided it would break up the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993.
Geography
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was bounded on the west by West Germany and East Germany, on the north by Poland, on the east by the Soviet Union (via the Ukrainian SSR) and on the south by Hungary and Austria.
Politics
Main article: Politics of Communist Czechoslovakia
Further information: Eastern Bloc politics
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) led initially by First Secretary Klement Gottwald, held a monopoly on politics. Following the 1948 Tito–Stalin split and the Berlin Blockade, increased party purges occurred throughout the Eastern Bloc, including a purge of 550,000 party members of the KSČ, 30% of its members.[18][19] Approximately 130,000 people were sent to prisons, labor camps and mines.[19]
The evolution of the resulting harshness of purges in Czechoslovakia, like much of its history after 1948, was a function of the late takeover by the communists, with many of the purges focusing on the sizable numbers of party members with prior memberships in other parties.[20] The purges accompanied various show trials, including those of Rudolf Slánský, Vladimír Clementis, Ladislav Novomeský and Gustáv Husák (Clementis was later executed).[18] Slánský and eleven others were convicted together of being "Trotskyist-zionist-titoist-bourgeois-nationalist traitors" in one series of show trials, after which they were executed and their ashes were mixed with material being used to fill roads on the outskirts of Prague.[18]
Antonín Novotny served as First Secretary of the KSČ from 1953 to 1968. Gustáv Husák was elected first secretary of 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 KSČ. All political parties, as well as numerous mass organizations, were grouped under the umbrella of National Front of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Human rights activists and religious activists were severely repressed.
In terms of political appointments, the KSČ maintained cadre and nomenklatura lists, with the latter containing every post that was important to the smooth application of party policy, including military posts, administrative positions, directors of local enterprises, social organization administrators, newspapers, etc.[21] The KSČs nomenklatura lists were thought to contain 100,000 post listings.[21] The names of those that the party considered to be trustworthy enough to secure a nomenklatura post were compiled on the cadre list.[21]
Leaders of the Communist Party
NamePhotoTitleIn office
Antonín NovotnyAntonín Novotný 1968.jpgFirst Secretary14 March 1953 – 5 January 1968
Alexander DubčekDubcek 1991.jpgFirst Secretary5 January 1968 – 17 April 1969
Gustáv HusákPortrait of Gustáv Husák wearing a suit, tie and spectaclesFirst Secretary /
General Secretary
17 April 1969 – 17 December 1987
as First Secretary 1969–1971
as General Secretary 1971–1987
Miloš JakešPortrait of Milos Jakes wearing a hat, tie and coatGeneral Secretary17 December 1987 – 24 November 1989
Karel UrbánekGeneral Secretary24 November 1989 – 20 December 1989
Ladislav AdamecChairman21 December 1989 – 1 September 1990
Heads of state and government
