"The Invisible Coup“ The Communist Coup in Czechoslovakia: 1945 or 1948? Part I
"The Invisible Coup“ The Communist Coup in Czechoslovakia: 1945 or 1948? Part I

Summary/Abstract: The year 1948 did not mean only the end of the democratic system in Czechoslovakia, but, in its results, it also led to economic and intellectual degeneration of the Czechoslovak society, and it caused the moral devastation of its inhabitants. It has been written a lot about the process of the communist coup d’état on the 25th February 1948. Yet one question could still be interesting; was the establishment of the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia unavoidable? In the early years after the February 1948, Czechoslovak exiles were trying to find an offender of it all. Edvard Beneš was identified the man who accepted the resignations of non-communist ministers, and consequently appointed the “regenerate” government of the National Front. According to exile representatives, due to this decision, Beneš not only legalized but also enabled the existence of the communist regime. In later years, especially by the non-leftwing authors, there was a dominating opinion that the blame of later communist coup was the conclusion of the Czechoslovak-Soviet agreement in the year 1943 and consequent convergence of Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union. In respect of this attitude, we could say that the communist revolution did not run in the year 1948 but, in fact, three years earlier - in the year 1945. Thereby we come to the crucial question of this article: was the February 1948 unavoidable? Was it possible to prevent this event? Did alternative ways exist? This article will try to answer these questions by focusing on the internal and international situation of Czechoslovakia in the years 1945-1948, and above all by focusing on the “silent coup” of the Communist Party just in 1945 and its gradual “snakelike” control of the state and the society, which culminated in February 1948.

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