Květen 1945 a cesta ke komunistické totalitě – realita a mýty
ay 1945 and the Path to Communist Totality – Reality and Myths

Summary/Abstract: Stepping back from comforting post‑war myths, the text unveils how the joyous May of 1945 masked the beginning of a deliberate political transformation that steered Czechoslovakia away from democracy and toward Soviet‑backed authoritarianism. It shows that while the Allies proclaimed freedom and self‑determination, Stalin envisioned a radically different order grounded in Marxist‑Leninist dominance, which Edvard Beneš’s prosovětská zahraniční orientace aktivně napomáhala dlouho před koncem války. Beneš’s deals with Moscow, the Košice Government Program, and the establishment of the Národní fronta effectively dismantled political pluralism and laid the constitutional and moral foundations for a “lidově‑demokratický” režim fungující jako první fáze komunistické revoluce. The narrative exposes how state institutions, propaganda and revolutionary national committees normalized violations of právní kontinuity, property rights, and civil liberties, while public debate was constrained by ideological dogma and vynucená rusofilie. It dismantles widespread historiographical myths—such as the idea of geopolitical inevitability, alleged popular will, or post‑war “democratic” elections—by highlighting the purposeful actions of political elites who chose collaboration with Soviet power and suppressed dissenting options. Through testimonies of historians like Josef Kalvoda and Toman Brod, the study argues that the so‑called třetí republika was already an autoritativní systém with totalitarian features, rendering Únor 1948 not a sudden rupture but a foreseeable culmination. The text concludes that genuine reflection on this period requires rejecting sentimental narratives, recognizing the agency of domestic actors in the country’s sovětizace, and confronting uncomfortable truths as a precondition for true civic maturity.

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