The Prague Post
December 5th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    star Gift Subscriptions
Prague Property

Home » Archives » News

Overcoming history

Marking the 60th anniversary of the communist coup

By Ondřej Bouda
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 27th, 2008 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Several significant locations around the city hosted events in remembrance of the pro-democratic student marches of 1948.
enlarge
ISIFIA
The People's Militia crosses Charles Bridge Feb. 25, 1948, as part of the new communist government's show of power.
enlarge
VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Senate Chairman Přemysl Sobotka led a Prague Castle service, where he called the 1948 protests a memento of the fragility of democracy.
enlarge
February 1948

A closer look at the events leading to the communist takeover
Feb. 13 Noncommunist ministers outvote communists and demand Interior Minister Václav Nosek stop a communist takeover of police
Feb. 17 Communists headed by Prime Minister Klement Gottwald prevent the government from dealing with the police takeover. Ministers from the three noncommunist parties (National Socialist Party, People's Party and Democratic Party) threaten to resign if communists do not end attempts to control police
Feb. 19 President Edvard Beneš says that, in the event of a mass resignation, he would not form a temporary government himself, but would give Gottwald the task
Feb. 20 Twelve ministers from the three noncommunist parties resign. Gottwald urges Beneš to fill the posts with the people he proposed
Feb. 21 An anti-communist demonstration takes place on Old Town Square. Communists create their own armed force, the People's Militia
Feb. 22 Beneš announces he will accept the resignations of all 12 ministers. The communist-controlled police begin arresting those who opposed them
Feb. 23 Police arrest members of those parties whose ministers resigned. Students march to Prague Castle and send a delegation to meet Beneš
Feb. 24 A general strike begins in which 2.5 million workers take part. The People's Militia takes over the Social Democrats' headquarters, prompting the party to agree to take part in the emerging communist government
Feb. 25 Police fight a second student march heading toward Prague Castle. Beneš officially accepts the 12 ministers' resignations and appoints Gottwald's replacements. Gottwald proclaims the communists' success to crowds on Wenceslas Square

On Feb. 25, the Czech Republic commemorated the anniversary of the coup that brought the communists to power.

For many at the time of the 1948 takeover, the event represented a new beginning and a bright future. Throughout the communists’ subsequent rule from 1948 to 1989, the anniversary was revered as a glorious day, when people took justice into their own hands and threw off the shackles of capitalism.

Of course, it can now be said that the communist takeover plunged the country into decades of darkness and terror. This
year’s memorial services over the weekend of Feb. 23 and 24 and into Monday were of a somber tone, reminding participants of the pro-democratic student marches that took place during the 1948 government crisis and the thousands of people persecuted, killed or unjustly sentenced during the following 41 years.
One service Monday morning took place on the spot near Prague Castle where a peaceful student march protesting the communists was stopped and attacked by police Feb. 25, 1948. Those young demonstrators were remembered by today’s politicians as well as surviving witnesses. Some 100 people gathered to listen to the service.
“We should remember those who were capable of thinking for themselves and did not exchange the legacy of president founder Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk for cheap Stalinist propaganda,” Senate Chairman Přemysl Sobotka said in an address to the crowd. “The events that took place here should serve as a memento to the fragility of freedom and democracy.”
Zdeněk Boháč, chairman of the Prague Academic Club 48, personally took part in the marches, and sadly observed, “There are not very many young people here today. Today’s students are not interested in politics as much as we used to be. That is a great source of personal grief for me. Some traditions should not be forgotten.”
Step by step
The events of February 1948 were just the end of a process that started years earlier. Even before the end of World War II, the Communist Party was preparing a National Front of parties that would participate in elections after the war.
In the 1946 elections, communists secured 40 percent of the seats in the temporary Parliament and started to slowly infiltrate other parties within the National Front as well as the police and army. By the beginning of 1948, their control was almost complete, and communist ministers led by Prime Minister Klement Gottwald decided to move quickly in order to ensure complete control by the upcoming election that May.
However, the final changes in police command sparked a government crisis, precipitating the resignation of 12 noncommunist ministers, who expected President Edvard Beneš to respond by forming a caretaker government that would lead the country to the May elections. But the communists were prepared for such resistance, and their loyal supporters sparked a wave of protest against “reactionary forces trying to undermine the new people’s republic.” The Soviet Union also quickly promised armed help to Czechoslovak communists.
When noncommunist party leaders saw where things were headed, most of them emigrated, leaving Beneš to stand alone against the full might of communist propaganda and military force.
Historic protests
University students organized only a few marches to support the president, one of which took place Monday, Feb. 23. Despite attempts by the police to disperse it, the students were joined by many others, forming a crowd of several thousand people that reached Prague Castle late that evening. A five-member delegation of marchers was allowed to see the president. Among them was young national socialist MP Josef Lesák. Now the last surviving member of that pre-communist Parliament, Lesák shared his memories of that meeting with The Prague Post.
“We were brought in to see Beneš around 10 p.m. He looked very sick and tired,” he said. “We saluted his accomplishments in the fight for an independent Czechoslovakia during both world wars. We also told him that we hoped that he would preserve freedom and democracy even in these difficult times.”
Beneš responded by promising the students he would do everything in his power to ensure the continuation of the state as envisaged by the first president and his close associate, Masaryk. However, his chancellor warned the students not to get their hopes up, as events were simply moving too quickly by then.
The communists were determined not to let another march occur. When, on Wednesday, Feb. 25, the students again attempted to reach the castle, they were brutally stopped by special police forces. Lesák was among them.
“Our only weapon was the national anthem. Whenever the police advanced, we sang it and they had to stop and salute,” he said. “They soon caught on and attacked despite our singing. Blood was flowing everywhere. The boys tried to protect the girls from gun butts and kicks, but to no avail. Most of the police were young kids just like us, and one of them got scared and shot a fellow student, crippling him for the rest of his life. Then the peaceful demonstration broke up, because everyone was too scared.”
Unbeknown to them, Beneš, ever the pacifist, had already given in to communist demands fearing a civil war and armed intervention by the Soviet Union. Even as police were attacking the student protestors, Prime Minister Gottwald was addressing a crowd on Wenceslas Square, announcing that Beneš had accepted all his proposals.
Every step of the government crisis leading to the communist victory was taken in accordance with the Constitution. It just happened that the result meant the end of democratic rule for the next 41 years and the country’s descent into a dark period. Most of the democratic activists of February 1948 who didn’t manage to flee abroad were jailed or sentenced to years of hard labor. Even 60 years later, their fight for democracy is not forgotten.
Today, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia does not celebrate “Victorious February” as it used to, says party vice chairman Jiří Dolejš. Instead, the party views the takeover as an important and inevitable historical development based fully on democratic elections that happened in accordance with the Constitution.
“After World War II, people wanted a change, and they saw a chance in socialism,” he said. “The fact that Soviet influence became so important was an unfortunate accident that led to serious crimes, but we have already renounced these mistakes.”
Ondřej Bouda can be reached at obouda@praguepost.com

Ondřej Bouda can be reached at obouda@praguepost.com


Other articles in News (27/02/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.