Le système et la vie politique en Tchécoslovaquie de 1945 au coup de Prague en 1948

Abstract

This article deals with the political development in Czechoslovakia 1945–1948, a crucial period in Eastern Europe for a liberal democratic system in that country. In 1945 the Soviet leader, Stalin, gave his personal approval for this experiment to go on and the Czechoslovak communist party followed his instruction, participating fully in the government. As in international affairs Czechoslovakia was to act as a bridge between the West and East; internally it was to serve as a model of peaceful transition from “bourgeois” democracy to “people's” democracy. The model is examined in some detail. Since attempts were made in 1968 to re-establish it in the new conditions of the 1960s, it was accepted as a political model for the Euro-communists. After 1947, with the onset of the cold war the Czechoslovak communists changed their minds (Stalin probably also) and began to plot to seize power, which they easily achieved in February 1948. The article is based on published communist sources, especially those during the period of the Prague spring, and diplomatic reports from Czechoslovakia deposited at the British Foreign Office.