Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Germans pulled out on 8 May, having been granted free passage out in return for an
agreement not to destroy more buildings.
In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reconstituted as an independent state. One of its first
acts was the expulsion of the remaining Sudeten Germans from the borderlands. By
1947, some 2½ million ethnic Germans had been stripped of their Czechoslovak cit-
izenship and forcibly expelled to Germany and Austria.
FROM HITLER'S ARMS INTO STALIN'S
Czechoslovak euphoria at the end of the war did not last long. The communists seized
power just three years later, in 1948. While these days, the takeover is usually viewed
as a naked power grab by Stalin's henchmen, the reality is more complicated. For
many Czechs, WWII had tarnished the image of the Western democracies, and Stal-
in's Soviet Union commanded deep respect
By the 1950s, however, this initial enthusiasm faded as communist economic
policies bankrupted the country and a wave of repression sent thousands to labour
camps. In a series of Stalin-style purges staged by the KSČ (Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia) in the early 1950s, many people, including top members of the party
itself, were executed.
Prague was the major objective in the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. Soviet
special forces, with the help of the Czechoslovak secret police, secured
Prague airport for Soviet transport planes. At the end of the first day of
fighting, 58 people had died.
In the 1960s, Czechoslovakia enjoyed something of a renaissance, and under the
leadership of reform communist Alexander Dubček, became a beacon for idealists
wanting to chart a 'third way' between communism and capitalism. The reform move-
ment was dubbed 'Socialism with a Human Face' and mixed elements of democracy
with continued state control over the economy. This easing of hardline communism
became known around the world as the 'Prague Spring'.
In the end, though, it was the movement's success that eventually undid it. Soviet
leaders were alarmed by the prospect of a partially democratic society within the
Eastern bloc and any potential spillover it might have on Poland and Hungary. The
Prague Spring was eventually crushed by a Soviet-led invasion of Eastern bloc states
on the night of 20‒21 August 1968. Much of the fighting took place near the top of
Wenceslas Square ‒ the front of the National Museum still bears the bullet marks.
