was intended to prevent citizens of the Eastern Bloc from emigrating to the West. The sign is from the beginning of the 1980s and reads:
WARNING! Border Zone. Enter only on authorization. On 25 February 1948, President
Edvard Beneš gave in to the demands of Communist Prime Minister
Klement Gottwald and appointed a Cabinet dominated by Communists. While it was nominally still a coalition, the "non-Communists" in the cabinet were mostly
fellow travelers. This gave legal sanction to the KSČ coup, and marked the onset of undisguised Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. On 9 May, the National Assembly, purged of dissidents, passed a new constitution. It was not a completely Communist document; since a special committee prepared it in the 1945–48 period, it contained many liberal and democratic provisions. It reflected, however, the reality of Communist power through an addition that declared Czechoslovakia a
people's republic – a preliminary step towards
socialism and, ultimately, communism – ruled by the
dictatorship of the proletariat, and also gave the Communist Party the leading role in the state. For these reasons, Beneš refused to sign the so-called
Ninth-of-May Constitution. Nevertheless, elections were held on 30 May, and voters were presented with a single list from the
National Front, the former governing coalition which was now a broad patriotic organisation under Communist control. Beneš resigned on 2 June, and Gottwald became president twelve days later. Within the next few years, bureaucratic centralism under the direction of KSČ leadership was introduced. So-called "dissident" elements were purged from all levels of society, including the Catholic Church. The ideological principles of
Marxism-Leninism pervaded cultural and intellectual life. The entire education system was submitted to state control. With the elimination of private ownership of means of production, a
planned economy was introduced. Czechoslovakia became a
satellite state of the
Soviet Union; it was a founding member of the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1949 and of the
Warsaw Pact in 1955. The attainment of Soviet-style "socialism" became the government's avowed policy. Although in theory Czechoslovakia remained a multi-party state, in reality the Communists had complete control of the country. Political participation became subject to KSČ approval. The KSČ also prescribed percentage representation for non-Marxist parties. The National Assembly, purged of dissidents, became a mere
rubber stamp for KSČ programmes. In 1953, an inner cabinet of the National Assembly, the Presidium, was created. Composed of KSČ leaders, the Presidium served to convey party policies through government channels. Regional, district, and local committees were subordinated to the Ministry of Interior. Slovak autonomy was constrained; the KSS was reunited with the KSČ but retained its own identity. After consolidating power, Klement Gottwald began a series of mass purges against both political opponents and fellow Communists, numbering in the tens of thousands. Children from blacklisted families were denied access to good jobs and higher education, there was widespread emigration to
West Germany and
Austria, and the educational system was reformed to give opportunities to working-class students. Although Gottwald originally sought a more independent line, a quick meeting with Stalin in 1948 convinced him otherwise and so he sought to impose the Soviet model on the country as thoroughly as possible. By 1951, Gottwald's health deteriorated and he was suffering from heart disease and
syphilis in addition to alcoholism. He made few public appearances in his final year of life. Gottwald died on 14 March 1953 from an
aortic aneurysm, a week after attending Stalin's funeral in
Moscow. He was succeeded by
Antonín Zápotocký as President and by
Antonín Novotný as head of the KSČ. Novotný became President in 1957 when Zápotocký died. Czechoslovak interests were subordinated to the interests of the Soviet Union.
Joseph Stalin became particularly concerned about controlling and integrating the socialist bloc in the wake of Tito's challenge to his authority. Stalin's paranoia resulted in a campaign against "
rootless cosmopolitans" which culminated in the
conspiracy theory of the alleged
Doctors' plot. In 1950, the
StB and other security forces executed Operations K and R against the
Catholic Church. The operations targeting female and male religious orders, sending them to forced labour camps, confiscating church assets and isolating the clergy. In Czechoslovakia, the Stalinists also accused their opponents of "conspiracy against the people's democratic order" and "high treason" in order to oust them from positions of power. Many Communists with an "international" background, i.e., those with a wartime connection with the West, veterans of the Spanish Civil War, Jews, and Slovak "
bourgeois nationalists", were arrested and executed in
show trials (e.g.,
Heliodor Píka,
Milada Horáková). Most spectacular was the
Slánský trial against KSČ first secretary
Rudolf Slánský and thirteen other prominent Communist personalities in November and December 1952. Slánský and ten other defendants were
executed, while three were sentenced to
life imprisonment. The KSČ rank-and-file membership, approximately 2.5 million in March 1948, began to be subjected to careful scrutiny. By 1960, KSČ membership had been reduced to 1.4 million. The Ninth-of-May Constitution provided for the
nationalisation of all commercial and industrial enterprises having more than fifty employees. The non-agricultural private sector was nearly eliminated. Private ownership of land was limited to fifty hectares. The remnants of private enterprise and independent farming were permitted to carry on only as a temporary concession to the
petite bourgeoisie and the peasantry. The Czechoslovak economy was determined by five-year plans. Following the Soviet example, Czechoslovakia began emphasising the rapid development of heavy industry. The industrial sector was reorganised with an emphasis on
metallurgy,
heavy machinery, and
coal mining. Production was concentrated in larger units; the more than 350,000 units of the pre-war period were reduced to about 1,700 units by 1958. Industrial output reportedly increased 233% between 1948–59 and employment in industry by 44%. The speed of industrialisation was particularly accelerated in Slovakia, where production increased 347% and employment by 70%. Although Czechoslovakia's industrial growth of 170% between 1948–57 was huge, it was far exceeded by that of Japan ( who increased by 300%) and
West Germany (almost 300 percent) and more than equalled by Austria and Greece. For the 1954–59 period, France and Italy equalled Czechoslovak industrial growth. Industrial growth in Czechoslovakia required substantial additional labour. Czechoslovaks were subjected to long hours and long working weeks to meet
production quotas. Part-time, volunteer labour – students and
white-collar workers – was drafted in massive numbers. Labour productivity, however, was not significantly increased; nor were production costs reduced. Czechoslovak products were characterised by poor quality. During the early years of Communist rule, many political prisoners were sentenced to
penal labour. The Ninth-of-May Constitution declared the government's intention to collectivise agriculture. In February 1949, the National Assembly adopted the Unified Agricultural Cooperatives Act.
Cooperatives were to be founded on a voluntary basis; formal title to land was left vested in the original owners. The imposition of high compulsory quotas, however, forced peasants to collectivise in order to increase efficiency and facilitate mechanisation. Discriminatory policies were employed to bring about the ruin of recalcitrant
kulaks (wealthy peasants). Collectivisation was near completion by 1960. 16% of all farmland (obtained from collaborators and kulaks) had been turned into state-run farms. Despite the elimination of poor land from cultivation and a tremendous increase in the use of fertilisers and tractors, agricultural production declined seriously. By 1959, pre-war production levels still had not been met. Major causes of the decline were the diversion of labour from agriculture to industry (in 1948 an estimated 2.2 million workers were employed in agriculture; by 1960, only 1.5 million); the suppression of the kulak, the most experienced and productive farmer; and the peasantry's opposition to collectivisation, which resulted in sabotage. The
1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia declared the victory of "socialism" and proclaimed the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. The ambiguous precept of "
democratic centralism" – power emanating from the people but bound by the authority of higher organs – was made a formal part of constitutional law. The President, the Cabinet, the
Slovak National Council, and the local governments were made responsible to the National Assembly. The National Assembly, however, continued its rubber-stamp approval of KSČ policies. All private enterprises using hired labour were abolished. Comprehensive economic planning was reaffirmed. The Bill of Rights emphasised economic and social rights, (e.g the right to work, leisure, health care, and education), with less emphasis on civil rights. The judiciary was combined with the prosecuting branch; all judges were committed to the protection of the socialist state and the education of citizens in loyalty to the cause of socialism. ==De-Stalinization==