The purge victim who returned to become the Prague Spring's most eloquent reformer
After signing the Moscow Protocol, Smrkovský alone addressed the nation while his colleagues fell silent. Brezhnev singled out his speech as unacceptable.
A Czechoslovak reform communist and Dubček's most important political ally during the Prague Spring. As vice-chairman of the Czech National Council, he led the Prague uprising of May 1945; in February 1948 he commanded the People's Militias to secure the communist takeover. Arrested in 1951 and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Slánský trials, he was released in 1955, fully rehabilitated in 1963, and became chairman of the National Assembly in April 1968, where his oratory made him, alongside Dubček, the most popular politician of the reform era. Deported to Moscow after the August invasion and forced to sign the Moscow Protocol, he was purged by Husák, expelled from the party in 1970, and died under police surveillance in 1974.
Career Timeline
- 1933Joined KSČ; youth secretary of Red Trade Unions
- 1944–45Illegal CC member; led Prague uprising as vice-chairman of Czech National Council
- 1946–48National Assembly deputy; helped execute February coup as deputy militia commander
- 1951–55Arrested in Slánský affair, life sentence → released 1955
- 1955–63Chairman of JZD Pavlovice agricultural cooperative
- 1963–67Rehabilitated; CC member → Minister of Forestry and Water
- 1968.4–1969.1Chairman of National Assembly; Dubček's key reform ally
- 1968.8–1970Deported to Moscow, signed Protocol → purged and expelled by Husák