Zdeněk Fierlinger
Zdeněk Fierlinger
Pro-Soviet Social Democrat and first post-liberation premier who sided with the Communists in 1948 and merged his party into theirs
During the Communist coup of February 1948, he led the Social Democratic push for union with the Communists; the merger later that year brought his party into the one-party system.
A diplomat from Olomouc, he served as envoy to the Netherlands, Romania, the United States, Switzerland and Austria and, as the exile government’s ambassador in Moscow during the war, grew close to the Soviet Union. Prime minister of the Košice government from April 1945, he led the National Front government until June 1946. As Social Democratic leader he advocated close co-operation with the Communists, and when the non-Communist ministers resigned in February 1948 he stayed and openly backed the Communists. After the coup he merged the Social Democrats into the Communist Party and held high office under the regime.
Career timeline
- 1945–1946Prime minister of the Košice government and post-liberation Czechoslovakia.
- 1946–1947Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party; in November 1947, party members ousted him for being too submissive to the Communists.
- 1948After the February coup, he led the merger of the Social Democrats with the Communists and joined the Communist Party Central Committee.
- 1948–1953Served as deputy prime minister.
- 1951–1953Minister of the State Office for Religious Affairs.
- 1953–1964Chairman of the National Assembly.
- 1968Supported the Prague Spring reforms and protested the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.