KSČ General Secretary who organized the February 1948 coup and built Czechoslovakia's people's democracy as its operational architect
In September 1947 Slánský returned from the Cominform founding meeting with Moscow's directive to seize power. 'As in the international field, we have gone on the offensive on the domestic front as well' — the February 1948 coup had begun.
After joining the KSČ Central Committee and Politburo in 1929, he rose as Gottwald's closest lieutenant. During WWII he directed Czechoslovak broadcasts from Moscow and fought in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising. As General Secretary (1945–1951), he mastered the party apparatus and directed the operational work of the February 1948 coup, converting Czechoslovakia into a Soviet-aligned people's democracy. Arrested in 1951, he was tried and executed in 1952 on charges of conspiracy, Trotskyism, Titoism and Zionism: the most distinctly antisemitic purge trial in the Eastern Bloc. Rehabilitated 1963; party membership restored 1968.
Career timeline
- 1921Joins the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
- 1924Editor of Rudé Právo, the KSČ central organ
- 1927–1928Regional party secretary in Ostrava
- 1928–1929Regional party secretary in Kladno
- 1929Elected to the KSČ Central Committee and Politburo
- 1935–1938Deputy, National Assembly of Czechoslovakia
- 1939–1945Exile in Moscow; chief editor of Czechoslovak Radio Moscow, partisan in Slovak National Uprising
- 1945–1951General Secretary of the KSČ Central Committee
- 1948Commander of the People's Militia; directs operational work of the February coup
- 1951Deputy Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
The Czechoslovak leader whose Stalinist orthodoxy was swept aside by the Prague Spring reform movement
In an impromptu interview after the 1965 May Day parade, Novotný declared, "Meat will be shortly!" (Maso bude vbrzku!). Across the country, Czechs asked, "Where on the map is this 'Shortly'?" — and the nation laughed.
A locksmith and KSČ charter member from 1921, Novotný rose through the party apparatus during the Slánský purge and emerged from the succession struggle after Gottwald's death to rule Czechoslovakia for fifteen years as First Secretary (1953–1968) and President (1957–1968). His regime enforced Stalinist orthodoxy (central planning, censorship, and a refusal to reckon with the show trials of the 1950s) even as economic stagnation and Slovak resentment eroded its foundations. His forced resignation in January 1968, replaced by Alexander Dubček, removed the greatest obstacle to reform and directly precipitated the Prague Spring. Reelected to the Central Committee under normalization in 1971, he died in Prague in 1975 without recovering real influence.
Career timeline
- 1921Charter member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
- 1937–1938Secretary of the KSČ Regional Committee in Hodonín
- 1941–1945Arrested for underground resistance; imprisoned at Mauthausen
- 1945–1951First Secretary of the KSČ Prague City Committee
- 1951–1953Member of the KSČ Political Secretariat; Deputy Prime Minister
- 1953–1968First Secretary of the KSČ Central Committee
- 1957–1968President of Czechoslovakia
- 1971Reelected to the KSČ Central Committee under normalization
He dreamed of a human face, and was posted to the forestry service
Before dawn on August 21, 1968, Soviet officers burst into Dubček's office. The phone lines were cut, handcuffs went on. 'We will kill, if necessary, a million Czechs, to put an end to your counter-revolution,' an officer said.
The Slovak reform communist who led the Prague Spring. Raised in the USSR from childhood, he abolished censorship in 1968 and pursued 'socialism with a human face', only to be deposed by the Warsaw Pact invasion and spend fifteen years as a forestry clerk. In 1989 he stood beside Havel on the balcony once more.
Career timeline
- 1925–1938Raised in a worker family in the USSR
- 1944Fights in the Slovak National Uprising
- 1963–1968First Secretary of the Slovak party
- 1968.01First Secretary of Czechoslovakia; the Prague Spring
- 1968.08Taken to Moscow; forced to sign the protocol
- 1969–1970Removed; ambassador to Turkey, then the forestry service
- 1989.12Returns as chairman of the Federal Assembly
