Background: Czechia — People | Cyber-Lenin

Background: Czechia

25 people

By birth A–Z List Cards

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk The philosopher-president who organized the Czechoslovak Legion from exile and signed the Penza Agreement with the Bolsheviks Political and party leadership 1850–1937
Karl Johann Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky Chief theoretician of orthodox Marxism in the Second International, founding editor of Die Neue Zeit, editor of Marx's Capital Vol. IV Scholarship and theory · Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) 1854–1938
Antonín Janoušek Antonín Janoušek Czech journalist who chaired the Revolutionary Governing Council of the Slovak Soviet Republic in 1919 Social movements and organizing · Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP) 1877–1941
Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš The last democratic president, who tried to topple a government with resignations and instead handed it to Gottwald Diplomacy and international organization · Czechoslovakia 1884–1948
Antonín Zápotocký Antonín Zápotocký Czechoslovak Communist who led the trade-union central council, became prime minister after February 1948 and president in 1953 Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia 1884–1957
Petr Zenkl Petr Zenkl National Socialist leader who led the ministers’ resignation in February 1948 and headed the exile Council of Free Czechoslovakia Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia 1884–1975
Jan Garrigue Masaryk Jan Garrigue Masaryk The non-Communist foreign minister who lent Gottwald's government legitimacy, found dead under Černín Palace window two weeks after the coup Diplomacy and international organization · Czechoslovakia 1886–1948
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 Government and administration · Czechoslovakia 1891–1976
Hubert Ripka Hubert Ripka Postwar foreign trade minister who resigned in February 1948 and went back into exile Economy, finance and planning · Czechoslovakia 1895–1958
Ludvík Svoboda Ludvík Svoboda A national hero of two world wars who became an unlikely last bastion of the Prague Spring Military command · Czechoslovakia 1895–1979
Klement Gottwald Klement Gottwald The communist leader who turned Czechoslovakia into a people's democracy through the February 1948 coup Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia 1896–1953
Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal Николай Антонович Доллежаль Chief designer of Soviet nuclear reactors Science and technology · Soviet Union 1899–2000
Milada Horáková Milada Horáková Czech politician who resisted both the Nazis and the Communists and was hanged in 1950 after a fabricated treason trial Social movements and organizing 1901–1950
Rudolf Slánský Rudolf Slánský KSČ General Secretary who organized the February 1948 coup and built Czechoslovakia's people's democracy as its operational architect Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) 1901–1952
Antonín Josef Novotný Antonín Novotný The Czechoslovak leader whose Stalinist orthodoxy was swept aside by the Prague Spring reform movement Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia 1904–1975
Josef Smrkovský Josef Smrkovský The purge victim who returned to become the Prague Spring's most eloquent reformer Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia 1911–1974
Ota Šik Ota Šik Czechoslovak economist who designed a 'third way' between plan and market Economy, finance and planning · Czechoslovakia 1919–2004
Oldřich Černík Oldřich Černík The miner's son and technocrat who led the Prague Spring government, then signed the Moscow Protocol under duress Government and administration · Czechoslovakia 1921–1994
Radovan Richta Radovan Richta Czech Marxist philosopher who coined the phrase "socialism with a human face" Scholarship and theory · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) 1924–1983
Lubomír Štrougal Lubomír Štrougal Husák's right hand who ran the normalization cabinet for eighteen years, then fell backing Gorbachev's perestroika Government and administration · Czechoslovakia 1924–2023
Pavel Auersperg Pavel Auersperg The ideology cadre who drafted the Action Programme, then served normalization to the end Political and party leadership · Czechoslovakia 1926–1987
Milan Kundera Milan Kundera The Czech novelist who insisted the Prague Spring was a universal attempt to reconcile socialism with freedom Literature and arts · Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) 1929–2023
Václav Havel Václav Havel Czech playwright-turned-president whose absurdist theater critiqued the regime and whose dissident leadership ended communist rule Literature and arts 1936–2011
Václav Klaus Václav Klaus The market reformer who rejected a third way Government and administration · Czechia state institutions 1941–
Jan Palach Jan Palach The Charles University student who set himself on fire against the Soviet occupation Social movements and organizing 1948–1969