With the collapse of the Austria-Hungary at the end ofWorld War I, the independent country ofCzechoslovakia^[1] (Czech,Slovak:Československo) was formed as a result of the critical intervention of U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson, among others.

TheCzechs andSlovaks were not at the same level of economic and technological development, but the freedom and opportunity found in an independent Czechoslovakia enabled them to make strides toward overcoming these inequalities.^{[citation needed]} However, the gap between cultures was never fully bridged, and this discrepancy played a disruptive role throughout the seventy-five years of the union.^{[citation needed]}

Although the Czechs and Slovaks speak languages that are very similar, the political and social situation of the Czech and Slovak peoples was very different at the end of the 19th century. The reason was the differing attitude and position of their overlords – the Austrians inBohemia andMoravia, and the Hungarians in Slovakia – withinAustria-Hungary. Bohemia was the most industrialized part of Austria andSlovakia was the most industrialized part of Hungary – however at very different levels of development.^[1]

Around the start of the 20th century, the idea of a "Czecho-Slovak" entity began to be advocated by some Czech and Slovak leaders after contacts between Czech and Slovak intellectuals intensified in the 1890s. Despite cultural differences, the Slovaks shared similar aspirations with the Czechs for independence from the Habsburg state.^[2][3]

In 1917, during World War I,Tomáš Masaryk created theCzechoslovak National Council together withEdvard Beneš andMilan Štefánik (a Slovak astronomer and war hero). Masaryk in theUnited States (and in United Kingdom and Russia too),^[4] Štefánik inFrance, and Beneš in France andBritain, worked tirelessly to secure Allied recognition. About 1.4 million Czech soldiers fought in World War I, 150,000 of which died.

More than 90,000 Czech and Slovak volunteers formed theCzechoslovak Legions in Russia, France and Italy, where they fought against theCentral Powers and later withWhite Russian forces againstBolshevik troops.^[5] At times they controlled much of theTrans-Siberian railway, and they were indirectly involved in theshooting of the Russian Tsar and his family in 1918. Their goal was to win the support of theAllies for the independence of Czechoslovakia.^[4] They succeeded on all counts. When secret talks between the Allies and Austrian emperorCharles I (r. 1916–1918) collapsed, the Allies recognized, in the summer of 1918, the Czechoslovak National Council would be the kernel of the future Czechoslovak government.

TheProvisional Czechoslovak Government, chaired byTomáš Garrigue Masaryk, proclaimed the Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation in theWashington Declaration on 18 October 1918. Czechoslovakia was legally created byLaw on the Creation of Independent Czechoslovak State (No. 11/1918 Coll.) inPrague on 28 October 1918^[6] inSmetana Hall of theMunicipal House, a physical setting strongly associated with nationalist feeling. The Slovaks officially joined the state two days later in the town ofMartin. A temporary constitution was adopted, and Tomáš Masaryk was declared president on 14 November.^[1] TheTreaty of St. Germain, signed in September 1919, formally recognized the new republic.^[7]Carpathian Ruthenia was added later by theTreaty of Trianon in June 1920.^[8] There were also variousborder conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia due to the annexation of theTrans-Olza region.^{[citation needed]}

The new state was characterized by problems with its ethnic diversity, the separate histories of the Czech and Slovak peoples and their greatly differing religious, cultural, and social traditions. The Germans and Hungarians of Czechoslovakia openly agitated against the territorial settlements. Nevertheless, the new republic saw the passage of a number of progressive reforms in areas such as housing, social security, and workers' rights.^[9]

In 1929, the gross domestic product increased by 52% and industrial production by 41% as compared to 1913. In 1938, Czechoslovakia held 10th place in the world for industrial production.^[10]

The Czechoslovak state was conceived as arepresentative democracy.^[1] The constitution identified the "Czechoslovak nation" as the creator and principal constituent of the Czechoslovak state and established Czech and Slovak as official languages. The concept of the Czechoslovak nation was necessary in order to justify the establishment of Czechoslovakia before the world, otherwise the statistical majority of the Czechs as compared to Germans would be rather weak.

The operation of the new Czechoslovak government was distinguished by its political stability. Largely responsible for this were the well-organized political parties that emerged as the real centers of power. After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the onlydemocracy incentral andeastern Europe.

Although Czechoslovakia was the only central European country to remain a parliamentary democracy during the entire period 1918 to 1938,^[11] it faced problems with ethnic minorities such as Hungarians, Poles andSudeten Germans, which made up the largest part of the country'sGerman minority. The Germans constituted 3^[12] to 3.5^[13] million out of 14 million of the interwar population of Czechoslovakia^[12] and were largely concentrated in the Bohemian and Moravian border regions known as theSudetenland.

The rise ofAdolf Hitler andNazi Germany in 1933, the German annexation (Anschluss) ofAustria in 1938, the resulting revival of revisionism inHungary, the agitation for autonomy in Slovakia and theappeasement policy of the Western powers ofFrance and theUnited Kingdom left Czechoslovakia without effective allies.^[14]

After the acquisition of Austria, Czechoslovakia became Hitler's next target.^[13][14] The German nationalist minority in Czechoslovakia, led byKonrad Henlein^[15] and fervently backed by Hitler, demanded a union of the predominantly German districts of the country with Germany. On 17 September 1938 Hitler ordered the establishment ofSudetendeutsches Freikorps, a paramilitary organization that took over the structure of Ordnersgruppe, an organization of ethnic-Germans in Czechoslovakia that had been dissolved by the Czechoslovak authorities the previous day due to its implication in terrorist activities. The organization was sheltered, trained and equipped by German authorities and conducting cross border terrorist operations into Czechoslovak territory. Relying on theConvention for the Definition of Aggression, Czechoslovak presidentEdvard Beneš^[16] and thegovernment-in-exile^[17] later regarded 17 September 1938 as the beginning of the undeclared German-Czechoslovak war. This understanding has been assumed also by the contemporaryCzech Constitutional court.^[18]

Hitler extorted the cession of the Bohemian, Moravian andCzech Silesian borderlands via theMunich Agreement on 29 September 1938 signed by Germany, Italy, France, and Britain.^[15] The Czech population in the annexed lands was forcibly expelled.^[19]

Finding itself abandoned by the Western powers, the Czechoslovak government agreed to abide by the agreement. Beneš resigned as president on 5 October 1938, fled to London and was succeeded byEmil Hácha. In early November 1938, under theFirst Vienna Award, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede the mainly Hungarian-populated southern Slovakia (one third of Slovakia) to Hungary. After anultimatum on 30 September (but without consulting with any other countries), Poland obtained the disputed the Trans-Olza region as a territorial cession shortly after the Munich Agreement, on 2 October. The ultimatum was only sent after Czech request.^{[citation needed]}

The Czechs in the greatly weakened Czechoslovak Republic were forced to grant major concessions to the non-Czech residents in the country. The executive committee of theSlovak People's Party met atŽilina on 5 October 1938, and with the acquiescence of all Slovak parties except the Social Democrats formed an autonomous Slovak government underJozef Tiso. Similarly, the two major factions in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, theRussophiles and Ukrainophiles, agreed on the establishment of an autonomous government that was constituted on 8 October 1938. In late November 1938, the truncated state, renamed Czecho-Slovakia (the so-calledSecond Republic), was reconstituted in three autonomous units: the Czech lands (i.e. Bohemia and Moravia), Slovakia, and Ruthenia.^{[citation needed]}

On 14 March 1939, theSlovak State declared its independence under Jozef Tiso.^[20] Hitler forced Hácha to surrender what remained of Bohemia and Moravia to German control on 15 March 1939, establishing the GermanProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.^[21] On the same day, theCarpatho-Ukraine (Subcarpathian Ruthenia) declared its independence and was immediately occupied and annexed by Hungary. Finally, following theSlovak–Hungarian Little War, Slovakia ceded an eastern land strip to Hungary.

Beneš and other Czechoslovak exiles in London organized aCzechoslovak Government-in-Exile and negotiated to obtain international recognition for the government and a renunciation of theMunich Agreement. The government was recognized by the government of theUnited Kingdom with the approval of Foreign SecretaryLord Halifax on 18 July 1940. In July and December 1941, theSoviet Union^[22] andUnited States also recognized the exiled government, respectively.

Czechoslovak military units fought alongside Allied forces. In December 1943, Beneš's government concluded a treaty with the Soviet Union. Beneš worked to bring Czechoslovak communist exiles in Britain into active cooperation with his government, offering far-reaching concessions, includingnationalization of heavy industry and the creation of local people's committees at the war's end (which indeed occurred). In March 1945, he gave key cabinet positions to Czechoslovak communist exiles in Moscow.^{[citation needed]}

The assassination ofReichsprotectorReinhard Heydrich^[23] in 1942 by a group of British-trained Czech and Slovakcommandos led byJan Kubiš andJozef Gabčík led to reprisals, including the annihilation of the village ofLidice.^[23][24] All adult male inhabitants were executed, while females and children were transported toconcentration camps.^[25] A similar fate met the village ofLežáky and later, at the end of war,Javoříčko.

On 8 May 1944,Edvard Beneš signed an agreement with Soviet leaders stipulating that former Czechoslovak territory liberated by Soviet armies would be placed under Czechoslovak civilian control.

From 21 September 1944, Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Soviet troops of theRed Army and the Romanian Army,^[26] supported by Czech and Slovak resistance, from the east to the west; only southwestern Bohemia was liberated by other Allied troops (i.e., theUnited States Army) from the west.^[26] In May 1945, American forces liberated the city ofPlzeň. A civilian uprising against the Nazi garrison took place in Prague in May 1945. The resistance was assisted by the heavily armedRussian Liberation Army, i.e., Gen. Vlasov's army, a force composed of SovietPOWs organised by the Germans who now turned against them.^[26]

The main brutality suffered in the lands of the pre-war Czechoslovakia came as an immediate result of the German occupation in the Protectorate, the widespread persecution of Jews, and, after theSlovak National Uprising in August 1944, repression in Slovakia. In spite of the oppressiveness of the government of the German Protectorate, Czechoslovakia did not suffer the degree of population loss that was witnessed during World War II in countries such as Poland and the Soviet Union, and it avoided systematic destruction of its infrastructure.Bratislava was taken from the Germans on 4 April 1945, and Prague on 9 May 1945 by Soviet troops. Both Soviet and Allied troops were withdrawn in the same year.^[26]

Atreaty ceding Transcarpathia to the Soviet Union was signed in June 1945 between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, following an apparently rigged Soviet-run referendum in the territory.^{[citation needed]} ThePotsdam Agreement provided for theexpulsion of Sudeten Germans to Germany under the supervision of the Allied Control Council. Decisions regarding the Hungarian minority reverted to the Czechoslovak government. In February 1946, the Hungarian government agreed that Czechoslovakia could expatriate as many Hungarians as there were Slovaks in Hungary wishing to return to Czechoslovakia.^{[citation needed]}

The Third Republic came into being in April 1945. Its government, installed atKošice on 4 April, then moved to Prague in May, was aNational Front coalition in which three socialist parties—theCommunist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), the Czechoslovak Social democratic Party, and theCzechoslovak National Socialist Party—predominated. Certain non-socialist parties were included in the coalition, among them the Catholic People's Party (in Moravia) and theDemocratic Party of Slovakia.

Following Nazi Germany's surrender, some 2.9 millionethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia^[27] with Allied approval, their property and rights declared void by theBeneš decrees.

Czechoslovakia soon came to fall within the Soviet sphere of influence. The popular enthusiasm evoked by the Soviet armies of liberation (which was decided by compromise of Allies andJoseph Stalin at theYalta Conference in 1944) benefited theKSČ. Czechoslovaks, bitterly disappointed by the West at theMunich Agreement (1938), responded favorably to both the KSČ and the Soviet alliance. Reunited into one state after the war, the Czechs and Slovaks set national elections for the spring of 1946.

The democratic elements, led by President Edvard Beneš, hoped the Soviet Union would allow Czechoslovakia the freedom to choose its own form of government and aspired to a Czechoslovakia that would act as a bridge between East and West. Communists secured strong representation in the popularly electedNational Committees, the new organs of local administration. In the May 1946 election, the KSČ won most of the popular vote in the Czech part of the bi-ethnic country (40.17%), and the more or less anti-Communist Democratic Party won in Slovakia (62%).

In sum, however, the KSČ only won a plurality of 38 percent of the vote at countrywide level. Edvard Beneš continued as president of the republic, whereas the Communist leaderKlement Gottwald became prime minister. Most importantly, although the communists held only a minority of portfolios, they were able to gain control over most of the key ministries (Ministry of the Interior, etc.)

Although the communist-led government initially intended to participate in theMarshall Plan, it was forced by theKremlin to back out.^[28] In 1947, Stalin summoned Gottwald to Moscow; upon his return to Prague, the KSČ demonstrated a significant radicalization of its tactics. On 20 February 1948, the twelve non-communist ministers resigned, in part to induce Beneš to call for early elections; however Beneš refused to accept the cabinet resignations and did not call elections. In the meantime, the KSČ marshalled its forces for theCzechoslovak coup d'état of 1948. The communist-controlled Ministry of the Interior deployed police regiments to sensitive areas and equipped a workers' militia. On 25 February Beneš, perhaps fearing Soviet intervention, capitulated. He accepted the resignations of the dissident ministers and received a new cabinet list from Gottwald, thus completing the communist takeover under the cover of superficial legality.

On 10 March 1948, the moderate foreign minister of the government,Jan Masaryk, was found dead in suspicious circumstances that have still not been definitively proved to constitute either suicide or political assassination.

In February 1948, the Communists took power in the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, and Edvard Beneš inaugurated a new cabinet led byKlement Gottwald.Czechoslovakia was declared a "people's democracy" (until 1960) – a preliminary step towards socialism and, ultimately, communism. Bureaucraticcentralism under the direction of KSČ leadership was introduced.Dissident elements were purged from all levels of society, including theRoman Catholic Church. The ideological principles ofMarxism-Leninism andsocialist realism pervaded cultural and intellectual life.

The economy was committed to comprehensivecentral planning and the abolition of private ownership of capital. Czechoslovakia became asatellite state of the Soviet Union; it was a founding member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1949 and of theWarsaw Pact in 1955. The attainment of Soviet-style commandsocialism became the government's avowed policy.

Slovak autonomy was constrained; theCommunist Party of Slovakia (KSS) was reunited with the KSČ (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), but retained its own identity. Following the Soviet example, Czechoslovakia began emphasizing the rapid development of heavy industry. Although Czechoslovakia's industrial growth of 170 percent between 1948 and 1957 was impressive, it was far exceeded by that ofJapan (300 percent) and theFederal Republic of Germany (almost 300 percent) and more than equaled byAustria andGreece.

Beneš refused to sign the Communist Constitution of 1948 (theNinth-of-May Constitution) and resigned from the presidency; he was succeeded byKlement Gottwald. Gottwald died in March 1953. He was succeeded byAntonín Zápotocký as president and byAntonín Novotný as head of the KSČ.

In June 1953, thousands of workers inPlzeň went on strike to demonstrate against a currency reform that was considered a move to solidify Soviet socialism in Czechoslovakia.^[29] The demonstrations ended without significant bloodshed, disappointing AmericanDirector of Central IntelligenceAllen Dulles, who wished for a pretext to help the Czechoslovak people resist the Soviets.^[30] For more than a decade thereafter, the Czechoslovak communist political structure was characterized by the orthodoxy of the leadership of party chief Antonín Novotný, who became president in 1957 when Zápotocký died.

In 1950 the government executed Operations K and R, two secret actions carried out by the Communist regime. Operation K targeted male religious orders on April 13–14, while Operation Ř focused on female orders in two waves between July and September. The goal was to dismantle monastic life, seize church property, and place religious institutions under state control.^[31][32][33] In the 1950s, theStalinists accused their opponents of "conspiracy against the people's democratic order" and "high treason" in order to oust them from positions of power. In all, the Communist Party tried 14 of its former leaders in November 1952 and sentenced 11 to death. Large-scale arrests of Communists and socialists with an "international" background, i.e., those with a wartime connection with the West, veterans of theSpanish Civil War,Jews, and Slovak "bourgeoisnationalists," were followed byshow trials. The outcome of these trials, serving the communist propaganda, was often known in advance and the penalties were extremely heavy, such as in the case ofMilada Horáková, who was sentenced to death together with Jan Buchal,Záviš Kalandra and Oldřich Pecl.^[34]

The1960 Constitution declared the victory of socialism and proclaimed the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR).

De-Stalinization had a late start in Czechoslovakia. In the early 1960s, the Czechoslovak economy became severely stagnant. The industrial growth rate was the lowest in Eastern Europe. As a result, in 1965, the party approved theNew Economic Model, introducingfree market elements into the economy. The KSČ "Theses" of December 1965 presented the party response to the call for political reform.Democratic centralism was redefined, placing a stronger emphasis on democracy. The leading role of the KSČ was reaffirmed, but limited. Slovaks pressed forfederalization. On 5 January 1968, the KSČ Central Committee electedAlexander Dubček, a Slovak reformer, to replace Novotný as first secretary of the KSČ. On 22 March 1968, Novotný resigned from the presidency and was succeeded by GeneralLudvík Svoboda.

Dubček carried the reform movement a step further in the direction of liberalism. After Novotný's fall, censorship was lifted. The press, radio, and television were mobilized for reformist propaganda purposes. The movement to democratize socialism in Czechoslovakia, formerly confined largely to the party intelligentsia, acquired a new, popular dynamism in the spring of 1968 (the "Prague Spring"). Radical elements found expression; anti-Soviet polemics appeared in the press; theSocial Democrats began to form a separate party; and new unaffiliated political clubs were created.

Party conservatives urged the implementation of repressive measures, but Dubček counseled moderation and re-emphasized KSČ leadership. In addition, the Dubček leadership called for politico-military changes in the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact andCouncil for Mutual Economic Assistance. The leadership affirmed its loyalty to socialism and the Warsaw Pact, but also expressed the desire to improve relations with all countries of the world, regardless of their social systems.

A program adopted in April 1968 set guidelines for a modern, humanistic socialist democracy that would guarantee, among other things, freedom of religion, press, assembly, speech, and travel, a program that, in Dubček's words, would give socialism "a human face." After 20 years of little public participation, the population gradually started to take interest in the government, and Dubček became a truly popular national figure.

The internal reforms and foreign policy statements of the Dubček leadership created great concern among some other Warsaw Pact governments. As a result, the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries (except forRomania) mounted aSoviet invasion of Czechoslovakia during the night of 20–21 August 1968. Two-thirds of the KSČ Central Committee opposed the Soviet intervention. Popular opposition was expressed in numerous spontaneous acts of non-violent resistance. In Prague and other cities throughout the republic, Czechs and Slovaks greeted Warsaw Pact soldiers with arguments and reproaches.

The Czechoslovak Government declared that the Warsaw Pact troops had not been invited into the country and that their invasion was a violation of socialist principles, international law, and theUN Charter. Dubček, who had been arrested on the night of 20 August, was taken to Moscow for negotiations. The outcome was theBrezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty, which provided for the strengthening of the KSČ, strict party control of the media, and the suppression of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party.

The principal Czechoslovak reformers were forcibly and secretly taken to the Soviet Union, where they signed a treaty that provided for the "temporary stationing" of an unspecified number of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. Dubček was removed as party First Secretary on 17 April 1969, and replaced by another Slovak,Gustáv Husák. Later, Dubček and many of his allies within the party were stripped of their party positions in a purge that lasted until 1971 and reduced party membership by almost one-third.

On 19 January 1969, the studentJan Palach set himself on fire in Prague'sWenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union. His death shocked many observers throughout the world.

The Slovak part of Czechoslovakia made major gains in industrial production in the 1960s and 1970s. By the 1970s, its industrial production was near parity with that of theCzech lands. Slovakia's portion of per capitanational income rose from slightly more than 60 percent of that of Bohemia and Moravia in 1948 to nearly 80 percent in 1968, and Slovak per capitaearning power equaled that of the Czechs in 1971. The pace of Slovak economic growth has continued to exceed that of Czech growth to the present day (2003).

Dubcek remained in office only until April 1969.Gustáv Husák (a centrist, and one of the Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" imprisoned by his own KSČ in the 1950s) was named first secretary (title changed to general secretary in 1971). A program of "Normalization" – the restoration of continuity with the prereform period—was initiated. Normalization entailed thoroughgoing political repression and the return to ideological conformity. A new purge cleansed the Czechoslovak leadership of all reformist elements.

Anti-Soviet demonstrations in August 1969 ushered in a period of harsh repression. The 1970s and 1980s became known as the period of "normalization," in which the apologists for the 1968 Soviet invasion prevented, as best they could, any opposition to their conservative regime. Political, social, and economic life stagnated. The population, cowed by the "normalization," was quiet. The only point required during thePrague Spring that was achieved was thefederalization of the country (as of 1969), which however was more or less only formal under the normalization. The newly created Federal Assembly (i.e., federal parliament), which replaced the National Assembly, was to work in close cooperation with theCzech National Council and theSlovak National Council (i.e., national parliaments).

In 1975, Gustáv Husák added the position of president to his post as party chief. The Husák regime required conformity and obedience in all aspects of life. Husák also tried to obtain acquiescence to his rule by providing an improved standard of living. He returned Czechoslovakia to an orthodox command economy with a heavy emphasis oncentral planning and continued to extendindustrialization.

For a while the policy seemed successful; the 1980s, however, were more or less a period of economic stagnation. Another feature of Husák's rule was a continued dependence on the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, approximately 50 percent of Czechoslovakia's foreign trade was with the Soviet Union, and almost 80 percent was with communist countries.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, the regime was challenged by individuals and organized groups aspiring to independent thinking and activity. The first organized opposition emerged under the umbrella of Charter 77. On 6 January 1977, a manifesto calledCharter 77 appeared in West German newspapers. The original manifesto reportedly was signed by 243 persons; among them were artists, former public officials, and other prominent figures.

The Charter had over 800 signatures by the end of 1977, including workers and youth. It criticized the government for failing to implement human rights provisions of documents it had signed, including the state's own constitution; international covenants on political, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights; and the Final Act of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Although not organized in any real sense, the signatories of Charter 77 constituted a citizens' initiative aimed at inducing the Czechoslovak Government to observe formal obligations to respect the human rights of its citizens.

Signatories were arrested and interrogated; dismissal from employment often followed. Because religion offered possibilities for thought and activities independent of the state, it too was severely restricted and controlled. Clergymen were required to be licensed. Unlike in Poland, dissent and independent activity were limited in Czechoslovakia to a fairly small segment of the population. Many Czechs and Slovaks emigrated to the West.

Although, in March 1987, Husák nominally committed Czechoslovakia to follow the program ofMikhail Gorbachev'sperestroika, it did not happen much in reality. On 17 December 1987, Husák, who was one month away from his seventy-fifth birthday, had resigned as head of the KSČ. He retained, however, his post of president of Czechoslovakia and his full membership on the Presidium of the KSČ.Miloš Jakeš, who replaced Husák as first secretary of the KSČ, did not change anything. The slow pace of the Czechoslovak reform movement was an irritant to the Soviet leadership.

The first anti-Communist demonstration took place on 25 March 1988 inBratislava (theCandle demonstration in Bratislava). It was an unauthorized peaceful gathering of some 2,000 (other sources 10,000) Roman Catholics. Demonstrations also occurred on 21 August 1988 (the anniversary of the Soviet intervention in 1968) in Prague, on 28 October 1988 (establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918) in Prague, Bratislava and some other towns, in January 1989 (death ofJan Palach on 16 January 1969), on 21 August 1989 (see above) and on 28 October 1989 (see above).

Theanti-Communist revolution started on 16 November 1989 in Bratislava, with a demonstration of Slovak university students for democracy, and continued with the well-known similar demonstration of Czech students in Prague on 17 November.

On 17 November 1989, the communist police violently broke up a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration,^[35] brutally beating many student participants. In the following days, Charter 77 and other groups united to become theCivic Forum, an umbrella group championing bureaucratic reform and civil liberties. Its leader was the dissident playwrightVáclav Havel. Intentionally eschewing the label "party", a word given a negative connotation during the previous regime, Civic Forum quickly gained the support of millions of Czechs, as did its Slovak counterpart,Public Against Violence.

Faced with an overwhelming popular repudiation, the Communist Party all but collapsed. Its leaders, Husák and party chiefMiloš Jakeš, resigned in December 1989, and Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 29 December. The astonishing quickness of these events was in part due to the unpopularity of the communist regime and changes in the policies of its Soviet guarantor as well as to the rapid, effective organization of these public initiatives into a viable opposition.

TheLadislav Adamec government governed 12 October 1988 until 10 December 1989.Adamec resigned on 7 December andMarián Čalfa became an interim. On 10 December,Gustáv Husák, longtermLeader of Czechoslovakia, appointed a government led by Čalfa (de). It was coalition government and the first government in which the Communist Party had a minority of ministerial positions.
The first free elections in Czechoslovakia since 1946took place on 8/9 June 1990 without incident. Population voting was 96.69%. As anticipated, Civic Forum and Public Against Violence won landslide victories in their respective republics and gained a comfortable majority in the federal parliament. The parliament undertook substantial steps toward securing the democratic evolution of Czechoslovakia. It successfully moved toward fair local elections in November 1990, ensuring fundamental change at the county and town level.

Civic Forum found, however, that although it had successfully completed its primary objective—the overthrow of the communist regime—it was ineffectual as a governing party. The demise of Civic Forum was viewed by most as necessary and inevitable.^{[citation needed]}

By the end of 1990, unofficial parliamentary "clubs" had evolved with distinct political agendas. Most influential was the Civic Democratic Party, headed byVáclav Klaus. Other notable parties that came into being after the split were theCzech Social Democratic Party,Civic Movement, andCivic Democratic Alliance.

By 1992, Slovak calls for greater autonomy effectively blocked the daily functioning of the federal government. In theelection of June 1992, Klaus's Civic Democratic Party won handily in the Czech lands on a platform of economic reform.Vladimír Mečiar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia emerged as the leading party in Slovakia, basing its appeal on fairness to Slovak demands for autonomy. Federalists, like Havel, were unable to contain the trend toward the split. On 20 July 1992,President Havel resigned. In the latter half of 1992, Klaus and Mečiar hammered out an agreement that the two republics would go their separate ways by the end of 1992.

Members of Czechoslovakia's parliament (the Federal Assembly), divided along national lines,^[36] barely cooperated enough to pass the law officially separating the two nations in late 1992. On 1 January 1993, theCzech Republic andSlovakia were simultaneously and peacefully established as independent states.

Relationships between the two states, despite occasional disputes about the division of federal property and the governing of the border, have been peaceful. Both states attained immediatediplomatic recognition from their European neighbors and the US.

At the time of thecommunist takeover, Czechoslovakia was devastated by WWII. Almost 1 million people, out of a prewar population of 15 million, had been killed.^{[citation needed]} An additional3 million Germans were expelled in 1945 and 1946.^[37]From 14 June 1948 until his death (14 March 1953),Klement Gottwald wasPresident of Czechoslovakia.His government began to stressheavy industry over agricultural and consumer goods and services. Many basic industries and foreign trade, as well as domestic wholesale trade, had been nationalized before the communists took power.Nationalization of most of the retail trade was completed in 1950–1951.^{[citation needed]}

Heavy industry received major economic support during the 1950s. Although the labor force was traditionally skilled and efficient, inadequate incentives for labor and management contributed to high labor turnover, low productivity, and poor product quality. Economic failures reached a critical stage in the 1960s, after which various reform measures were sought with no satisfactory results.^{[citation needed]}

Hope for wide-ranging economic reform came withAlexander Dubcek's rise in January 1968. Despite renewed efforts, however, Czechoslovakia could not come to grips with inflationary forces, much less begin the immense task of correcting the economy's basic problems.^{[citation needed]}

The economy saw growth during the 1970s but thenstagnated between 1978 and 1982.^{[citation needed]} Attempts at revitalizing it in the1980s with management and worker incentive programs were largely unsuccessful. The economy grew after 1982, achieving an annual average output growth of more than 3% between 1983 and 1985.^{[citation needed]} Imports fromWestern countries were curtailed, exports boosted, andhard currency debt reduced substantially. New investment was made in the electronic, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors, which were industry leaders in eastern Europe in the mid-1980s.

• History of the Czech lands
• History of the Czech Republic
• History of Slovakia

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHistory of Czechoslovakia.

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• Cabada, Ladislav, and Sarka Waisova,Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in World Politics (Lexington Books; 2012), foreign policy 1918 to 2010
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• Ash, Timothy Garton.We the People by Granta Books, 1990ISBN 0-14-014023-9,
• Echikson, William.Lighting the Night: Revolution in Eastern Europe Pan Books, 1990ISBN 0-330-31825-X
• Simpson, John.Despatches from the Barricades Hutchinson, 1990ISBN 0-09-174582-9
• Heimann, Mary.Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed 2009ISBN 0-300-14147-5
• Skilling Gordon. 'Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution', Princeton University Press 1976,ISBN 0-691-05234-4
• Tauchen, Jaromír – Schelle, Karel etc.The Process of Democratization of Law in the Czech Republic (1989–2009). Rincon (USA), The American Institute for Central European Legal Studies 2009. 204 pp. (ISBN 978-0-615-31580-5)

• Abrams, Bradley F.The struggle for the soul of the nation: Czech culture and the rise of communism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
• Agnew, Hugh LeCaine.Origins of the Czech National Renascence (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994).
• Beck, Dennis C. "Setting the Stage for Revolution: The Efficacy of Czech Theatre, 1975–1989."Theatre Survey 44.2 (2003): 199–219.
• Beck, Dennis C. "Dissident patriotism: subverting the State by excavating the nation in "normalized" Czechoslovakia."Toronto Slavic Quarterly 9: 200+online.
• Cohen, Gary B. "Cultural crossings in Prague, 1900: scenes from late Imperial Austria."Austrian History Yearbook 45 (2014): 1-30.
• Filipova, Marta. "The construction of national identity in the historiography of Czech art." (PhD diss., University of Glasgow, 2009).
• Katz, Derek.Janáček beyond the Borders (U of Rochester Press, 2009).
• Kohák, Erazim.Hearth and Horizon: Cultural Identity and Global Humanity in Czech Philosophy (Filosofia 2008,ISBN 978-80-7007-285-1)
• McFadden, Becka. "Theft, Contestation and Affirmation in Contemporary Czech Theatre: Krepsko's Ukradené ovace (The Stolen Ovation)."Performance Research 19.2 (2014): 126–134.
• McShane, Roger Burnham, and Stanley Buchholz Kimball.Czech nationalism: a study of the national theatre movement, 1845-83 (U of Illinois Press, 1964).
• Nolte, Claire.The Sokol in the Czech Lands to 1914: training for the nation (Springer, 2002).
• Paces, Cynthia Jean. "Religious images and national symbols in the creation of Czech identity, 1890-1938" (PhD thesis . Columbia University, 1998).
• Seton-Watson, Robert William.Racial problems in Hungary (1908)full text online
• Teichová, Alice.The Czechoslovak Economy 1918-1980 (1988)
• Wingfield, Nancy M.Flag Wars & Stone Saints: How the Bohemian Lands Became Czech (2007), 353pp.

• History of Czechoslovakia

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