Czech History
• 500
- 1306: The Great Moravian Empire and the Přemyslid Dynasty
• 1310 - 1378: John of Luxembourg
and Charles IV
• 1415 - 1526: The Hussite Era
and George of Poděbrady
• 1526 - 1790: The Habsburg
Dynasty to Joseph II
• 1790 - 1914: National
Revival
to World War I
• 1918 - 1945: The First Republic
and World War II
• 1945 - 1989: The Communist
Era
• 1989 - present: Velvet
Revolution and Beyond
Soon after WWII, the power in the country
went largely to the hands of the Communist
Party and the
first wave of nationwide nationalization of the industry
and
other
areas
of the economy took place. At the same time, some two million
Germans were expelled from the country and their property
was confiscated.
The Communist Party seized complete power
after the coup d'etat on February 25, 1948. This event marked
the start of the Communist totalitarian regime that lasted
until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. A second wave of nationalization
took place and 95% of all privately owned companies became
the property of the state. There were a number of political
trials and executions in the following several years. The
economy went steadily down under the socialist regime.
Basic human rights were
suppressed.
The 1960s were a time of greater political
and cultural freedom and changes were made in the Communist
Party itself. Alexander Dubček,
secretary of the Communist Party, attempted to create
a more humane version of socialism, "socialism with
a human face", that would guarantee
people's basic rights and reduce the amount of political
persecution in the country. The changes culminated in the
spring of 1968 (known as "Prague
Spring") when changes reached the government.
The growing political freedoms in Czechoslovakia were seen
as a threat by the Soviet Union. On August 21, 1968,
five
Warsaw
Pact member countries invaded Czechoslovakia and Soviet troops
continued to occupy the country until 1989.
The period
from 1968 to mid-1980s was the period of "normalization",
the purpose of which was to put things back to the
way they were before the attempted Prague Spring reform.
Any sign of disapproval of the regime was persecuted and
opposition moved underground or became limited to isolate
acts of protest, such as the suicide of Jan Palach, student
of Charles University, who lit himself on fire on Prague's
Wenceslas Square in January 1969.
- Captive
University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech,
and Polish
Higher Education, 1945-1956
- The
Prague Spring and its Aftermath: Czechoslovak Politics,
1968-1970
- The
Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patočka
to Havel...
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