Der Einzug des Kommunismus in die Tschechoslowakei 1948 im mitteleuropäischen Kontext
| Title in English | Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in 1948 in a Central European context |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Löwe und Adler : Aspekte der böhmischen und mährischen Geschichte im europäischen Kontext |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://chronos-verlag.ch/node/28501#kurztext |
| Keywords | Communism; Czechoslovakia; Communist takeover; Communist party of Czechoslovakia |
| Description | The date February 25, 1948 symbolizes the end of freedom and democracy in Czechoslovakia in Czech historical consciousness. In the years 1948-1949, the so-called Victory February was one of the most important dates in the communist calendar. To this day, the symbolic meaning of this landmark tends to obscure the fact that the rise of the communist dictatorship was much more a process than a revolutionary event, and that democracy had already suffered a number of major defeats before, especially during the period of the so-called Third Republic in the years 1945-1948. To this day, there are also theses in the media that the handover of power took place in 1948 by constitutional means, although historical research has long since disproved this and convicted the Communist Party on the way to power of a number of illegalities. The basic problems are recapitulated in the text in the form of theses and emphasized, among other things, against the background of a comparison with parallel developments in neighboring Austria. The post does not reveal unknown facts, but it does draw attention to some less known and interesting aspects with the hope that they will provide inspiration for further thinking. Faced with growing populism, thinking about "February 1948" is also taking on a current dimension not only in Central Europe. It particularly concerns the question to what extent contemporaries can recognize in time the gradual decay of democracy and the onset of dictatorship. Therefore, the text also focuses on the behavior and fate of some actors not only during the Czechoslovak February crisis, but also after its resolution, during the time when the new conditions were being established and were gradually accepted. In this context, it is also interesting how the leadership of the Communist Party itself reacted to the events of February and their legitimization with a short distance. |