Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

The government in crisis and the Communist power taking over
The main change for the newly growing Eastern Bloc was in 1947. In this year the relations
among the Great Powers became tenser and Communists were openly and secretively getting
ready to take over. The good picture of this was, “The story of accepting and refusing the Marshal
Plan” in July 1947. The U.S.A. decided to support European Democracy and Economies. In June
1947 the Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, introduced the new plan for economic help to
countries destroyed from war. Czechoslovakia also wanted to participate because it could foresee
the great and fast regeneration of the economy. So it accepted the program’s invitation to Paris.
The Soviet Union refused to participate in this plan and that meant that the Czechoslovakian foreign
policies were standing against the policies of the Soviet Union. The decisions in participating
determined the country’s development for many years and decided on which side the country
will ally itself with. On July 9 the Czechoslovakian delegation, composed of Klement Gottwald,
Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, Minister of Justice Prokop Drtina, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Arnošt Heidrich, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister Reiman, and the Ambassador
Borek left. On the same day at 11pm they were accepted at Stalin’s office. This night ended with
the Kremlin’s ultimatum. If Czechoslovakia does not call off its agreement with the Marshall Plan
by July 10, at 4 p.m. there will be serious consequences between the relations for both countries.
One thing was Stalin threatening with ultimatums, but the final decision was decided by the
Czechoslovakian government. A special meeting was called right in the early morning on July 10.
After a long procedure the Czechoslovakian government called off the invitation to Paris. Jan
Masaryk, the son of the first Czechoslovakian President, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, commented
after returning from Moscow, “To Moscow I left as a Czechoslovakian Minister, but I came back
as Stalin’s plowboy.” Accepting Stalin’s ulitimatum, Czechoslovakia came under the power of
Moscow and it was just a matter of time when the last remains of democratic principles would be
taken away and when the country would fall under the dictation of the “Proletariat.”
In the fight for power the Communist Party used the secret state police as its main support.
This secret state police was under the control of the Communist Party. On February 17, 1948
the government crisis started in Czechoslovakia. The big meeting of government started in the
morning. The main point of the program was a report from the Minister of Justice. This report
was connected with government’s resolution that was given out on February 13 and gave commands
to the Communist Minister of Internal Affairs to stop the personnel changes in state
police. It was connected with eight non-Communist officers who were supposed to be transferred
to other positions. This government resolution was not fulfilled and so the Ministers of
three non-Communist parties: National Social Party, People’s Party, and the Democratic Party
decided to resign. They were relying on the fact that they would be supported by another
party, the Social Democrats and also by the President, who could refuse their resignation or
rename a caretaker government. However, the Communists used other instruments, the whole
party “mobilized” and started to strongly influence the public. So one part of the population
was threatened and the other part was supporting its politics. The whole crisis then started to
snowball, after one week everything was settled. The Communist party became the leading
political power in Czechoslovakia.
During this big week in February new powerful organs started to establish themselves and
they were called the Action Committees of the National Front. Their members were mainly
Communist and they were destroying the positions of their political rivals. In factories the Peo-
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