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5: CASE STUDY 2: THE CZECH/AUSTRIAN BORDER
fortunate position during the negotiations in Moscow and subsequently in
the running of the new Third Czechoslovak Republic (Innes 2001:21).
The fact that the communist groups played an important role in the
resistance movements during the war also seemed to give them a moral
advantage and respect (Shepherd 2000:21). This combined with general
feelings that they had been let down by the West in Munich and the Red
Army’s liberation of the country helped to spread support for communism.
During elections in 1946 the Communist Party won 38 percent of the votes
and became the largest party and with that gained the most important posts
within the government. Edvard Beneš was elected president. Ahead of the
1948 elections, however, the support for the communists appeared to have
fallen and in order not to lose the election the party managed to stage a
coup d’état which resulted in a 90 percent win for the party. Beneš retired
and Klement Gottwald took on the role as president (Lund 1992:17, Leff
1997:49) The Communist Party soon took control of many of the state’s
functions such as the police, security forces and the media. Political opposition
was brutally fought with tens of thousands sent to prison or work
camps during the 1950s. Travel outside the country became strictly
controlled and for many impossible (Shepherd 2000:22–24). Following
Stalin’s death and the condemnation of his politics by Khruschchev at the
Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1956 there was
a general thawing of communist policies throughout the Eastern Bloc. This
also happened in Czechoslovakia although at a slightly slower rate than in
other states. 1961 saw the release of thousands of political prisoners and
censorship was somewhat relaxed (Shepherd 2000:24–26). The election of a
Slovak as First Secretary of the Party, Alexander Dubček, in 1968 and the
following line of reform which declared a new political climate of “socialism
with a human face” was presented in April 1968 (Lund 1992:17). The
reforms, referred to as the ‘Prague Spring’, were to include freedom of
media and speech and a move away from planned economy and Stalinism.
But these reforms put strain on the relationship with Soviet and on the 21 st
August 1968 Soviet tanks rolled onto the streets of Prague in an invasion
aimed at reeling the power back in. The so called ‘Normalisation’ that was
imposed on Czechoslovakia forced the reformists out of the party and led to
a more totalitarian system (Shepherd 2000:30–31). This normalisation
which was dominant in the 1970s and 1980s meant a return to the policies
that the 1968 reforms were to change. Many of the people at the party’s top
were forced to resign and given other jobs. Dubček, for example, was given
the job as forest worker in Slovakia (Lund 1992:18). A resistance movement,
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