Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Encyclopedia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa (KSČ) was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia
that existed between 1921 and 1992.
In the Act on Lawlessness of the Communist Regime and on Resistance Against It, passed 1993 in the Czech Republic, the party was declared as a criminal organization.
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May 14–16 1921. Rudé právo
, previously the organ of the Left Social-Democrats, became the main organ of the new party. The party was one of some twenty political parties that competed within the democratic framework of the First Czechoslovak Republic but it was never in government. In 1925 parliamentary election
party gained 934 223 votes (13,2 %, 2nd place) and 41 mandates.
In 1929 Klement Gottwald
became the Secretary General of the party after the purging from it of various oppositional elements some of whom allied themselves to Leon Trotsky
and the International Left Opposition. Gottwald became known for a speech he made in the Czech parliament in which he revealed the party's aims: "We are the party of the Czech proletariat and our central is really Moscow. And we go to Moscow to learn, you know what? We go to learn from the Russian Bolshevik
s how to wring your neck. And you know that the Russian Bolsheviks are masters in that... You will not laugh anymore!" In 1929 parliamentary election
party gained 753 220 votes (10,2 %, 4th place) and 30 mandates. In 1935 parliamentary election
party held its 30 mandates with 849 495 votes (10,32 %, 4th place).
The party was banned in October 1938.
The party was the Czechoslovak section of the Communist International. As of 1928 the party was the second-largest section of the International, with an estimated membership of around 138 000.
During World War II
many KSČ leaders sought refuge in the Soviet Union
, where they prepared to broaden the party's power base once the war ended. In the early postwar period the Soviet-supported Czechoslovak communists launched a sustained drive that culminated in their seizure of power in 1948. Once in control, the KSČ developed an organizational structure and mode of rule patterned closely after those of the CPSU
.
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was in a coalition government from 1945 to 1948. Following the Communist coup d'état of 1948
, when free elections and other political freedoms were effectively abolished, power was formally held by the National Front
, a coalition in which the KSČ held two-thirds of the seats while the remaining one-third were shared among five other political parties. However, the KSČ held a de facto absolute monopoly on political power, and the other parties within the National Front were little more than auxiliaries. Even the governmental structure of Czechoslovakia existed primarily to implement policy decisions made within the KSČ. This was primarily achieved by placing KSČ members in all policy-making positions within the government.
A dispute broke out between government leader Klement Gottwald
and the General Secretary
of the party, Rudolf Slánský
, over the extent to which Czechoslovakia should conform with the Soviet
model. In 1951, Slánský and several other senior Communists were arrested and charged with participating in a "Trotskyite
-Titoite-Zionist
conspiracy". They were subjected to a show trial
in 1952 (the Prague Trials) and Slánský and 10 other defendants were executed.
In the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia underwent an economic downturn, and in 1968, the KSČ was taken over by reformers led by Alexander Dubček
. He started a period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring
in which he attempted to implement "socialism with a human face".
This liberalization alarmed the Soviet Union
and on 21 August 1968, the Soviets invoked the Brezhnev Doctrine
and invaded Czechoslovakia.
) and was expelled in 1970. During the following Normalization
period, Gustáv Husák successfully ruled over what was essentially a coalition of the moderate and hard-line factions within the top party leadership. These two main party factions are presented below:
wing of the KSČ leadership. As a moderate or pragmatic, he was pressed by hardliners (Vasil Biľak
). An important Slovak Communist Party functionary from 1943 to 1950, Husák was arrested in 1951 and sentenced to three years — later increased to life imprisonment — for "bourgeois nationalism" during the Stalinist purges of the era. Released in 1960 and rehabilitated in 1963, Husák refused any political position in Antonín Novotný
's régime but after Novotný's fall he became deputy prime minister during the Prague Spring
. After Dubček's resignation Husák was named KSČ First Secretary in April 1969 and president of the republic in July 1975. Above all, Husák was a survivor who learned to accommodate the powerful political forces surrounding him and he denounced Dubček after 1969.
Other prominent moderates/pragmatics who were still in power by 1987 included:
These leaders generally supported the reforms instituted under Dubček during the late 1960s but successfully made the transition to orthodox party rule following the invasion and Dubček's decline from power. Subsequently, they adopted a more flexible stance regarding economic reform and dissident activity.
These hardliners opposed economic and political reforms and took a harsh stand on dissent.
The party continued to exist even after the Velvet Revolution
in 1989. It changed its official abbreviation to KSČS. The party dissolved after Czechoslovakia ceased to exist on 31 December 1992. This led to the formation of successor parties in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia (see Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
and Communist Party of Slovakia
).
theory, the communist party represented the working class — the revolutionary proletariat
— whose interests it championed against those of the capitalist bourgeoisie
. The period between the fall of a bourgeois state and the attainment of communism is a subject on which Marx was reticent, describing only in general terms the establishment of a democratic socialist state, which would eventually begin to "wither away" (slowly turn into a form of direct democracy) until a communist society was achieved. Several decades later, Vladimir Lenin
, facing a real revolution and the possibility that the communist party might be able to seize power, put theoretical subtleties to the side. He suggested that the fall of the bourgeois state (a label of questionable accuracy when applied to tsarist Russia, if one forgets the February 1917 revolution) would be followed by a transitional state characterized by socialism
, soviet
democracy and communist party rule – the "dictatorship of the proletariat
."
, which provided for the election of party leaders at all levels but required that each level be fully subject to the control of the next higher unit. Accordingly, party programs and policies were directed from the top, and resolutions of higher organs were unconditionally binding on all lower organs and individual party members. In theory, policy matters were freely and openly discussed at congresses, conferences, and membership meetings and in the party press. In practice, however, these discussions merely reflected decisions made by a small contingent of top party officials.
) but not in the Czech Socialist Republic. The KSS emerged from World War II as a party distinct from the KSČ, but the two were united after the communist takeover in 1948. The reform movement of the 1960s advocated a return to a system of autonomous parties for the two republics. The Bureau for the Conduct of Party Work in the Czech Lands was created as a counterpart to the KSS, but it was suppressed after the 1968 invasion and by 1971 had been stricken from party records. The purely formal KSS remained, however, undoubtedly as a concession to the Slovaks.
and Bratislava
municipal party organs, because of their size, were given regional status within the KSČ. Regional conferences selected regional committees, which in turn selected a leading secretary, a number of secretaries, and a regional Supervisory and Auditing Commission.
Regional units were broken down into a total of 114 district-level (Czech: okresní) organizations. District conferences were held simultaneously every two to three years, at which time each conference selected a district committee that subsequently selected a secretariat to be headed by a district secretary.
Membership in the KSČ was contingent upon completion of an oneyear period as a candidate member. Candidate members could not vote or be elected to party committees. In addition to candidates for party membership, there were also candidates for party leadership groups from the local levels to the Presidium. These candidates, already party members, were considered interns training for the future assumption of particular leadership responsibilities.
, the history of communism, socialist economics, and the current party position on domestic and international affairs.
Members training for positions as party functionaries attended seminars at the schools for Marxism-Leninism set up in local areas or at the more advanced institutes for Marxism-Leninism found in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava. The highest level of party training was offered at the Advanced School of Politics in Prague. Designed to train the top echelon of the party leadership, the three-year curriculum had the official status of a university program and was said to be one of the best programs in political science in Eastern Europe. These institutions were under the direction of the KSČ Central Committee.
The average age of party members showed a comparable trend. In the late 1960s, fewer than 30 percent of party members were under thirty-five years of age, nearly 20 percent were over sixty, and roughly half were forty-six or older. The quip in 1971, a half-century after the party's founding in Czechoslovakia, was "After fifty years, a party of fifty-year-olds." There was a determined effort to attract younger members to the party in the middle to late 1970s; one strategy was to recruit children of parents who were KSČ members. The party sent letters to the youngsters' schools and their parents' employers, encouraging the children to join. By early 1980 approximately one-third of KSČ members were thirty-five years of age or younger. In 1983 the average age of the "leading cadre" was still estimated at fifty.
Several policies increased the social mobility of party members. Foremost was doubtless the process of nationalization, started after World War II, when scores of politically active workers assumed managerial-level positions. Periodic purges played a role as well, permitting the politically compliant to replace those less so. The numerous education programs offered by the KSČ for its members also represented a significant avenue of mobility, as did policies of preferential admissions to secondary schools and universities; these policies favored the children of workers and agricultural cooperative members especially.
It was hardly surprising that the KSČ membership guarded its perquisites. Aside from special shops, hotels, hospitals, and better housing for members, KSČ members stood a better chance of obtaining visas for study or travel abroad (especially to the West). Nonmembers realized that their possibilities for advancement in the workplace were severely limited. For anyone in a professional position, KSČ membership was a sine qua non
for promotion. Part of the decline in workers as a proportion of total membership resulted from the rapid increase in the number of intelligentsia joining the party soon after the communists took power. In the 1980s most economic managers, executives in public administration, and university professors were KSČ members.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
that existed between 1921 and 1992.
In the Act on Lawlessness of the Communist Regime and on Resistance Against It, passed 1993 in the Czech Republic, the party was declared as a criminal organization.
1921–1945
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was founded at the congress of the Czechoslovak Social-Democratic Party (Left), held in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
May 14–16 1921. Rudé právo
Rudé právo
Rudé právo was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia....
, previously the organ of the Left Social-Democrats, became the main organ of the new party. The party was one of some twenty political parties that competed within the democratic framework of the First Czechoslovak Republic but it was never in government. In 1925 parliamentary election
Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1925
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 15 November 1925. The result was a victory for the Republican Party of Agricultural and Smallholder People, which won 45 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 23 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 90.1% in the Chamber election and 77.3% for...
party gained 934 223 votes (13,2 %, 2nd place) and 41 mandates.
In 1929 Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...
became the Secretary General of the party after the purging from it of various oppositional elements some of whom allied themselves to Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and the International Left Opposition. Gottwald became known for a speech he made in the Czech parliament in which he revealed the party's aims: "We are the party of the Czech proletariat and our central is really Moscow. And we go to Moscow to learn, you know what? We go to learn from the Russian Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s how to wring your neck. And you know that the Russian Bolsheviks are masters in that... You will not laugh anymore!" In 1929 parliamentary election
Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1929
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 27 October 1929. The result was a victory for the Republican Party of Agricultural and Smallholder People, which won 46 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 90.2% in the Chamber election and 78.8% for...
party gained 753 220 votes (10,2 %, 4th place) and 30 mandates. In 1935 parliamentary election
Czechoslovakian parliamentary election, 1935
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 19 May 1935. The result was a victory for the newly established Sudeten German Party, which won 44 seats in the Chamber and 23 in the Senate. Funded by the German Nazi Party, it won over two-third of the vote amongst Sudeten Germans...
party held its 30 mandates with 849 495 votes (10,32 %, 4th place).
The party was banned in October 1938.
The party was the Czechoslovak section of the Communist International. As of 1928 the party was the second-largest section of the International, with an estimated membership of around 138 000.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
many KSČ leaders sought refuge in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where they prepared to broaden the party's power base once the war ended. In the early postwar period the Soviet-supported Czechoslovak communists launched a sustained drive that culminated in their seizure of power in 1948. Once in control, the KSČ developed an organizational structure and mode of rule patterned closely after those of the CPSU
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
.
1945–1969
Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948
The Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 – in Communist historiography known as "Victorious February" – was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, ushering in over four decades...
, when free elections and other political freedoms were effectively abolished, power was formally held by the National Front
National Front (Czechoslovakia)
The National Front was the coalition of parties which headed the re-established Czechoslovakian government from 1945 to 1948. During the Communist era in Czechoslovakia it was the vehicle for control of all political and social activity by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia...
, a coalition in which the KSČ held two-thirds of the seats while the remaining one-third were shared among five other political parties. However, the KSČ held a de facto absolute monopoly on political power, and the other parties within the National Front were little more than auxiliaries. Even the governmental structure of Czechoslovakia existed primarily to implement policy decisions made within the KSČ. This was primarily achieved by placing KSČ members in all policy-making positions within the government.
A dispute broke out between government leader Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...
and the General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
of the party, Rudolf Slánský
Rudolf Slánský
Rudolf Slánský was a Czech Communist politician. Holding the post of the party's General Secretary after World War II, he was one of the leading creators and organizers of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia...
, over the extent to which Czechoslovakia should conform with the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
model. In 1951, Slánský and several other senior Communists were arrested and charged with participating in a "Trotskyite
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
-Titoite-Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
conspiracy". They were subjected to a show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
in 1952 (the Prague Trials) and Slánský and 10 other defendants were executed.
In the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia underwent an economic downturn, and in 1968, the KSČ was taken over by reformers led by Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...
. He started a period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
in which he attempted to implement "socialism with a human face".
This liberalization alarmed the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and on 21 August 1968, the Soviets invoked the Brezhnev Doctrine
Brezhnev Doctrine
The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet Union foreign policy, first and most clearly outlined by S. Kovalev in a September 26, 1968 Pravda article, entitled “Sovereignty and the International Obligations of Socialist Countries.” Leonid Brezhnev reiterated it in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the...
and invaded Czechoslovakia.
1969–1992
In April 1969, Dubček lost the General Secretaryship (replaced by Gustáv HusákGustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák was a Slovak politician, president of Czechoslovakia and a long-term Communist leader of Czechoslovakia and of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia...
) and was expelled in 1970. During the following Normalization
Normalization (Czechoslovakia)
In the history of Czechoslovakia, normalization is a name commonly given to the period 1969 to about 1987. It was characterized by initial restoration of the conditions prevailing before the reform period led by Alexander Dubček , first of all, the firm rule of the Communist Party of...
period, Gustáv Husák successfully ruled over what was essentially a coalition of the moderate and hard-line factions within the top party leadership. These two main party factions are presented below:
Moderates or Pragmatics
The Moderates or Pragmatics were represented by Gustáv Husák who led the neostalinistNeo-Stalinism
Neo-Stalinism is a political term referring to attempts at rehabilitating the role of Joseph Stalin in history and re-establishing the political course of Stalin, at least partially. The term is also used to designate the modern political regimes in some states, political and social life of which...
wing of the KSČ leadership. As a moderate or pragmatic, he was pressed by hardliners (Vasil Biľak
Vasil Bilak
RSDr. Vasiľ Biľak is a former Slovak Communist leader of Rusyn origin.Vasiľ Biľak was originally a tailor...
). An important Slovak Communist Party functionary from 1943 to 1950, Husák was arrested in 1951 and sentenced to three years — later increased to life imprisonment — for "bourgeois nationalism" during the Stalinist purges of the era. Released in 1960 and rehabilitated in 1963, Husák refused any political position in Antonín Novotný
Antonín Novotný
Antonín Novotný was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, and also held the post of President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968. He was born in Letňany, now part of Prague....
's régime but after Novotný's fall he became deputy prime minister during the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
. After Dubček's resignation Husák was named KSČ First Secretary in April 1969 and president of the republic in July 1975. Above all, Husák was a survivor who learned to accommodate the powerful political forces surrounding him and he denounced Dubček after 1969.
Other prominent moderates/pragmatics who were still in power by 1987 included:
- Lubomír ŠtrougalLubomír ŠtrougalLubomír Štrougal is a former Czech politician and communist Czechoslovakia prime minister.After serving in Germany’s industry during the World War II he finished the law studies at the Charles University in Prague...
, Premier of Czechoslovakia; - Peter Colotka, Premier of the Slovak Socialist Republic;
- Jozef LenártJozef LenártJozef Lenárt was a Slovak politician.He graduated from a chemistry high school and worked for the Baťa company...
, First Secretary of the KSSKSSKSS can refer to:* Basketball Federation of Serbia * Communist Party of Slovakia * Kelowna Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada...
; and - Josef Kempný, Chairman of the Czech National CouncilCzech National CouncilThe Czech National Council was the legislative body of the Czech Republic from 1968 to 1992. It was created in 1968 to reflect the fact that Czechoslovakia became a federation. It was legally transformed into the Chamber of deputies according to the Constitution The Czech National Council was the...
.
These leaders generally supported the reforms instituted under Dubček during the late 1960s but successfully made the transition to orthodox party rule following the invasion and Dubček's decline from power. Subsequently, they adopted a more flexible stance regarding economic reform and dissident activity.
The Hardliners
Opposed to the moderates were the so-called hardliners:- Vasil BiľakVasil BilakRSDr. Vasiľ Biľak is a former Slovak Communist leader of Rusyn origin.Vasiľ Biľak was originally a tailor...
was their leader and a Ukrainian from Slovakia who had been a member of the Presidium since 1968 and was Chairman of the party's Ideological Commission - Karel Hoffman, a Central Committee Secretary and Presidium member;
- Antonín Kapek, Presidium member;
- Jan Fojtík, Secretary;
- Alois Indra, Presidium member and Chairman of the Federal Assembly (replaced the National Assembly under 1968 federation law); and
- Miloš Jakeš, Chairman of the Central Supervisory and Auditing Commission and Presidium member (replaced Gustáv Husák as general secretary of the KSČ in 1987).
These hardliners opposed economic and political reforms and took a harsh stand on dissent.
The party continued to exist even after the Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
in 1989. It changed its official abbreviation to KSČS. The party dissolved after Czechoslovakia ceased to exist on 31 December 1992. This led to the formation of successor parties in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia (see Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia , abbreviated to KSČM, is a political party in the Czech Republic. It has a membership of 82,994 and is a member party of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left bloc in the European Parliament...
and Communist Party of Slovakia
Communist Party of Slovakia
The Communist Party of Slovakia is a communist party in Slovakia, formed in 1992, through the merger of the Communist Party of Slovakia – 91 and the Communist League of Slovakia.According to Luboš Blaha the KSS supported the government of Robert Fico....
).
New party after 1995
In 1995 several former members of KSČ created a new party, first under name Strana československých komunistů, later renamed to Komunistická strana Československa. The program of this party is to re-establish the regime that existed in Czechoslovakia during 1948-89. Its current leader is Miroslav Štěpán, former leader of KSČ in Prague. The party is very small and so far none of its members have been voted into an office during elections. Party website (in Czech).Function
According to Marxist-LeninistMarxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
theory, the communist party represented the working class — the revolutionary proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
— whose interests it championed against those of the capitalist bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. The period between the fall of a bourgeois state and the attainment of communism is a subject on which Marx was reticent, describing only in general terms the establishment of a democratic socialist state, which would eventually begin to "wither away" (slowly turn into a form of direct democracy) until a communist society was achieved. Several decades later, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, facing a real revolution and the possibility that the communist party might be able to seize power, put theoretical subtleties to the side. He suggested that the fall of the bourgeois state (a label of questionable accuracy when applied to tsarist Russia, if one forgets the February 1917 revolution) would be followed by a transitional state characterized by socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, soviet
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
democracy and communist party rule – the "dictatorship of the proletariat
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
."
National Level
KSČ organization was based on the Leninist concept of democratic centralismDemocratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
, which provided for the election of party leaders at all levels but required that each level be fully subject to the control of the next higher unit. Accordingly, party programs and policies were directed from the top, and resolutions of higher organs were unconditionally binding on all lower organs and individual party members. In theory, policy matters were freely and openly discussed at congresses, conferences, and membership meetings and in the party press. In practice, however, these discussions merely reflected decisions made by a small contingent of top party officials.
- The supreme KSČ organ was the party congress, which normally convened every five years for a session lasting less than one week. An exception was made with respect to the Fourteenth Party Congress, which was held in August 1968 under DubčekAlexander DubcekAlexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...
's leadership. Held in semi-secrecy in a tractor factory in the opening days of the Soviet occupation, this congress denounced the invasion. This congress was subsequently declared illegal, its proceedings were stricken from party records, and a second, "legal" Fourteenth Party Congress was held in May 1971. The Fifteenth Party Congress was held in April 1976; the sixteenth, in April 1981; and the seventeenth, in March 1986. The party congress theoretically was responsible for making basic policy decisions; in practice, however, it was the Presidium of the Central Committee that held the decision-making and policy-making responsibilities. The congress merely endorsed the reports and directives of the top party leadership. The statutory duties assigned the party congress included determination of the party's domestic and foreign policies; approval of the party program and statutes; and election of the Central CommitteeCentral CommitteeCentral Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
and the Central Supervisory and Auditing Commission, as well as discussion and approval of their reports. - Between congresses the Central Committee of the KSČ was responsible for directing party activities and implementing general policy decisions. Party statutes also provided that the Central Committee functioned as the primary arm of KSČ control over the organs of the federal government and the republics, the National Front, and all cultural and professional organizations. Party members who held leading positions in these bodies were responsible directly to the Central Committee for the implementation of KSČ policies. In addition, the Central Committee screened nominations for all important government and party positions and selected the editor-in-chief of Rudé právoRudé právoRudé právo was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia....
, the principal party newspaper. The Central Committee generally met in full session at least twice a year. In 1976 (1986), the Central Committee had 115 (135) members and 45 (62) candidates, respectively. In terms of composition, the Central Committee normally included leading party and government officials, military officials, and a cross section of outstanding citizens. - The Central Committee, like the party congress, rarely acted as more than a rubber stamp of policy decisions made by the party Presidium of the Central Committee of the KSČ. As an exception to this rule, when factional infighting developed within the Presidium in 1968, the Central Committee assumed crucial importance in resolving the dispute and ousted First Secretary Novotný in favor of Alexander Dubček. Generally, decisions on which the Central Committee voted were reached beforehand so that votes taken at the sessions were unanimous. The Presidium, which conducted the work of the party between full committee sessions, formally was elected by the Central Committee; in reality, the top party leaders determined its composition. In 1986, there were 11 full members and 6 candidate members.
- The Secretariat of the Central Committee acted as the party's highest administrative authority and as the nerve center of the party's extensive control mechanism. The Secretariat supervised the implementation of decisions made in the Presidium, controlled the movement up and down the party ladder, and directed the work within the party and government apparatus. Under Gustáv Husák, the composition of the Secretariat, like that of the Presidium, remained rather constant. Many secretaries were also members of the Presidium.
- The Central Supervisory and Auditing Commission played a dual role, overseeing party discipline and supervising party finances, but it did not control anything. As an organ for the enforcement of party standards, the Central Supervisory and Auditing Commission frequently wielded its power to suspend or expel "deviant" party members. It was this commission that directed the massive purges in party membership during the early and late 1970s. Members were elected at each party congress (45 members in 1986). These members then elected from among themselves a chairman, deputy chairmen, and a small presidium. Sub-units of the commission existed at the republic, regional, and district levels of the party structure.
- Other KSČ commissions in 1987 included the People's Supervisory Commission, Agriculture and Food Commission, the Economic Commission, the Ideological Commission, and the Youth Commission.
- In 1987 the party also had 18 departments (agitation and propaganda; agriculture, food industry, forestry, and water management; Comecon cooperation; culture; economic administration; economics; education and science; elected state organs; external economic relations; fuels and energy; industry; transportation and communications; international affairs; mass media; political organization; science and technology; social organizations and national committees; state administration; and a general department). In most instances the party departments paralleled agencies and ministries of the government and supervised their activities to ensure conformity with KSČ norms and programs.
- Also under the supervision of the Central Committee were two party training centers--the Advanced School of Politics and the Institute of Marxism-Leninism (see below).
Republic level
At the republic level the party structure deviated from the government organization in that a separate communist party unit existed in the Slovak Socialist Republic (see Communist Party of SlovakiaCommunist Party of Slovakia
The Communist Party of Slovakia is a communist party in Slovakia, formed in 1992, through the merger of the Communist Party of Slovakia – 91 and the Communist League of Slovakia.According to Luboš Blaha the KSS supported the government of Robert Fico....
) but not in the Czech Socialist Republic. The KSS emerged from World War II as a party distinct from the KSČ, but the two were united after the communist takeover in 1948. The reform movement of the 1960s advocated a return to a system of autonomous parties for the two republics. The Bureau for the Conduct of Party Work in the Czech Lands was created as a counterpart to the KSS, but it was suppressed after the 1968 invasion and by 1971 had been stricken from party records. The purely formal KSS remained, however, undoubtedly as a concession to the Slovaks.
Regional level
The KSČ had ten regional subdivisions (seven in the Czech lands, three in Slovakia) identical to the kraje, the ten major governmental administrative divisions. In addition, however, the PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
municipal party organs, because of their size, were given regional status within the KSČ. Regional conferences selected regional committees, which in turn selected a leading secretary, a number of secretaries, and a regional Supervisory and Auditing Commission.
Regional units were broken down into a total of 114 district-level (Czech: okresní) organizations. District conferences were held simultaneously every two to three years, at which time each conference selected a district committee that subsequently selected a secretariat to be headed by a district secretary.
Local level
At the local level the KSČ was structured according to what it called the "territorial and production principle"; the basic party units were organized in work sites and residences where there are at least five KSČ members. In enterprises or communities where party membership was more numerous, the smaller units functioned under larger city, village, or factorywide committees. The highest authority of the local organization was, theoretically, the monthly membership meeting, attendance at which was a basic duty of every member. Each group selected its own leadership, consisting of a chairman and one or more secretaries. It also named delegates to the conference of the next higher unit, be it at the municipal (in the case of larger cities) or district level.Membership
Since assuming power in 1948, the KSČ had one of the largest per capita membership rolls in the communist world (11 percent of the population). The membership roll was often alleged by party ideologues to contain a large component of inactive, opportunistic, and "counterrevolutionary" elements. These charges were used on two occasions—between 1948 and 1950 and again between 1969 and 1971—as a pretext to conduct massive purges of the membership. In the first case, the great Stalinist purges, nearly 1 million members were removed; in the wake of the Prague Spring and subsequent invasion, about half that number either resigned or were purged from the KSČ. The purges after the 1968 invasion hit especially the Czechs, youth, blue-collar workers, and the intelligentsia within the party membership. As a result, recruitment was especially strong among youth and the working class during the 1970s. The party's membership efforts in the 1980s focused on recruiting politically and professionally well-qualified people willing to exercise greater activism in implementing the party's program. Party leaders at the Seventeenth Party Congress in 1986 urged the recruitment of more workers, young people, and women. In 1981 it had 1,538,179 members (10% of the population)Membership in the KSČ was contingent upon completion of an oneyear period as a candidate member. Candidate members could not vote or be elected to party committees. In addition to candidates for party membership, there were also candidates for party leadership groups from the local levels to the Presidium. These candidates, already party members, were considered interns training for the future assumption of particular leadership responsibilities.
Training of members
The indoctrination and training of party members was one of the basic responsibilities of the regional and district organizations, and most of the party training was conducted on these levels. The regional and district units worked with the local party organizations in setting up training programs and in determining which members would be enrolled in particular courses of study. On the whole, the system of party schooling changed little since it was established in 1949. The district or city organization provided weekly classes in the fundamentals of Marxism-LeninismMarxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
, the history of communism, socialist economics, and the current party position on domestic and international affairs.
Members training for positions as party functionaries attended seminars at the schools for Marxism-Leninism set up in local areas or at the more advanced institutes for Marxism-Leninism found in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava. The highest level of party training was offered at the Advanced School of Politics in Prague. Designed to train the top echelon of the party leadership, the three-year curriculum had the official status of a university program and was said to be one of the best programs in political science in Eastern Europe. These institutions were under the direction of the KSČ Central Committee.
Social composition of members
Because of the KSČ's mandate to be the workers' party, questions about the social background of party members took on a particular salience. The KSČ was often reticent with precise details about its members, and the question of how many in the party actually belonged to the revolutionary proletariat became a delicate one. Official statements appeared to overstate the percentage of workers within the party's ranks. Nonetheless, a number of trends were clear. The proportion of workers in the KSČ was at its highest (approximately 60 percent of the total membership) after World War II but before the party took power in 1948. After that time, the percentage of workers in the party fell steadily to a low of an estimated one-quarter of the membership in 1970. In the early 1970s, the official media decried the "grave imbalance," noting that "the present class and social structure of the party membership is not in conformity with the party's role as the vanguard of the working class." In highly industrialized central Bohemia, to cite one example, only one in every thirty-five workers was a party member, while one in every five administrators was. In 1976, after intensive efforts to recruit workers, the number of workers rose to one-third of the KSČ membership, i.e., approximately its 1962 level. In the 1980s, driven by the need for "intensive" economic development, the party relaxed its rigid rule about young workers' priority in admissions and allowed district and regional committees to be flexible in their recruitment policy, as long as the overall proportion of workers did not decrease.The average age of party members showed a comparable trend. In the late 1960s, fewer than 30 percent of party members were under thirty-five years of age, nearly 20 percent were over sixty, and roughly half were forty-six or older. The quip in 1971, a half-century after the party's founding in Czechoslovakia, was "After fifty years, a party of fifty-year-olds." There was a determined effort to attract younger members to the party in the middle to late 1970s; one strategy was to recruit children of parents who were KSČ members. The party sent letters to the youngsters' schools and their parents' employers, encouraging the children to join. By early 1980 approximately one-third of KSČ members were thirty-five years of age or younger. In 1983 the average age of the "leading cadre" was still estimated at fifty.
Lack of devotion of the members in the 1970s and 1980s
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the official media denounced party members' lack of devotion to the pursuit of KSČ policies and goals. Complaints ranged from members' refusal to display flags from their apartment windows on festive occasions to their failure to show up for party work brigades, attend meetings, or pay dues; a significant minority of members tended to underreport their incomes (the basis for assessing dues). In 1970, after a purge of approximately one-third of the membership, an average of less than one-half the remaining members attended meetings. Perhaps one-third of the members were consistently recalcitrant in participating in KSČ activities. In 1983 one primary party branch in the Prague-West district was so unmoved by admonishments that it had to be disbanded and its members dispersed among other organizations. In part, this was a measure of disaffection with Czechoslovakia's thoroughgoing subservience to Soviet hegemony, a Švejkian response to the lack of political economic autonomy. It was also a reflection of the purge's targets. Those expelled were often the ideologically motivated, the ones for whom developing socialism with a human face represented a significant goal; those who were simply opportunistic survived the purges more easily.The party as the ruling elite
Whatever the social composition of the party, it effectively functioned as a ruling elite–a group not known for self-abnegation. As an elite, it allowed the talented and/or politically agile significant mobility. Workers might have made up a minority of the party's membership, but many members (estimates vary from one-half to two-thirds) began their careers as workers. Although they tended to exaggerate their humble origins, many functionaries clearly came from the working class.Several policies increased the social mobility of party members. Foremost was doubtless the process of nationalization, started after World War II, when scores of politically active workers assumed managerial-level positions. Periodic purges played a role as well, permitting the politically compliant to replace those less so. The numerous education programs offered by the KSČ for its members also represented a significant avenue of mobility, as did policies of preferential admissions to secondary schools and universities; these policies favored the children of workers and agricultural cooperative members especially.
It was hardly surprising that the KSČ membership guarded its perquisites. Aside from special shops, hotels, hospitals, and better housing for members, KSČ members stood a better chance of obtaining visas for study or travel abroad (especially to the West). Nonmembers realized that their possibilities for advancement in the workplace were severely limited. For anyone in a professional position, KSČ membership was a sine qua non
Sine qua non
Sine qua non or condicio sine qua non refers to an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient...
for promotion. Part of the decline in workers as a proportion of total membership resulted from the rapid increase in the number of intelligentsia joining the party soon after the communists took power. In the 1980s most economic managers, executives in public administration, and university professors were KSČ members.
Leaders
Note: The KSČ leader was called Chairman (Předseda) 1945 - 1953, First Secretary (První tajemník) 1953-1971, and General Secretary (Generální tajemník) 1921 - 1945 and again 1971 - 1989- different persons (1921 - 1925)
- Bohumil Jílek (1925 - 1929)
- Klement GottwaldKlement GottwaldKlement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...
(1929 - 1953) - Antonín NovotnyAntonín NovotnýAntonín Novotný was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, and also held the post of President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968. He was born in Letňany, now part of Prague....
(1953 - 1968) - Alexander DubčekAlexander DubcekAlexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...
(1968 - 1969) - Gustáv HusákGustáv HusákGustáv Husák was a Slovak politician, president of Czechoslovakia and a long-term Communist leader of Czechoslovakia and of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia...
(1969 - 1987) - Miloš Jakeš (1987 - November 24, 1989)
- Karel UrbánekKarel UrbánekKarel Urbánek was the last Communist leader of Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution, between November and December 1989....
(November 25 - December 20, 1989) - Ladislav AdamecLadislav AdamecLadislav Adamec was a Czechoslovak Communist political figure. Upon the retirement of Prime Minister Lubomír Štrougal in October 1988, Adamec assumed the role, thus serving as the last Communist leader of Czechoslovakia. He served from October 12, 1988 to December 7, 1989...
(1989 - 1990) Chairman, Vasil Mohorita (1989 - 1990) First Secretary
See also
- Communist Party of Bohemia and MoraviaCommunist Party of Bohemia and MoraviaThe Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia , abbreviated to KSČM, is a political party in the Czech Republic. It has a membership of 82,994 and is a member party of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left bloc in the European Parliament...
- Communist Party of SlovakiaCommunist Party of SlovakiaThe Communist Party of Slovakia is a communist party in Slovakia, formed in 1992, through the merger of the Communist Party of Slovakia – 91 and the Communist League of Slovakia.According to Luboš Blaha the KSS supported the government of Robert Fico....
- History of CzechoslovakiaHistory of CzechoslovakiaWith the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of World War I, the independent country of Czechoslovakia was formed, encouraged by, among others, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson...
- Eastern Bloc politicsEastern Bloc politicsEastern Bloc politics followed the Red Army's occupation of much of eastern Europe at the end of World War II and the Soviet Union's installation of Soviet-controlled communist governments in the Eastern Bloc through a process of bloc politics and repression...
External links
- RFE/RL Czechoslovak Unit Open Society Archives, Budapest
- H. Gordon Skilling, "The Formation of a Communist Party in Czechoslovakia", American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Oct., 1955), pp. 346–358
- H. Gordon Skilling, "The Comintern and Czechoslovak Communism: 1921-1929", American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1960), pp. 234–247