The Prion they Lived In

Between World Wars: 1918 - 1938

Czechoslovakia was born after the WWI and the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The new state was based on the idea of "Czechoslovakism" as a nationality state. Nevertheless, besides Czechs (51%) and Slovaks (16%) there was a very numerous German minority (23%) as well as other minority nationalities: Hungarians, Ruthenians, Poles and Jews (10% in total). Many representatives of the largest minority, the Germans, were unwilling to accept the existence of Czechoslovakia and tried to incorporate the territories they lived in into the Austrian Republic or Germany. As a result, the newly born Czechoslovak Army had to be engaged in the borderland areas.
The new state had to fight for the shape of its state border mainly on the diplomatic front but sometimes even physically. The borders with Germany and Austria were set on the basis of historical evolution, but this was not possible to achieve with the Slovak-Hungarian border, so the borderline was set by a resolution of the victorious powers according to Czechoslovakia's requirements. Hungarians did not agree with losing the Slovak borderland and Carpathian Russia, so they started a short war which they lost. There were also fights between Czechoslovakia and Poland for the Těšín region.
The post-war economic situation was poor as there were not enough goods to satisfy the basic needs of the population. The government had to react by introducing a number of social reforms. Eight-hour working day, state provided unemployment benefit, health and injury insurance as well as other reforms were enacted. The Land Reform of 1920 redistributed all pieces of agricultural land over 150 hectares (app 370 acres) among small farmers.
The country's political life was mainly based on the Parliament, comprising mostly representatives of Czech political parties. It was only later on that representatives of German and Slovak parties won seats in the Parliament. Between the wars no party managed to achieve a majority and that was why all governments between 1919 and 1938 were coalition ones.
The First Republic Czechoslovakia was promisingly growing. After having overcome the initial post-war difficulties, she enjoyed a period of "the golden 1920's"characterised by overall progress. The country's businesspeople managed to keep up with the top corporations in the world: Baťa in Zlín, Škoda in Pilsen, Czechoslovak munition plants and others. Standard of living was improving. The prevailing lifestyle in the country was that of the middle classes. Naturally, the economic development also suffered from recessions, the greatest of which during early 1930's was related to the worldwide slump, and the drastic effects of which caused that Czechoslovakia had almost a million unemployed in 1933. Some of the worst affected areas were in the borderland whose industry was mainly concentrated on export.
During the Great Depression totalitarian regimes started to gain strength - in Europe it was fascism and communism. Germany headed by Adolf Hitler, the leader of the NSDAP party, dominated. It became a source of permanent tension as it struggled to revise the outcomes of the First World War. It introduced nationwide military service, resumed armament and its army entered the previously demilitarized Rhineland. Moreover, it directed its hateful propaganda against the neighbouring states, claiming they were jeopardizing German interests. It also strongly encouraged nationalism among Czech Germans.
Western powers adopted the policy of appeasement based on concessions to the enemy in an effort to prevent conflict at any cost. As a result, Hitler could realize his plans without great difficulty. The first country to fall prey to him was Austria that was annexed to Germany in March 1938. He justified the operation by claiming all Germans had to live in one country. Soon he turned his attention to Czechoslovakia. In his role of a "protector" to the "oppressed" German minority he demanded that the CSR ceded the borderland territories inhabited mainly by Germans to the Reich. Czechoslovak representatives relied on the help of their western allies, but France and Great Britain pressed hard to make the last democratic country in Central Europe meet Hitler's demand in order to keep peace in Europe.
The outcome has become known as the Munich Agreement, which was signed on 29 September 1938. Representatives of four countries - Neville Chamberlain (Great Britain), Edouard Daladier (France), Adolf Hitler (Germany) and Benito Mussolini (Italy) - agreed that Czechoslovakia was to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. The accord was reached without any Czechoslovak representatives present at the negotiations. Eventually, the CSR succumbed to the dictate. The Agreement brought about the end of the First Republic. Czechoslovak borderland called the Sudetenland was occupied by German military forces, and also by the Poles in the Těšín region. Similarly, the territory in the south of Slovakia was ceded to Hungary. The act meant a gross breach of Czechoslovak sovereignty and territorial integrity.
What followed after that was called the Second Republic: Czecho-Slovakia. It was just a short historical period during which the state authorities had to handle numerous problems: how to gain international guarantees of the newly set borderline, how to settle the countless refugees from the occupied territories and many other ones. Among the gravest consequences there were severing transportation thoroughfares, making future military resistance virtually impossible and of course extremely heavy economic losses.
At the same time, the demands of Slovaks had been growing to the point when they proclaimed autonomy (later on autonomy was also granted to Carpathian Russia) and later, under the protection of Hitlerian Germany, even independence on 14 March 1939. On the same date, President Emil Hácha was forced to put the country's remaining territory under the "protection" of Germany. The new pseudo-state was called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and in actual fact it meant German occupation.

World War II, 1938-1945

A few months later, in September 1939, Germany invaded Poland thus launching the Second World War.
Viz. www.2svetovavalka.kvalitne.cz , www.fronta.cz, ww.valka.unas.cz.

Three Post-War Years, 1945-1948

After the end of WWII in May 1945, Czechoslovakia was restored, but without the territory of Carpathian Russia, which was annexed to the Ukraine as the USSR was expanding west. Three to four million people who used to live in Czechoslovakia, mainly of German nationality, were "resettled" or, in other words, "expelled" from the country and, as the principle of collective guilt was used, also Hungarians were concerned.
Post-War Election
In May 1946, the first post-war parliamentary election was held and won by the Communist Party (KSČ) that gained 30% of the votes. The KSČ managed to benefit from the post-war growth in the popularity of the USSR as the power that defeated Nazism and of the left-wing parties in general. They also promised another land reform, which earned them most votes from the countryside population. The results of the election affected the Government composition. Not only did Communists retain the leading position in the power ministries of the Interior, Information, and Agriculture, but they also gained the seat of Prime Minister filled by the Communist Party's chairman Klement Gottwald. In addition, the post of the Minister of Defence was taken by a secret member of the KSČ general Ludvík Svoboda, who acted as a non-party man on the surface.
The Communist takeover
 The Communist Party was closely cooperating with the Stalinist Soviet Union with the aim to take over all the power in the country. They gradually managed to gain control of the police, the army and of some worker organisations. They took advantage of the discord among the political parties of that time, of the factual non-existence of opposition, of post-war radicalism mainly caused by the Munich Agreement as well as of the President Beneš's growing indecisiveness resulting from his bad health.
Communists abused the government crisis in February 1948 for assuming control over the country. The takeover was completed on 25 February when the President accepted the resignation of non-Communist ministers and approved the appointment of their replacements who were nominated by Gottwald for their unwavering loyalty to the Communist Party. On 9 May 1948, the Parliament passed a new Constitution proclaiming the country the People's Democratic Republic. Shortly after that, after the abdication of President Beneš, Klement Gottwald became President of the republic. Among other things, Communists kept power in their hands by staging fabricated trials, through executions, imprisonment, forced emigrations and other forms of opponent persecution. The country became a Soviet Union satellite both politically and economically.