Postwar Rise of the Left and Successful Elections for the Czechoslovak Communist Party
With the end of WWII the political situation in Czechoslovakia changed and turned dramatically to the left. Of course this was a worldwide phenomenon and similar tendencies for example were seen in Italy and France. After the war the prewar political parties on the right were prohibited. In Czechoslovakia this meant the end of the Czech Agrarian Party and the Slovakian People's Party. The prohibition of these two was explained with words that these two parties, "Strongly overstepped the interests of the country."[1] A new block was established under the name National Front and it formed the national political scene. There were four Czech parties: the Communist Czechoslovakian Party, the Czechoslovakian People's Party, the Czech National Social Party, and the Czech Social Democratic Party. There were also two Slovak parties: the Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Slovakia. The time between 1945-1948 is called delimited democracy because there was no opposition against the National Front, although this party was forming the state politics, and influencing the main problems and business issues of the country. Its decisions were accepted with complete consent and its laws were obligatory for government, parliament, and others in public service. The special position in government had its presidium: a chairman and five deputies, who were representing the other political parties. These six people decided all the important questions and they held an unusual amount of power this way.
The strongest interference into the state economy was the nationalization[2] of industry, mines, and financial institutions whereby Czechoslovakia was on its way towards socialization. The nationalization happened in other countries too, but its reach wasn't as extensive and it was done for the purpose of propping up certain major industries that were suffering as a result of the war. The governments in other countries deviated towards nationalization with compensation and they were counting on the fact that the organization will be ready for denationalization later. Czechoslovakia was distinguished with its huge expansion. Its main bearers were two political powers: the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party. The other parties finally agreed on everything, but there were disputes about its reach. The demands of the Communists and the Social Democrats seemed too high to the other political parties and especially to President Edvard Beneš[3], but they all finally conceded. For the nationalized organization the compensation was supposed to be paid, but that never happened. In the end, more then 60 % of the industrial production was nationalized.
The next big change in the positive relations was the agrarian reform. That meant the confiscation of land from Germans, Hungarians, collaborators, and enemies of the state whose land was given back to people who didn't have any land and to small farmers. Although this was mainly land located in the Czechoslovakian border area, there were also changes happening in the interior[4]. The reform dispatched large private estates and the face of the village changed because the socially weaker population left. This agrarian reform was done mainly by the Communist Party, which received a lot of future votes as a result of this policy.
The successful elections of the Communist Party
The first postwar elections in Czechoslovakia took place May 26, 1946 and for a long time these were the last democratic parliamentary elections. In the Czech lands four different parties were campaigning: Communist, Social Democratic, National Social, and the People's party. In Slovakia there were two possible winners, the Democrats or the Communists Just before the elections two more parties were established which were the Freedom and Labor Parties. The voters who didn't agree with the present regime and existing parties had the chance to express it with the so-called, "white ballots." It was expected that these ballots would be used by the supporters of the prohibited parties. The Communists came up with this idea of the white ballots and other parties thought it was a trick and originally didn't agree with this suggestion. The Communist Party was advertising many slogans for their campaign, but most of them were just varieties of one theme: "More work for the country, that's our work." It also proclaimed that it would work, without benefit to themselves, on construction and farming. The economic effect of this activity wasn't big, but it brought them political power. The Communist Party got over 40 % of the total vote and for the first time in the history of Czechoslovakia it got into the government. It was benefiting mainly from the postwar attitudes and expectations and its ideas spread mainly between the middle class and rural folk. It mainly got the votes of the already mentioned Agrarian Party, which wasn't renewed. The day after the elections, Monday May 27, the newspaper, "Rudé Právo"[5] came up with banner headlines, "Communists as a Leading Power of the Nation - No political party ever had so much support before - In the most democratic elections the population proved and extended the Communist mandate - The nation is happy - Only a few people used the white ballots against the People's Democratic Regime and the against the National Front".
President Beneš was again elected unanimously to be the head of state and on July 2, 1946 he named the new government, which was represented by the Communist Prime Minister, Klement Gottwald. The government put in its program a new constitution and a two-year economic plan, so that within two years the postwar damaged economy would be renewed.
[1] The Republican party of agriculture and farming, in short the Agrarian party was a partly a Party for national unity. It was often upbraided for collaboration during WWII. However, many of its representatives joined the rebellions abroad and had no sympathy towards Nazi occupants. As it was already mentioned, the representatives of the protectorate goverment were sentenced after the war to imprisonment.
Hlinka's Slovakian People‘s party was a Slovakian right political party, which existed in the first half of the 20th century. Its original aim was the autonomy of Slovakia, but gradually an authoritative and fascistic tendency grew in it. It was a leading party of the newly established "Slovak Republic" on March 14, 1939. The main ideas this party proclaimed were: catholic clergy, nationalistic intelligentsia, and a Christian and nationalistic thinking nation.
[2] Nationalization is mentioned in an interview with Pavel Levý who said: "My father lost his business quickly. First it was stated that businessman will gather in cooperative, but finally everything was nationalized in 1949. The business was taken over by a company Mototechna and then by Domácí potřeby and my dad was kept there as the manager. The typical way they did it was taking his business over with unpaid invoices. He had to pay those. My father did not have much stuff, but if one bought new machines he had to pay them off for a long time then. This happened to my colleague from work whose parents had a mill and they had to pay off the machines for the rest of their lives. Then there was a financial reform and all money lost its validity 1:50 and debits dropped on 1:5. It was a thievish regime."
[3] Edvard Beneš - Edward Beneš was the second president after T.G. Masaryk from 1935 to 1938. He was also a president in exile in 1940-1945 and the president of Czechoslovakia after the War (1945- 1948). Together with T.G. Masaryk and M. R. Štefánik, he took part in the resistance movement during WW I and he is one of the founders of Czechoslovakia. After the WWII he was position of a president was confirmed and he was newly elected in June 19th, 1946. He was one of the leaders of the 1st resistance group and the head of the 2nd resistance group.
[4] Collectivization took place in Czechoslovakia during the 1950's. As a result the major part of agricultural land was centered into JZD - Unified Cooperative Farms. This process was not without violence and threatening.
[5] Rudé právo - (in English „Red right") before 1989 a daily newspaper of the communist party.