Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 18; CZECHOSLOVAKIA; GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2.pdf/53

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1946

May
Communists receive 38%, National Socialists 18%, Social Democrats 13%, and Slovak Democrats 14% of votes in first postwar general election. Three other parties share remaining 17% of votes.
June
Eduard Benes is unanimously elected President.
July
Klement Gottwald (Communist) forms government.

1947

July
Under Soviet pressure Czechoslovak cabinet reverses its decision to participate in Marshall Plan.

1948

February
Communists seize power in bloodless coup and formally establish "people's democracy."
June
Benes resigns presidency.
Gottwald becomes President and Antonin Zapotocky Prime Minister.

1949

January
First Five Year (Economic) Plan (1949-53) begins.

1951

March
Roman Catholic Archbishop Beran is banished from Prague.
November
Rudolph Slansky is arrested and charged with conspiracy against state.

1952

November
Slansky and 10 other former officials are sentenced to death for treason.

1953

March
Gottwald dies; Zapotocky becomes President and Viliam Siroky Prime Minister.
September
Antonin Novotny becomes party First Secretary.

1955

May
Warsaw Pact is established.

1956

January
Second Five Year Plan (1956-60) begins.

1957

November
President Zapotocky dies; Novotny becomes President, retaining post of party First Secretary.

1960

July
Newly elected National Assembly proclaims achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia, ratifies new "socialist" constitution, and changes country's name to "Czechoslovak Socialist Republic."

1961

January
Third Five Year Plan (1961-65) begins.
June
Judicial law tightens party control over simplified court system.

1962

August
Third Five Year Plan is scrapped as economic situation deteriorates.
December
12th Party Congress agrees to review 1949-54 purges and to begin de-Stalinization in earnest.

1963

May
Intellectual ferment reaches point of public criticism of party and state leaders.
June
Regime announces liberalization of cultural policies at writers and journalists unions' congress.
Novotny moves to reassert his control as de-Stalinization gains momentum.
Verdicts of 1949-54 purge trial are revised and victims partially rehabilitated.
September
Premier Siroky is fired and cabinet shuffled; Jozef Lenart becomes Premier; party commissions for ideology, economy, standard of living, and agriculture are established.
Americans still in Czechoslovak prisons are released and returned to United States in gesture to improve relations.

1964

March
Experiments in economic decentralization and "market socialism" begin.
October
Youth demonstrations occur in Prague.
November
Novotny is reelected President for 5-year term.


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