Documente Academic
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Documente Cultură
Part I, 1945-1964
Czechoslovakia
President Edvard Benes
May 18, 1945, returns after seven-year exile
Klement Gottwald, leader of Czechoslovak
Communists
Red Army occupied the country
May 26, 1946, the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia received 2,695,293 votes: 38.7
percent of the total
Gottwald became premier
CPC got key ministries, but non-communists had a
majority in parliament
But non-communists not really united
Czechoslovakia (cont.)
Stalin insisted that the country refuse the Marshall
Plan
February 1948: non-communist ministers resign over
communist police forces during election (Gottwald did
not)
March 10, 1948: Jan Masaryk (Foreign Minister)
found dead at ministry (murder or suicide)
May 30, 1948: Communists win an absolute majority
Gottwald new president
At Stalins insistence, Gottwald imposes a Soviet
style constitution
Communist Party replaced the government
1949: Communism
spreading
Soviets removed opposition in
eastern Europe
Soviets exploded first atomic bomb
Chinese revolution
NATO founded, 1949 to present
Presidium, 1952-1966
collective leadership
Lavrentiy Beria, 1899-1953
Vyacheslav Molotov, 18901986
Georgy Malenkov, 1902-88
Nikita Khrushchev, 18941971
June 1953: Beria arrested
1956: Malenkov lost to
Khrushchev
Virgin Lands proposal
NikitaKhrushchev(r.195364)
Enthusiastic
open-minded
mercurial
1956: 20th CPSU Congress
Peaceful co-existence
Secret Speech
NikitaKhrushchev(r.195364)
Warsaw Pact formed, 1955
Sino-Soviet split (1960):
Mao Galoshes
Nikita the Bull