Czechoslovakia
Created after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Czechoslovakia (Československo in Czech, Česko-Slovensko in Slovak) is a landlocked, mountainous country at the centre of Europe. It has a great of arable land, some natural resources (including coal and iron ore) and a temperate continental climate - warm summers, cold winters.
The events of 1938 are well known; the country was forced to cede the Sudetenland to Germany, then Hitler took over Bohemia and Moravia - Slovakia became independent as a Nazi client state.
The Second World War that started a year later saw around 345,000 Czechoslovaks dying, including an estimated 270,000 Jews, under Nazi terror where resistance was brutally dealt with, often by barbaric reprisals against civilians.
In 1944-45, the country was 'liberated' from Nazi rule by the Red Army. The USSR annexed the Carpathian Ruthenia in the east of the country, while 2.4 million ethnic Germans were expelled from the country to what would later become East and West Germany.
When attempting to gain power through legitimate elections (they got 38% in 1946) failed, the communists moved to other methods, using their control of the armed services and police, as well as organising pro-Communist demonstrations. In February 1948, President Bene allowed a Communist-dominated government to prevent a civil war and a Soviet intervention that would surely follow. A new superficially democratic constitution followed that made the country a de facto Communist state with other parties just acting as rubber stamps; Bene refused to sign it and resigned. Prime Minister Klement Gottwald became President and after initially attempting a semi-independent line, went full Stalinist, with forced nationalisation and purges, including show trials of Gottwald's opponents that led to executions.
Gottwald, suffering from heart disease, suffered a burst artery after attending Stalin's funeral in March 1953; he died on 14 March. His successor, Antonín Zápotocký, tried to govern in a more humane way but was unable to overcome the Stalinist First Secretary Antonín Novotný, who become President in 1957 after Zápotocký himself died.
Novotný brought in a new fully Communist constitution in 1960, renaming the country from the Czechoslovak Republic to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR for short), the name it holds as of 1967.
People
As of mid-1966, 14.2 million people lived in the country, with about half in labour force. About 66% of the population are Czechs and 28% Slovaks according to the 1961 census, with the largest minority being Hungarians. There were estimated to be 150,000 Gypsies and and 20,000 Jews although those figures were not recorded.
Economy
Like other communist countries, Czechoslovakia has a centrally planned economy. However, applying the Soviet model has caused problems as the CSSR has only a small internal market and is reliant on foreign trade, with the result that the economy has stagnated especially as the Soviet-Sino split has resulted in orders from Red China drying up. A major reform programme with a loosening of state control and gradual elimination of subsidies is being implemented.
The main local resource is coal; oil and gas is mostly imported, as is iron ore for making steel. The country can supply the bulk of its food needs itself, but needs to import grains for livestock feed in years with bad weather damaging the harvest.
A major Czechoslovak export is machinery and other equipment, mostly to the other countries of the Soviet bloc. This includes railway rolling stock like the Tatra T3 tram or the ChME3 diesel locomotive, as well as nuclear reactors.
The GDP at the end of 1966 was $23.1 billion; industrial output was 22% higher than in 1960.
Transport
Czechoslovakia has an extensive railway network, mostly orientated on north-south routes due to its time in Austria-Hungary. Many of the main lines are electrified with the south of the country using 25kV overhead wires and the north 3kV, requiring two different sets of electric locomotives. There is also an extensive fleet of diesel locomotives, along with a dwindling fleet of steam locomotives.
The road network, while widespread and in good condition, is not in massive use and is generally limited to to single lane highways. Car ownership is not as widespread as in Western Europe, with the Skoda brand starting to acquire a dubious reputation, not helped by the failure of the Felicia in the American market.
The state airline, CSA, was the third in the world to operate jet airliners and operates transatlantic flights to Cuba. There are two international airports at Prague and Bratislava.
Culture and Religion
Czechoslovakia is a Communist state, replete with the usual propaganda glorying the worker. Television, radio and the press are under government control, but with a liberalisation over content, some playwrights have used the medium of comedy to make coded criticism of the regime.
Christianity of the Catholic variety is much stronger in Slovakia than Czechia, where an anti-clerical tradition has turned itself into increasing indifference towards religion in general. Churches are allowed to operate, but priests are closely monitored and there is no modern Czech translation of the Bible; congregations have to rely on an archaic 16th century version.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:13, Mon 04 Mar 2019.
