Czech pronunciation: [ˈantoɲiːnˈnovotniː] ; 10 December 1904 – 28 January 1975) was a Czechoslovak politician who served as the President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968, and as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968. An ardent hardliner, Novotný was forced to yield the reins of power to Alexander Dubček during the short-lived reform movement of 1968.
Contents
- Biography
- Early years
- World War II years
- Post-war political rise
- Events of 1968
- Later years
- Honours and awards
- Czechoslovak honours
- Foreign honours
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Biography
Early years
Antonín Novotný was born in Letňany, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now part of Prague, Czech Republic). The Novotný family was working class in social origin, and he worked from an early age as a blacksmith. [2] Novotný was a charter member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) at its founding in 1921, [2] and became a professional Communist Party functionary in 1929. [2]
In 1935, Novotný was selected as a delegate to the 7th World Congress of the Comintern. [2] He was made a regional party secretary in Prague in 1937 and made secretary and editor of the CPC's newspaper in the South Moravian Region in 1938. [2]
World War II years
With the coming of World War II and the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939, the CPC was outlawed and forced into an underground existence. [2] Novotný served as one of the leaders of the CPC in the underground movement in Prague. [2] Novotný was finally arrested by the German secret police, the Gestapo, in September 1941 and was immediately deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. [2] He managed to survive his concentration camp experience and was liberated by the U.S. Army on 5 May 1945.
Post-war political rise
After the war, Novotný returned to Czechoslovakia and resumed his activity in the Communist Party. He was elected a member of the governing Central Committee of the CPC in 1946. [2] He was promoted to the Secretariat of the Central Committee in September 1951, and became one of the party's top leaders on the CPC's Politburo following the arrest of Rudolf Slánský for alleged "Titoism" in November of the same year. [2]
Novotný was formally appointed as Deputy Prime Minister in February 1953. [2] After the death of party leader Klement Gottwald in March 1953, Novotný became a leading candidate in the succession struggle, ultimately winning out in September 1953 when he was named First Secretary of the party, effectively making him the leader of Czechoslovakia. [2]
While President Antonín Zápotocký and Prime Minister Viliam Široký wanted a less repressive way of governing, the hardliner Novotný was able to outflank them with the backing of the Soviet Union. At a meeting in Moscow in late 1953, Zápotocký and Široký were told to adhere to the principles of "collective leadership" — in other words, abandon power to Novotný.
In the Czechoslovakia of Novotný, people continued to face strict government regulations in the arts and media, although they had loosened dramatically since Stalin's death in 1953 and the subsequent de-Stalinization programmes of 1956. His quasi-authoritarian practices led to mounting calls for a new form of socialism over the unsatisfactory pace of change that would include the accountability, proper elections, and responsibility of leaders to society. Novotný's administration, however, still remained centralized for 10 years. During these years society evolved, seen through events such as the Czechoslovak film miracle. Following the death of Zápotocký in 1957, Novotný was named as President of the republic, further consolidating his grip on power. [2] Three years later, he replaced the superficially democratic Ninth-of-May Constitution with a new constitution that was a fully Communist document. The new constitution declared that "socialism has won" in Czechoslovakia and declared the country a socialist state under the leadership of the KSČ, thus codifying the actual state of affairs that had prevailed since the Communist takeover in 1948.
In the 1960s, Novotny's attention was turned to the activities of Czech exiles in Western Europe who were seeking to discredit his Party's regime. One example of this was his suggestion to kidnap the exiled journalist, Josef Josten, from London in a specially made box. When this scheme proved impracticable, he proposed assassination, as recorded by the defecting intelligence agent, Josef Frolik. [3]
Events of 1968
While Novotný was forced to adopt some reforms due to popular pressure in the 1960s, these efforts were half-hearted at best. Growing public dissatisfaction caused Novotný to lose his grip on power. He was forced to resign as party leader in January 1968 and was replaced by a reformer, Alexander Dubček. In March 1968, he was ousted as president and in May he resigned from the Central Committee of the CPC.
Later years
In 1971, during the period of normalization, he was reelected to the Central Committee. However, his political influence was minimal and he was too ill to be a strong force in the Gustáv Husák administration. He died on 28 January 1975 in Prague.
Honours and awards
Czechoslovak honours
-
Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 (1947) [4] -
Order of Klement Gottwald, two times (10 December 1954; 7 May 1955) [5]
Foreign honours
-
Order of the Queen of Sheba (1959) [4] -
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia (1960) [4] -
Star of the Republic of Indonesia, 1st Class (1961) [6] -
Order of the Yugoslav Great Star (26 September 1964) [7] -
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile (1966) [4] -
Order of Pahlavi (1967) [4]
Related Research Articles
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With the collapse of the Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, the independent country of Czechoslovakia was formed as a result of the critical intervention of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, among others.
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Rudolf Slánský was a leading Czech Communist politician. Holding the post of the party's General Secretary after World War II, he was one of the leading creators and organizers of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.
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On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).
Josef Smrkovský was a Czechoslovak politician and a member of the Communist Party reform wing during the 1968 Prague Spring.
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Čestmír Císař was a Czech and Czechoslovak politician and diplomat. He served as the first Chairman of the Czech National Council from 1968 to 1969 when the Czech Republic was part of Czechoslovakia during the Communist era. A leading advocate for reforms of the Communist Party, Císař introduced a series of liberal reforms to Communist Czechoslovakia, becoming a major figure in the Prague Spring as a result. He sought to create a new form of socialism with a "human face." His reforms were repealed following the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was removed from office and expelled from the Communist Party until the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Václav Nosek was a Czechoslovak communist politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 4 April 1945 to 14 September 1953.
Václav Kopecký was a Czechoslovak politician, journalist and chief ideologue of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) during the leadership of Klement Gottwald. A high-ranking member of the party since the interwar period, he spent World War II in Moscow and served as Minister of Culture and Minister of Information in post-war Czechoslovakia. Kopecký was noted for his antisemitic statements, criticizing Jews for Zionism and cosmopolitanism; he also stage-managed the Slánský trial.
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Július Ďuriš was a Czechoslovak communist politician.
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Josef Plojhar was a Czech and Czechoslovak Roman Catholic priest and politician. He served as Minister of Health between 1948 and 1968, and also chaired the Peace Movement of Catholic Priests from 1948 to 1968.
References
- ↑ Krebs, Albin (29 January 1975). "Antonin Novotny,70, Dies; Czech Dictator, 1953–68". The New York Times.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Branko Lazitch with Milorad M. Drachkovitch, Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1986; pp. 344–345.
- ↑ Frolik, Josef (1975). The Frolik Detection. London: Leo Cooper. pp. 64–71. ISBN 0-85052-179-3.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Řády a vyznamenání prezidentů republiky". www.vyznamenani.net. Československé řády a vyznamenání – Czech Medals and Orders Society. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
- ↑ "Řád Klementa Gottwalda - za budování socialistické vlasti (zřízen vládním nařízením č. 14/1953 Sb. ze dne 3. února 1953, respektive vládním nařízením č. 5/1955 Sb. ze dne 8. února 1955) SEZNAM NOSITELŮ podle matriky nositelů (Archiv KPR, fond KPR, Evidenční knihy k udělování státních vyznamenání, inv. č. 42, kniha č. 6)" (PDF). Archiv Kanceláře prezidenta republiky (in Czech). 17 January 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
- ↑ "Přátelství ČSSR a Indonésie přinese nové plody k prospěchu obou zemí". Rudé právo (in Czech). 29 May 1961. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ↑ "Predsjednik Antonin Novotny završio posjet Jugoslaviji". Slobodna Dalmacija (6097): 1. 28 September 1964.
Further reading
- George Shaw Wheeler, The Human Face of Socialism: The Political Economy of Change in Czechoslovakia. Lawrence Hill and Company, Publishers, Inc.: U.S.A, May 1973.
- Milan Čechvala: Dejinné zadosťučinenie. In Slovenské národné noviny 7/2006 (4 April 2006).
External links
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