Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovak Communist politician, who was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1929 until 1945 and party chairman until his death in 1953. He was the 14th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from July 1946 until June 1948, at which point he became the president of the third republic, four months after the 1948 coup d'état in which his party seized power with the backing of the Soviet Union.
During World War II, Czechoslovakia disappeared from the map of Europe. The Third Czechoslovak Republic which emerged as a sovereign state was not only the result of the policies of the victorious Western allies, the French Fourth Republic, the United Kingdom and the United States, but also an indication of the strength of the Czechoslovak ideal embodied in the First Czechoslovak Republic. However, at the conclusion of World War II, Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence, and this circumstance dominated any plans or strategies for postwar reconstruction. Consequently, the political and economic organisation of Czechoslovakia became largely a matter of negotiations between Edvard Beneš and Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) exiles living in Moscow.
From the Communist coup d'état in February 1948 to the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Czechoslovakia was ruled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The country belonged to the Eastern Bloc and was a member of the Warsaw Pact and of Comecon. During the era of Communist Party rule, thousands of Czechoslovaks faced political persecution for various offences, such as trying to emigrate across the Iron Curtain.
The government of Czechoslovakia under socialism was in theory a democratic one directed by the proletariat. In practice, it was a one-party democratic dictatorship of the proletariat run by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the KSC.
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic ruled Czechoslovakia from 1948 until 23 April 1990, when the country was under communist rule. Formally known as the Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, it has been regarded as a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
The Federal Assembly was the federal parliament of Czechoslovakia from January 1, 1969 to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on December 31, 1992. It was Czechoslovakia's highest legislative institution.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 26 May 1946. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia emerged as the largest party, winning 114 of the 300 seats with 38% of the vote. This was the best performance for a Czechoslovak party up to that time; previously no Czechoslovak party had ever won more than 25 percent of the vote. Voter turnout was 93.9%. As it turned out, this was one of only two even partially free elections held in what would become the Eastern bloc, the other having been held in Hungary a year earlier. It would be the last free election held in Czechoslovakia until 1990.
The 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état – in the Communist era known as "Victorious February" – was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, marking the onset of four decades of communist rule in the country.
The Second Hungarian Republic was a parliamentary republic briefly established after the disestablishment of the Kingdom of Hungary on 1 February 1946 and was itself dissolved on 20 August 1949. It was succeeded by the People's Republic of Hungary.
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Bulgaria on 27 October 1946. The elections served to elect members to the 6th Grand National Assembly, tasked with adopting a new constitution. The Fatherland Front, an anti-fascist coalition dominated by the Bulgarian Communist Party, had come to power in 1944 following a coup. Now that the Second World War was over and the monarchy abolished the communists wanted to adopt a new constitution. The Communists won a large majority, with 53.5 percent of the vote and 278 of the 465 seats. Voter turnout was 92.6%. This would be the lowest vote share that the Communists or the Fatherland Front would claim during the 43 years of undisguised Communist rule in Bulgaria. In subsequent years, the Fatherland Front would claim to win elections with unanimous or near-unanimous support.
Federal elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 8 and 9 June 1990, alongside elections for the Czech and Slovak Assemblies. They were the first elections held in the country since the end of Communist rule seven months earlier, and the first free elections since 1946.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 26 and 27 November 1971. They were the first held after the Constitutional Act on the Czechoslovak Federation converted Czechoslovakia into a federal state, comprising the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 22 and 23 October 1976. The National Front put forward a single list of candidates for both the House of the People and the House of Nations and one NF candidate ran in each single member constituency. With a total of 350 seats in the two Houses, 237 were assigned to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 18 to the Czechoslovak People's Party, 17 to the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, four to the Party of Slovak Revival and 74 to others. Voter turnout was reported to be 99.7%.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 5 and 6 June 1981. The National Front put forward a single list of candidates for both the House of the People and the House of Nations and one NF candidate ran in each single member constituency. With a total of 350 seats in the two Houses, 240 were assigned to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 18 to the Czechoslovak People's Party, 18 to the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, four to the Party of Slovak Revival, four to the Freedom Party and 66 to independents. Voter turnout was reported to be 99.51%.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 23 and 24 May 1986. The National Front put forward a single list of candidates for both the House of the People and the House of Nations and one NF candidate ran in each single member constituency. With a total of 350 seats in the two Houses, 242 were assigned to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 18 to the Czechoslovak People's Party, 18 to the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, four to the Party of Slovak Revival, four to the Freedom Party and 64 to independents. Voter turnout was reported to be 99.39%.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 30 May 1948. They were the first elections held under undisguised Communist rule; the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia had seized complete power three months earlier.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 12 June 1960. Voters were presented with a single list from the National Front, dominated by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). According to official figures, 99.7 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote, and 99.9 percent of those who voted approved the National Front list. Within the Front, the Communists had a large majority of 216 seats–147 for the main party and 69 for the Slovak branch.
Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 14 June 1964. They were the first held after a new constitution was adopted in July 1960.
The People's Democratic Front was a political alliance in Romania during the communist era, dominated by the Romanian Communist Party (PCR).
