The Second Attempt at a Democratic Common Life

Abstract

In both world politics and the social and political situation in Czechoslovakia, the 1945–8 post-war period was of a purely transitional character. It began with the renascence of democratic Czechoslovakia as an expression of the political will of the victorious powers, which at that time still acknowledged the most important agreements made within the war alliance. As in the Polish case, the victors decided that the transfer of the German population from the Czech borderland to their motherland would best serve the preservation of peace in Europe. They thus facilitated the starting position for post-war development in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak President, the coalition government, with the participation of both socialist and civil democratic parties and the Czech and Slovak people, welcomed and carried out this decision immediately after the war. As an exception within Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Army withdrew relatively soon after the country’s liberation.