Word: gottwalds
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...made the victory possible. Spread in massive ranks across the old town square stood thousands of policemen and militiamen, agents of the force which hoped to celebrate Police Day the world over. Before them, amid Prague's grey and ancient statuary, sat Communist Premier Klement Gottwald, surrounded by his new cabinet, a smug, squat figure of triumph...
...Communists paraded, crying: "Away with reaction!" Anti-Communists paraded, crying: "We will uphold party democracy! London is calling at 9 o'clock!" (This was a bitter reference to the days of Nazi occupation, when BBC broadcasts brought Czechoslovakia's only hope of freedom.) Mass arrests continued. Premier Gottwald's "action committees" seized most factories not yet nationalized; they occupied all the ministries not yet in charge of Communists. President Benes wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the Czech Communist party: "I have been thinking ... I am trying to see clearly. ... I feel the people...
Czechoslovakia had been spared longer than most of her neighbors. This week it seemed to be the Czechs' turn. Communist Premier Klement Gottwald was getting set to turn the country into a one-party state. In Prague, Czechoslovakia's ailing, tenacious little President Eduard Benes backed into what might be the last-ditch fight of his life...
After a weekend of sustained government crisis, Gottwald acted. Police of Communist Vaclav Nosek's Interior Ministry, armed with tommy guns and bayoneted rifles, surrounded most government offices and the Prague radio station. The Czech radio announced that the border was closed to all except those with new police visas on their passports...
...brave show of resistance, but it was also the opening for which Gottwald had long been preparing. Months before, he had said: "We intend to win a 51% majority in the next election." Most Czechs had not expected the crisis before April. But last week's development handed Gottwald an early opportunity. He at once demanded that he be allowed to form a new cabinet from among leaders of half a dozen Communist stooge groups. Benes refused. But he also refused to accept the resignations of the non-Communist ministers. Said he: "I have my duty to convince...