Word: gottwalds
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...persuaded the Kremlin to forgive his error; perhaps the black mark against him was erased by the smooth and effective way in which he (with Rudolf Slansky's help) engineered the Communist coup of 1948 against worn-out Eduard Benes and disillusioned Jan Masaryk. After that, all Gottwald had to do was suppress his rivals and keep Moscow happy, both of which he managed fairly well. But Moscow has not been 100% happy, for Czechoslovakia, a highly industrialized and once prosperous nation, has been in deepening economic crises for the past five years...
...Vacuum. Three days after Gottwald's death, no successor had been announced. Moscow, well aware of the dangerous power vacuum, sent a delegation to Prague headed by Marshal Bulganin-ostensibly to attend Gottwald's funeral. Outside the Iron Curtain, there was speculation that Czechoslovakia might abolish the office of President; even so, somebody had to be the country's boss. The chief aspirants were Prime Minister Antonin Zapotocky, 69, who is old for the job and perhaps not aggressive enough; Defense Minister Alexei Cepicka, 43, who rose to favor by marrying Gottwald's daughter...
...control of postwar Hungary. From Bucharest came Premier Gheorghiu-Dej, the icy-eyed nemesis of Ana Pauker. From Sofia came Premier Vulko Chervenkov, so unimaginatively obedient that even the suspicious men of the Kremlin are said to have no worries about his loyalty. From Prague came President Klement Gottwald, who neatly disposed of Moscow-groomed Rudolf Slansky before Slansky could dispose of him. From Warsaw came Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, the Russian whom all Reds hold out to be a Pole to excuse his running the Polish Defense Ministry and, through that, Poland itself; also from Warsaw came President Boleslaw Bierut...
...Malenkov's cold-war council, only one-Czechoslovakia's Klement Gottwald-had ever been tinged with even a hint of Tito-like, nationalist aspirations, and that was long ago. The issue of his loyalty quickly became irrelevant: he took cold at the funeral, went home and died...
Died. Klement Gottwald, 56, Moscow-trained President-Dictator of Czechoslovakia; in Prague (see FOREIGN NEWS...