A struggle with legacy of two totalitarian regimes
… These treaties can in fact change perception of the widely perceived “Yalta betrayal”, as they were signed by Czechoslovak representation way before the conference at Crimea. Especially appalling is the treaty on future jurisdiction on liberated territories signed between Czech exile government and USSR in London a month before the Normandy landings. …
This paper discusses history of Czechoslovakia in international context and presents some not widely known international agreements signed by the exile government of Edvard Benes.
Czechoslovakia during its short history became part of two authoritarian empires, first as Protectorate of Nazi Germany and second as a Soviet satellite; and its road to democracy was littered by hundreds of thousands of slaughtered civilians at time of peace.
This paper was inspired by Robert a Dahl’s paper “What institutions does large scale democracy require?” which was published in PSQ, Vol. 120, No 2; summer 2005; and in "The meaning of American democracy" by R Shapiro published by the academy of Political Science.
The first section briefly presents constitutional development of Czechoslovakia from the end of WW1 until 1992, and explains the most important changes introduced by the respective governments. Analytical part of this section takes the conditions of polyarchal democracy as explained in Dahl’s paper and applies his conclusions to the situation in Czechoslovakia. The main purpose of this paper is to try to identify the main reasons why the President Wilson’s pet project went so terribly wrong.
Second section presents observations of critical incidents in the history of Czechoslovakia. This overview is very brief and emphasizes only incidents which I personally consider key turning points.
Sections three and four are dedicated to identification of possible design flaws in the electoral system itself, namely when it comes to its substantive meaning; and to the power of media in a closed society seriously constrained by language barrier.
The fifth, concluding part, compares my observations to the Dahl’s principles of polyarchal democracy, and defines conditions which can potentially prove critical for further democratic development. The system can have many formal characteristics of a democracy, and be in fact a ruthless authoritarian regime with high level of democide. The paper is meant to contribute to the discussion what is the difference between democratic and authoritarian regimes, and to help identify conditions which directly lead to tyranny.
There is an appendix to this book, which contains transcripts of not widely known original documents. First of all, it is the Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty on friendship, mutual assistance, and post-war cooperation between Czechoslovak Republic and the USSR signed by the exile government on December 12, 1943; Agreement concerning the relationship between the Czechoslovak government and the Soviet Commander in Chief on the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovak territory signed by the Czechoslovak exile government in London on May 8, 1944; substantial excerpt from the Program of Czechoslovak government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks adopted on April 5th, 1945 (Kosice government program); the "Uranium Agreement" signed by the Benes's cabinet in November 1945; and the analysis Background to Czechoslovak crisis by former U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia Laurence A Steinhardt for General Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, from April 30, 1948. These treaties can in fact change perception of the widely perceived “Yalta betrayal”, as they were signed by Czechoslovak representation way before the conference at Crimea. Especially appalling is the treaty on future jurisdiction on liberated territories signed between Czech exile government and USSR in London a month before the Normandy landings.
A special thank you belongs to the National archive in Prague; and the U.S. academic and intelligence communities, which provided guidance and helped to locate source materials in their respective libraries.
Dr. Veronika Valdova
P.S.
The book is available at: HERE. J.Š.
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