How did the Sovietization of Czechoslovakia and Hungary Happen - COLD WAR

Our series on the history of the Cold War period continues with a documentary on the Sovietization of Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Consider supporting us on Patreon: / thecoldwar
Sources:
Wettig, Gerhard (2008), Stalin and the Cold War in Europe
Контлер Л. История Венгрии. Тысячелетие в центре Европы

[@TheColdWarTV]

Although popular history makes it seem that the Sovietization of Eastern Europe happened immediately after WWII, it can't be far from the truth. Hopefully, our videos will help in changing this perception - each of these countries had events distinctly different from the others.

[@romankubosnik4636]

Beneš sold carpatian rhutenia to soviet union so Stalin acknowledged him as a leader of resistance. Although all western countries acknowledged him as a leader

[@AdityaGupta-sk6df]

Why are you making videos only on European Cold War history? When will you cover the rest of the continents?

[@Aharchy]

are you gonna do the yugoslav's and bulgarians?

[@hgkghkhgkgh8378]

Fun fact: László Rajk was from a Transylvania Saxon family. His father spelled his name as Reich. He had an older brother(Endre Rajk), who was a member of the Arrow Cross party (Hungarian nazis). In the spring of 1945 László was arrested by the Arrow Cross party. Thank to Endre Rajk he was let go. So his older brother saved his life. After the war Endre was arrested by the communists for being a nazi and such. In 1947 he was cleared of all charges and he was let go. Thanks to László. Family matters.

[@Csetnikke]

And the son of László Rajk, László Rajk jr. was one of the founder of SZDSZ (Alliance of Free Democrats) a liberal party on paper.

[@porphyrogennitos7758]

I love that you try (and mostly succeed) to pronounce words from other languages. It certainly is a refreshment from most other history channels that don't even bother. I also love that you mentioned that Hungarian names are said backwards compared to names in most other languages

[@simonh6371]

I didn't know that, it's interesting because the same is the case in Austria, not surprising though as just over 100 years ago you were 1 country together.

[@BiharyGabor]

@@simonh6371 opposite name order in Austria? Are you sure? I am sure it is not so.

[@simonh6371]

@@BiharyGabor Sure I'm sure, although it's possible it's just a regional thing, I lived in Steiermark in the 90s and even in conversation people used to say 'der Hofbauer Frans' or 'der Mayrhofer Kurt' instead of the other way around. Also dates were written reverse to here in the UK i.e. year/month/day so today is 20/08/11. In the English language it's confusing as the Americans write month/day/year but we Brits and our Commonwealth cousins (Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, Jamaicans and so on) write day/month/year. For us, 9/11 would mean 9th November.

[@BiharyGabor]

@@simonh6371 really strange. These are indeed the Hungarian name and date conventions. But I don't think any Hungarian influence could affect it, Hungarian language and culture has never been so influent in the Hapsburg empire or in Austria. Anyway, family name + surname is much more natural for any language that normally places modifiers before nouns - including English 😊 Also, year-month-day sequence is more natural as it mirrors the way we write numbers with positional notation 😉

[@simonh6371]

@@BiharyGabor Erm well please don't take this the wrong way, but under the KuK monarchy (which in English is known as Austria-Hungary), Austria was dominant so I had assumed that it had been Austrian influence upon Hungary, rather than the other way around. And yes I'm fully aware that it was in fact a dual monarchy and both constituent countries were equally on top, with other regions/countries such as Croatia subject to one or the other (i.e. Hungary for that example). Also I was surprised when I first heard Hungarians greet each other with ''Servus'' as people do in Austria too. I'd imagine the same is the case i.e. it is Austrian influence upon Hungary and not vice versa, since Servus is Latin and originates from the Roman Empire, which was obviously geographically closer to Austria.

[@theFloatWave]

Very accurate explanation of the situation in Czechoslovakia! GJ (yes I'm Czech)

[@Michalesd]

I agree. However he could've at least mentioned that in the last elections where people could vote only for parties from the national front, the democratic party has won in Slovakia, however thanks to the higher population of Czechs, communists have won as the result. Just an interesting fact I think.

[@letecmig]

@@Michalesd actually, in Slovakia, communists got 30% of vote, in Czechia they got 40% percent. So communists did not get majority in either country/region. The only difference was there were three other parties in Czechia and just one in Slovakia. The voting pattern, the results of the elections were not significantly different in both parts of the country. And communist takeover of government happened in Slovakia some four months before Prague (November 1947) .... so its quite clear that election results were not that important. Key factor was the communists were determined, organized,ruthless and active.... qualities that the democratic parties in either Czech or Slovak part of the country lacked in the key moments

[@letecmig]

@Kyril J BS- votes for the communists in 1946 elections: Bohemia:43%,Moravia 35%, Slovakia 30.5%..... what means "voted largely for" is very relative. Nowhere Communists got majority. And it MUST be noted that communists run the election with slogans and programm mirroring the social democratic programm, not 'introduction of the communist system'

[@ianhuerta6046]

Mee 2woooo!!

[@wayneorellana2549]

The production value of this show has really stepped up in a short amount of time. Well done team on producing an excellent program.

[@HannibalBarcaRTW]

yeah but the host is boring af

[@felipesoto4955]

The soundtrack is amazing! Such attention to detail.

[@mirkotopalovic2048]

Do the Yugo-Soviet split. plz!

[@petroskotsomytis5016]

"Stalin, stop sending assassins to kill me. We already captured five of them. If you continue, I will send an assassin to Moscow and I won't need another" Tito to Stalin

[@mirkotopalovic2048]

some western author is calling it a "mock" split .Mabey these scholars can bring some new perspective on these events?

[@alexhennigh5242]

@@petroskotsomytis5016 If only the next generation of Yugoslavs had Titos resolve. Looking your way Milosevic, Tudman, Itzetbegovic, and Karadic.

[@gianlucaborg195]

A very good documentary. Keep it up. Czechoslovakia is a very curious case. It was the only Democracy to remain strong in central/eastern europe before its dismemberment in 1938 and its annexation in 1939 and it was also significantly industrialised and powerful economically. Further, Czechoslovakia was one that truely earned its independence through the Czechoslovakia Legions. Indeed, it deserved the label of the Window into the East before Czechoslovakia was taken over through a 'coup' through propaganda, union meetings etc and obviously military power and through the elimination of most of the democrats, rightists and centrists of Czechoslovakia by the Communists and the Socialists. It would try often to remain its democracy and independence, such as the Velvet Revolution (which was the one in 1989 to succeed in doing so) nd would immediately be a beacon of industry and economic strength in the aftermath of the fall of the iron curtain.

[@whiteeagleboneguard]

Czechoslovakia wasn't in the Balkans

[@gianlucaborg195]

@@whiteeagleboneguard I know I had just edited the error before you commented! cheers!

[@pizzapicante27]

Didnt Checkoslovakia dissolved like inmediately after the end of the Cold War?

[@72Kraken]

@@pizzapicante27 It dissolved in 1993, therefore roughly 4 years after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and 2 years after the dismantlement of the USSR in 1991

[@whiteeagleboneguard]

@@gianlucaborg195 Ok, nice

[@stoppos76]

No problem with the order of the names, but in Hungary S is Sh and SZ is S. So Rákosi is pronounced Rakoshi.

[@skifisk]

this is so sad to watch as a Slovak .. imagining if non of this happened Czechoslovakia would be one of the greatest places to live later maybe even stayed together. My grandparents would not lose their lands etc ... Always some crazy people must be around to destroy the dreams of others...

[@matyaskadlec9778]

Excellent, detailed explanation of postwar situation in Czechoslovakia, but I have to add something: 1. You had forgot to mention US army liberating west of Czechoslovakia 2. Agrarian party wasn't banned/not reestabilshed because it was deemed too conserative. It was banned because it was deemed collaborating by both Czechoslovak communists and non-communists, which was an illusion (party members were active in resistance, even one of the ministers of puppet pro-German government and forfmer member of the party, Ladislav Feirabend, had escaped from occupied country to United Kingdom, joining Beneš in government in exile). 3. You had missed the first two psotwar governments (March/April 1945-November 1945 and November 1945-July 1946 elections), led by social democrat (and NKVD agent and Czechoslovak communist' agent) Zdeněk Fierlinger, Beneš's personal friend. 4. Alongside very good relations with USSR, Beneš also (unsuccesfully) tried to forge alliance with France. 5. You had forgot to mention key deal between USSR and precommunist Czechoslovakia about delivery of uranium from mines in Czechoslovak West (in zone liberated by Americans, but sites of mines were transferred under partially Soviet supervision) for Soviet nuclear bomb. 6. You didn't mention the cede of Subcarpathian Ruthenia (now part of Ukraine) in summer of 1945 7. Ludvík Svoboda wasn't member of the communist aprty until late 1948 (he was forced to cooperate with Soviets by NKVD as commander of Czechoslvoak forces in USSR in WWII) and he stayed neutral in February 1948 on behalf of Beneš, issuing declaration in which whole army declared loyalty to president. But yeas, Svoboda was used by Czechoslovak communists and Soviets both in 1945-48 period and after 1948.

[@markobavdek9450]

interesting....

[@py2020]

I really appreciate the background classical music of each episode

[@pauljara4783]

Thank you for providing the source!

[@papajoe4769]

Can we see Bulgaria, Romania and (or) Poland. Much love❤️ keep it up!

[@aroundhere1200]

He did a Poland one.

[@enpakeksi765]

Will be interesting to see those other coutnries come up, as I know very little of each and their immediate post-WW2 history. In fact, the immediate post-WW2 history of my own country (Finland) is just a step above the rudimentary basics, so here's a small hope that part of cold war history will be highlighted in a future episode.

[@navidkarimi2552]

And post purges in soviet!

[@DanielLee_2304]

It would also be nice to see a video about the Greek Civil War, it’s probably the first proxy war of the whole Cold War Era.

[@nebras__]

Loved adding the Hungarian dances music at the end

[@csfelfoldi]

Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is the piano piece At the end, those are Brahms - Hungarian dances? Can't tell.

[@TheColdWarTV]

It is Dvorak - Symphony 9, Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody 2 and Brahms - Hungarian Dance 4

[@josephmoore4764]

@@TheColdWarTV thought I recognized the New World Symphony in the background

[@Lenin79988]

I just love how they start to put the source material in the description after some people complain about it.

[@kibicz]

I really like the "New world symphony" by Dvorak in the background;) Czechoslovakia was partially liberated by American troops of gen. Patton - e.g. Plzeň (Pilsen) still celebrates that annually. Bu the rest is spot less - even the explanation for distrust to western powers (Munich agreement).

[@janstadler3741]

Vždy když ji slyším, chce se mi brečet, neskutečná hudba!

[@SC0RCH3er]

Just an insignificant note - West and large part of South Bohemia were actually liberated by Americans (+Belgian units under command of US army), in Pilsen we celebrate "liberty days" quite a lot since Velvet revolution, as till that point everyone here was forced to claim all of Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Red Army, my grandma was even sacked as a teacher for a while when she said it to the class (she was a math teacher, but had to take over history lesson once..) and as a results my dad was nearly denied high school education (that was one of the things the regime did to keep people in check, you say something inappropriate, your kids will get denied their education). Patton could have gotten Prague even...but the prearranged demarcation line (=so that the US army and Red army did not blow each other to shit) prevented him from doing that. Otherwise pretty good video, CS had decent relations with USSR pre-war, and while UK and France had absolutely destroyed their image in eyes of Czecho-slovak public after Munich, people from here had no idea what really goes on in the soviet regime. Hell, Stalin was called "father of nations" and hist cult of the personality was at all time high.

[@navidkarimi2552]

How is that possible? US army in east Europe in ww2?

[@72Kraken]

@@navidkarimi2552Nah, it was Patton and his divisions that liberated the west of Czechoslovakia by fighting through the entirety of Germany and splitting it in half

[@bdn1337]

@@navidkarimi2552 Pilsen is about as far east as Berlin or Salzburg. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_contact .

[@gas4348]

Czechoslovakia was central european country ...

[@brokenbridge6316]

What happened in both of these countries was just so tragic. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

[@whycuds]

Great video! Also, love the vintage motif.

[@justsomeguy3931]

Great info and presentation as always. I wish I'd had this before my college courses on the same topics, it would have been an excellent primer!

[@uryen921]

Thanks for sharing~ Waiting for Bulgaria and Romania video~ :)

[@alexwallachian7720]

Ha thats exactly what i said. They will fit well

[@mihaimaruseac]

Will you do a similar video about Romania? It's still a part of Romanian history that's not present in Romanian history classes

[@TheColdWarTV]

Yes. We will cover all countries in the Eastern Bloc.

[@marieantoinettescake9513]

@@TheColdWarTV 👍

[@TheRageng]

Really interesting video. Good job guys 👍

[@datboi7893]

great selection of music after the intro (new world symphony) keep it up

[@doug814]

subscribed. that was an interesting video.

[@jesseheath7718]

Thank you so much for your informative history channel based on the Cold War era People often either forget or are unaware of the profound impact of the deeply economic , ideological and social effect of the bipolar divide that shaped much of the 20th century that was the Cold War

[@markpapenfuss1111]

Great choice to use Dvorak as background music....

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

And Liszt for Hungary.

[@randomdude7749]

I have to watch these videos at least 2 times to understand what it said because the guy talks so slowly and calmly that I keep losing track But don't get me wrong, I love this channel!

[@igor-yp1xv]

The last music is very beautiful, anyone knows its name?

[@DOMINNATRIX]

Thanks for this video! Could you make more about Czechoslovakia? further years such as Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, then Velvet revolution 1989. Thanks

[@AndrisMV]

Amazing video with great quality, thanks! :) As a Hungarian I appricaite your side note about the name order. Quick fact: s in Hungarian pronounced as sh. And a fun fact (since Poles and Hungarians are friends) the Poles pronounce the s as you do. But they pronunce the sz as the Hungarians pronunce s (so it's sh). So in pronunciation Polish sz = Hungarian s and Polish s = Hungarian sz :)

[@VforArt]

as always... great episode!

[@vasily636]

Your videos are amazing I can't wait till the next one. And your office is the best and please tell me that one day you will wear the hat while eating borscht

[@aaroncabatingan5238]

I love your channel man. The Cold War is one massive mess and this is very helpful in helping me understand what is happening.

[@TheColdWarTV]

Thank you :)

[@gb6710]

Thank you for adding a source.This may be asking to much, but could you do a further reading list?

[@vojticvojtic2631]

Thank you for this video! Just a slight detail - Americans could have liberate Prague entire weeks before the red army and like a third of what is now the Czech republic actually was liberated by the us army. Czechoslovakia was just an inch away from being ACTUALLY liberated, but Soviets knew that capturing the capital is a key thing for gaining power in the country, so they refused to let americans go to Prague to help the uprising and arrived few days after the fighting was over and germans mostly gone - which was presented as some kind of epic vicotry of soviet soldiers, eventhough only some 20 soviet soldiers died in Prague in fighting and all the rest died of alcohol poisoning or by accident.

[@peterhiggins7998]

I'm loving the hovis music in the background.

[@AlekseiR]

Great series ! Love it! Will you cover the sovietization of Romania and Bulgaria ?

[@TheColdWarTV]

We will

[@mikke6903]

Slovakia is the only country where communism was imposed from the west - from Czechia.. Communists lost in Slovakian election, the Democratic party was the winner..

[@7510086122]

100% correct, thank you mikke

[@vojticvojtic2631]

Yep, mostly because Slovakia is (or was) far more religious country than Bohemia and Moravia. Its logical that in a religous country such an antireligion thing as communism could not be a thing people actually wanted. I mean its not like communists won in Bohemia and Moravia by playing fair - killing politicians and anyone who stood in their way was a very popular thing.

[@Jesse_Dawg]

love these videos

[@thefishoftruth235]

Less biased than the last video, glad you took on some feedback. Keep up the great work!

[@cptrelentless80085]

Clearly everyone should listen to you, with your 100,000 subscribers. Tell us, how can they maximise their channel?

[@thefishoftruth235]

@@cptrelentless80085 i was just saying how in the comments of last episode ppl were criticizing for being too biased BUT in my opinion thos episode is greatly improved

[@24macgregor]

I dig the choice of Dvorák’s 9th, just on the nose enough to be perfect

[@TheBreadB]

Will you talk about Yugoslavia?

[@TheColdWarTV]

We will. We will cover every single country in the Eastern Bloc. Also partition of India, creation of Israel, Indochina, decolonization of Africa and so on.

[@vgames6792]

high quality content alert

[@BiharyGabor]

11:40 there is a mistake here. The first time a communist (Mihály Farkas) became Hungary's defence minister was 9 Sept 1948. Even if we consider a "hidden communist" (Péter Veres, National Peasents' Party) in this position, it was not before 24 Sept 1947.

[@marty2129]

Very educative video. One thing of note, though. The communists in Czechoslovakia slowly crept to power even before the WW2 ended. The best example is during the insurgency that liberated Prague (the capital of Czechoslovakia) that happened between 5th and 8th of May 1945. US Army divisions under general Patton already liberated Pilsen, and by the time the insurgency started, US troops were already sitting for a few days on the agreed line where they should meet the Red Army, and they far closer to Prague than any soviet unit. Patton wanted to advance further, especially after a reports of the situation in Prague got to him, and was held back only by Eisenhower's orders to not to cross the line (there was a fear of diplomatic troubles between USA and USSR). There was a caveat to those orders, however. If there was any official call for help from czechoslovak resistance, partisans or civilians in Prague, Patton was free to respond to it as fast as possible. But the call never came, as communist sympathisers already took control of the resistance leadership in Prague and chose to wait for the Red Army instead. Meanwhile, the insurgency found help in, of all troops belonging to gen. Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army (a unit created by Germans from soviet defectors, POWs, and russian anti-communist exiles, some of whom chose defection instead of death in POW camps after Stalin said that every soviet POW is a traitor), which defected from german forces, and thus helped the insurgency to succeed in libearting Prague from german occupation. Funnily enough, the first soviet unit to reach to Prague, I. S. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front, arrived only after Prague successfully liberated itself. Even then, communist propaganda then titled marshal Konev as the "Liberator of Prague" and claimed that whole Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Red Army, even if people from Pilsen and surrounded areas remembered otherwise.

[@johnnyscifi]

What happened to Bela, during, and after ww2?

[@thebunkerparodie6368]

will you cover the difference between east and west germany? Will you talk about the "hitler flied to *insert loaction depending on the theory" thing during the cold war ?

[@guimts8881]

If you have any extra time, could you talk about the inflation crisis that Hungary went through right after losing the the war? I've seen some mentions about it but never found an in depth analysis of what happened. I mean, how much of an impact did it have on Hungary?

[@attilaedem101]

Its bit late answer, but the inflation of the hungarian currency (at the time the so called "pengő") are the largest inflation in the history - the new government printed the money like a lunatic, its very easy to find 200M pengő banknotes even today, and if u are lucky u can even find so called "B pengő'S" too (the M mean "million" or "billion" - depend on the time when the banknote printed, in hungarian language we say "billion" as "milliárd" while milion are the same - so the shortcut are the exact same - and the B shortcut are the billion, which is "worth" 100x more than the "milliárd" pengő's when their printed - but all of them become worthless in the next day). Trading at the time de facto happened at the exact same way as its happening today in Venezuela (so either bartel or based on the weight of the currency). We even had an ironic joke from that time, which is "régen zsebben vittük a pénz és kosárban az árut, most kosárban visszük a pénzt és zsebben az árút" - which in my buchered translation mean "once we carried the money in our pockets and in basket the goods, now we carry the money in basket and in our pocket our goods" - i think this dark humor describe the best how its felt like to live that time. There is many reason for this - first, hungary used the gold standard at the time, which mean the value of the currency are the same as how much gold u can literaly buy for it from the banks inside the country (aka how many gold we had). Due we held many gold mine before the first world war hungary had a large gold reserve before the 2nd world war, but during the nazi occupation (which happened becouse Hungary tried to switch side) the germans first seized our gold and then in early 1945 their transported into germany - and we didnt get back for a long time. Second, the soviets taken everything from us what the germans left behind as part of "war reparation", their literaly seized our locomotive's and every machine from the Ganz heavy industry complex (which has been the 3rd largest factory complex in the continent at the time) in Csepel (this same complex renamed into Rákosi Ironworks when the puppet government installed and today knows as Csepel Ironworks). Third, the collectivization attempts caused mass starvation thoughout the country, so combined with the hyperinflation the value of food increased at the same time - god know how many ppl starved to death, we have records about how many ppl ended up in concentration camps or in "Malenkiy Robot" but we have no idea about that - the communist make a very good job to cover it. The government as final desperate attempt tried to solve the problem with introducing a new currency without the gold standard (its our currency even today), the so called "forint". Their somehow managed to keep it stable by dont print to much money, making the exchange rate with the old "pengő" literally 0 and due the collectivistation and industrial nationalization already on the way the communist party already reached the true equality between the ppl's - nobody had anything anymore which worth anything. Industrialist lost their factory's, ordinary ppl's lost their saving, peasents and the nobility (including my family) lost their land and the merchant already bankrupted due the hyperinflation. True socialist paradise - no wonder to their got only 17% in 1947 despite the inflintration into the Freeholders Party, the de facto takeover to the Socdem Party and the election itself (which become knows as blue ballot election becouse if u wanted to vote for any other party than the COmmunist party u needed to vote with a blue ballot while the pro communists voted with a red one, and sovitet soldiers stationed where the election took place just in chase if some "fascist" try to disrupt it - sound fair and free election, isnt it? And even with all of this 17% sounds pathetic....

[@f0restmen]

@@attilaedem101 Szépen összefoglatad!

[@sandraelmir4563]

can you please make a video about the round table in Poland and Solidarnosc?

[@alexwallachian7720]

Excellent video. I hope you will do the same for Romania (which continued to have a king until 1947), for Bulgaria (where the royal family was assassinated by the communists) and for Yugoslavia (with Tito)

[@aroundhere1200]

Papa Tito. Great guy.

[@alexwallachian7720]

@@aroundhere1200 well you guys had a bit of an argument

[@greekcommie621]

@@alexwallachian7720 one that doomed us greek communists as well. But still a cool guy.

[@aroundhere1200]

@@alexwallachian7720 he can be just one "Iosef" in this world and that would be me. The next time i would beat him on pocker. 1953 will be my year.

[@alexwallachian7720]

@@greekcommie621 consider yourself lucky. You don't to have a communist government like the above countries. It destroyed the economy but worst of all it destroyed the spirit and wiped out the educated people in gulags. This put these countries back decades and they will likely never recover. Greece was very lucky to escape that and develop. Even with the financial crisis greece is still more developed than them.

[@joaopedrogameiro1408]

What was the name of that last piece that was played?

[@TheColdWarTV]

Brahms - Hungarian Dance no. 4

[@guntherneuwirth349]

1:58 actually, only the parties forming the National Front (an association of political parties founded to take over the management of the state after the Second World War) were allowed in Czechoslovakia after the war, these were the parties: -the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (merged with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia after the communist takeover) -the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (after the coup, the Czechoslovak Socialist Party was formed, under Communist control; the former leadership of the party and its non-Communist members and supporters were persecuted by the Communists) -the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (after the coup, its leadership within the National Front was enacted) -Communist Party of Slovakia (after the coup, it was a regional Slovak party under the control of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) -Czechoslovak People's Party (Christian Democrats. After the coup, the pro-communist wing of the Christian Democrats took over the party, the party leadership resigned to continue the struggle and tried to emigrate, some succeeded, those who did not were persecuted by the communists.) -Slovak Democratic Party (after the coup, most of its politicians emigrated, those who remained were persecuted by the communists, the remnants of the party formed the Party of Slovak Revival, which was part of the communist-controlled National Front.)

[@annehersey9895]

Have you done an episode yet on McCarthyism? It gripped America for over a dozen years from the late 40's til the early 60's. It was a crazy time and cost thousands their jobs and reputations and not an insignificant amount of suicides.

[@babispapoulidis957]

Do the Greek Civil war

[@Jan-km3ir]

I am amazed both at your interest in and knowledge of the history of my country. There are just a couple of details to be corrected. 1. Gottwald was not the Prime Minister right after the war. The first Prime Minister was the pro-soviet social democrat Zdeněk Fierlinger (which did not help the situation either). The first success of communists was the agreement made in Moscow where President Beneš and the exile government from London arrived in 1945. This was a risky maneuver they made after it became obvious that the majority of Czechoslovakia would be controlled by the Red Army. They feared they might be ruled out if they stayed in London. The agreement enforced by Stalin and Czechoslovak communists said that the exile government would resign on the Soviet territory and a new government would arrive in Czechoslovakia. This new government was largely controlled by communists as you say in your video. 2. Ludvík Svoboda was not a communist at the moment of the coup, but he was a general who fought fascism on the Eastern front, i.e. he tended to favor Russians. 3. I do not think Svoboda promised that the army would remain neutral. I am not sure if this has been documented but he is traditionally quoted as saying: “The army will go with people.” Which in the context of the crisis suggested the army would go with commies. That was kind of a backstab for President Beneš. 4. A historian whose name I cannot remember estimated that in case President Beneš resisted Gottwald, then in a potential conflict not more than a third of the army would remain loyal to President Beneš. In any case, President Beneš was a devoted democrat, a skilled diplomat but no fighter. He feared civil war. He feared the Red Army might intervene while American soldiers would stand still. In Czech we have a saying: “Everyone becomes a general after the battle is over.” From this perspective, knowing NOW (i.e. in 2023) that four decades of communism turned my once prosperous democratic country into ruins, knowing that the country in the very CENTER of Europe is still referred to as Eastern Europe, knowing that Czech people in EU are still looked upon by many as “second class” citizens, I tend to blame President Beneš for not taking enough action to save democracy in 1948. He had an option to reject Gottwald´s proposals. He could attempt to appoint a caretaker government and call new elections. He was the President for Christ´s sake! He was meant to protect the people and democracy, not to be scared of civil war. Even a civil war would probably be a lesser evil than forty years of communism. From what I read the American ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1948 expressed an opinion that the country could resist.

[@andraslibal]

Quick note on pronunciation of Hungarian or any other language names, you can try forvo.com where native speakers read the name for you.

[@patrickblanchette4337]

Moral of the story: Don’t but a Soviet sympathizer in charge of the police.

[@helicongremory8480]

Or the army. But everyone should have already guess it in 1921.

[@DavidJGillCA]

And don't accept the resignations of the non-Communist members of the cabinet when they resign in protest of the coup!

Czechoslovakia got into Soviet sphere of influence NOT because it was liberated by Red Army. It was (mostly) liberated by Red Army because US and SSSR agreed it will be in Soviet sphere of influence. If that was not the case, US army - after liberating Pilsen (west of Czechoslovakia) - could continue and liberate Prague before Red Army came there (as a matter of fact, Prague mostly liberated itself, while Red Army was waiting on the sideline similar to Warsaw, waiting for the revolt to be crashed by Nazis first so they could come as true heroes - unfortunately for them, Prague uprising actually succeeded and Prague liberated itself). The rest of the video is great and also correctly describing the anti-west feeling, after France and United Kingdom (who were supposed to be Czechoslovakia allies) gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler in a futile and foolish attempt to prevent the war.

[@marlboro9tibike]

Great points there, exactly this as you said.

[@Helios8170]

"Maserik... was found dead mysteriously a few weeks later." Man, those Soviet windows must have really bad latches or something, people keep falling out of them.

[@Aaekin55]

Civilization V music

[@alexander33345]

Really!? How is it called?

[@TheColdWarTV]

It is Dvorak, Liszt and Brahms.

[@alexander33345]

@@TheColdWarTV thank you!

[@BillBrutal]

isn't it Germany's peace music?

[@danielduckington5789]

You can tell a good game when it ends up as base music for programmes and podcasts. Thanks, Sid Mier's Civilization 5

[@sandervr10]

Please do something else with that leader at 8.29 min . it not on its place and the music just doesn't fit in the middle of a video.this is not being critically ,but help to make you guys videos better.

[@Barricade379]

It should be told that Jan Masaryk was the son of Tomas Masaryk, the founder of the Czechoslovak state after the First World War. And his death symbolized the death of a free and democratic Czechoslovakia

[@tommy-er6hh]

Slovakia part of Czechoslovakia preWWII was considered a backward part and few slovaks were in gov't. Part of the reason the country split. I believe that it was forced back into one country after the war, because Stalin wanted to "punish" the Slovaks for joining Hitler. I bet few of the Stalnist communists in Czechosolvakia were Slovak, so they were still dominated by the Czechs. But I have nothing to back it up, just thoughts. Is this valid?

[@robertkalinic335]

Nope, Benes's Czechoslovak goverment was restored because it was legitimate goverment, not because Stalin said so. He probably didnt even give a fuck abount Slovakia.

[@bjarkel.993]

Actually, it is backward. Beneš needed Stalin’s help to obtain his objectives. And he could only reach those objectives with the Soviet Union’s help. Beneš could have pushed the US to get the Czech lands into the western allies sphere, but that would 1 have left Slovakia out in the cold. As a Czechoslovakian “nationalist” that wouldn’t do, but he was forced to hand over Carpathoukraine to the USSR. 2 to reach the goal of kicking the 1/3 population out of The Czech lands namely the Germans - could also only be reached under Stalin’s wing. No European democracy would have been able to keep the Germans out after WWII. To call Beneš a social democrat is to stretch it, he was translated a people’s socialist. But in the end, the Czech lands is what interested him, all the Germans were kicked out of Sudetenland and also most from Slovakia; yet the Hungarians in Slovakia were not all booted out only a part. So Slovakia couldn’t be saved from communism, the Czech lands could - but Beneš wanted no “Germs” in his lands so better be a fellow traveler. In my opinion he sold out the Czech lands to get rid of the Sudetenland Germans. The infamous Beneš decrees carry his name to this day. Some Czechs will scream murder now, prove me wrong. He licked Stalin’s boot from 1942.

[@DavidJGillCA]

Bjarke L. That's a questionable view of the facts. Your view of Benes is not accurate. Forced relocations happened all across Europe after WWII. The forced removal of the Germans from the Czech lands seems unfortunate and perhaps ultimately regrettable but the justifications for this plan can't be ignored. It was more clearly deserved than can be said of those Poles and Germans pushed West just so Stalin could take more territory for the Soviet Union.

[@luboskulhavy7769]

@@bjarkel.993 you're wrong about Sudeten Germans - it was an UK proposal to clear Eastern Europe of German minorities to prevent new war. Czechs didn't ask for it but when it was proposed by the allies they didn't protest as they had no reason to. Czechs also didn't ask for war reparations and Czechoslovakia was one of the first countries who re-established political connection with both German states.

[@briandelaney9710]

Gustav Husak!

[@朱雀桥上]

Chinese subtitle added. Please review, thanks!

[@darioguerra3065]

Video on the formal divisions of Germany and Korea?

[@war_pact]

What is the title of the classical piece playing at the 1:00 minute mark?

[@rbrtzmck]

You say "after the expulsion of the Nazi's ... by the advancing RED ARMY..." but you are not mentioning that the western part (Bohemia) was liberated by US troops (gen. Patton in Pilsen etc.). Unfortunately, the US troops were not allowed to liberate the capital city of Prague (more east), even though they would have been there a bit sooner than the Red Army...

[@antiochusiiithegreat7721]

This channel is great. Good info and a bunch of the red menace in the comments.

[@biglenin7306]

I dont think liberation and conquest are mutually exclusive. Sweet piano music by the way.

[@pizzapicante27]

I miss the beard clos-ups :C. Really in all of this its a shame Truman never tried to normalize relations with the USSR like Roosevelt did, had he for example accepted offer,s like the demilitarization of Germany in exchange for full Polish independence like Stalin wanted a lot could've been avoided, if only both of them werent so pig-headed.

[@pizzapicante27]

@@larmencio889 Thats a lot of speculation, you could say it the other way around and would still be speculation. But the facts are that both had something to win out of a settlement, and that Stalin offered that settlement, which Truman refused.

[@markpapenfuss1111]

pizzapicante27, speculation? No. Stalin was known for reneging “deals”. No chance Truman should have accepted such an offer.

[@pizzapicante27]

@@markpapenfuss1111 Its funny that you call something that happened speculation and then you speculate on wether Stalin would've kept a deal or not.

[@Crimethoughtfull]

Wow. I mean, I've read 1984 at least 3x, but had always assumed it was a bit Prophetic, b/c what it described (while fanciful) was what the Communist Party in Russia became...I had no idea it was largely Descriptive of shady stuff that actually happened just after the war.

[@comradedawid5292]

They were liberated in the first wave of soviet troops who were well behaved enough and then destroyed and pillaged by the other waves

[@Hidenka31]

Videos 2/3 is Chezslovakia and just little time for my Hungary . Sad in hungarian.

[@TheColdWarTV]

before you are too sad, please be sure to watch our two part series on the 1956 Uprising: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2XCmKKdZpWjg80 and kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3K5gYuimpZgY8k

[@richardaubrecht2822]

National Social Party wasn't conservative - it was ideologically centre-left, and was founded during a split inside the Czech social democratic party around 1900. In fact, in 1945 all right wing parties were banned, and only centrist and leftist parties were allowed to funtion.

[@Tronthe1st]

McCarthy didn’t go far enough

[@ketilflatnose4930]

Czech(oslovak) National Socialist party was NOT a conservative party (@ c3'45"). (also, certainly not a 'national socialist' party a la NSDAP). it was a socialist party prior to and throughout the first republic, but unlike the non-parochial Communists or Social Democrats, it was Czech in orientation and, prior to the collapse of Austria-Hungary, sought an independent Czech state. Hence its name. The conservative parties in pre- and post-war Czechoslovakia were, as elsewhere, the People's party (often Catholic; now Christian Democrats), Peasant/entrepreneurs party (agrarians), and of course those further right.

[@MrCordycep]

9:24 That bald guy looks a lot like Bob Hoskins.

[@lukas54cz71]

Sadly we became communist, I would like to see my homeland to raise again like First Czechoslovak Republic

[@HunterCihal]

Any Czechs watching?

[@martinvyslouzil2163]

Jo tady

[@medicann_coping]

im czechoslovak

[@AunknownMan]

The Albanian People's Socialist Republic please! I want to know more!

[@tessp.l1284]

You fail to recognize that Hungary had a 1000 year history as a Kingdom and was a very Catholic nation. You should have at least mentioned Cardinal Primate Mindszenty, who was the spiritual leader of the country. He was tortured and drugged and given a circus trial after those rigged elections and sentenced for life . In the 1956 uprising he was freed, but when Soviet tanks came back in, he took refuge in the US Embassy, leaving in 1971 at the urging of Nixon, only to be betrayed by Paul VI in the aftermath of V2. The conciliar Church that was created out of this unCatholic council was very friendly to Communism. His is a tragic story. But only this past weekend over 300,000 Hungarian Catholics took part in a Eucharistic Procession in the streets. Compare this treatment with JPII from Poland, who was a Marxist plant from the very beginning, in these countries behind the Iron Curtain, all seminarians to the priesthood had to be approved by the KGB. The true priests suffered and were killed.

[@charlesowens7174]

"Declared a democracy, and a dictatorship was established" That smell, that smelly kind of smell. That smelly smell that smells... smelly

[@gezbo66]

Yes what about Poland...?

[@brandonfarris8049]

What abut the Hungarian revulsion in 1956.

[@TheColdWarTV]

We will get there. We are still setting up the stage.

[@brandonfarris8049]

@@TheColdWarTV ok

[@acss4310]

Czechoslovakia and Hungary was richest countries in europe

[@richardque4952]

Before ww2.

[@gabrielfarkas257]

Damn, I thought British Empire was richer.

[@LeftistUprising]

I'm a HUGE fan of this channel! From you, I've learned how advanced and misunderstood of a society the socialist-aligned societies of Europe were.

[@Helios8170]

Found the commie

[@LeonNikkidude]

Capitalism and Socialism is best in a hybrid system.It just works better that way!

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

I still call the Czech Republic "Czechoslovakia" 😂 that's what too much history will get you. Hungary - *says last name first and first name last* Japan - *off in the distance with a thumps up*

[@majfej]

Bit boring way of explaining Czechslovakia situation, skipping a lot of important parts of the takeover and missing opportunity to show the drama of February coup in Prague. Unconstitutional steps of Communists, student pro-democratic protests and marcing of Communist (aka SA) militias. Also missing importance of Czechoslovak communist coup for development in Western Europe.

[@AB8511]

Indeed. They did not mention important issues Czechoslovak - Soviet treaty of 1943, grain shippments 1946, cessation of Carpathian Ruthenia also in 1946 and of course coup d etat in 1948 was unconstitutional...

[@tylerbozinovski4624]

Why are there no mentions of any of the ethnic cleansings/deportations that took place in both of these countries after the war? It definitely helped to propel the communists to total power!

[@typiclyjohny5114]

because it was done before the Countries turned communist

[@tylerbozinovski4624]

@@typiclyjohny5114 They were becoming communist at that time though, and they continued even after the communists had successfully seized total power in their respective countries. Also, communist officials in these immediate postwar governments had openly expressed their support for these events, meaning that they had played a role in them, and it had even helped them rise to power.

[@papadragon695]

Talk about Tito and Yugoslavia

[@yenguinour5491]

"This 38% result turned out to be the best result by a communist party from a free election in Europe's history". Woah woah slow down there champ. There is an election held in Spain in 1936 you may wanna look into.

[@blase777]

weren't the spanish communists only a part of a bigger leftist front during those elections? but ok, technically one can say that this was greater victory for communist movement in free elections, although there were surely big differences between pre-war western leftist and their eastern-european Moscow-influenced counterparts.

[@yenguinour5491]

My qualm is with the video speaker representing the idea in plain matter-of-fact tone without getting into nuances. That's why I contested it. Your point is still valid though.

[@viteydarniy7]

Gottwald seems like an egoistic idealist at the begining, than soon turned coward, shitting himself from Stalin and drowning his fears in vodka. Basicaly all government leaders after him were cowards. Velvet revolution wouldn't happen may Russia waved a finger in our direction. (So, forever cheers to mr. Gorbachov.)

[@alexhennigh5242]

Government in exile lol. Sorry, if you're not on the land you claim to govern you are not in charge, it's that simple.

[@joelcraig-sauer6637]

Wrong

[@vadfarkas14]

As far as i can tell the reason the term exiled goverment exist is because for one reason or another the goverment fled. But the new goverment is not recognized by the international community and the previous goverment itself since they were removed by force. An exiled goverment also appriciates the support of their host country (obviously). So Maybe they are not the de facto controllers of a nation. But they are usually the legitimate goverment. (this depends on your perspective)

[@Skawagon]

To be fair to Benes, he did enter negotiations with the Soviets while still being exiled. For him, a major concession was a restoration of pre-Munich borders and to be allowed to expel Czech-germans after the war. He achieved this goal and as a result, germans were removed from Czechoslovakia, often violently. He also nationalized big industry both Czech and German-owned. So when we look at the rule of law, it was already decaying strongly under him. It is also worth remembering that while Czechs did indeed voted for communists in large numbers, Slovaks did not. That might be largely due to their vastly different experience of Soviet "liberation", them, of course, being a puppet Nazi regime during the war. Unfortunately, Czechs outnumbered Slovaks greatly so only limited advantage of their wisdom could be taken off at the time. Also, the broad government of the national front established after the war, with the dominant position of the communist party was of great advantage. I belive that his was also agreed between Molotov and Benes beforehand, presumably in a bid to get soviets to agree to Munich nullification (Caution this is a speculation of mine). By the way one of the reasons the communists fare that good in the fee elections was also the fact that the Social democrats feared being overtaken by them and to prevent this introduced manifesto that was even more extreme than what the communists proposed. In the end, ironically many voted communists because the social democrats seemed way more radical.

[@letecmig]

"while Czechs did indeed voted for communists in large numbers, Slovaks did not".... well, the Communists got about 42% of votes in Czech part, and 32% in Slovak part. So yes, communists got less in Slovakia, but the difference was not fundamental

[@luboskulhavy7769]

It was an UK proposal to clear Eastern Europe of German minorities to prevent new war and they were expelled from all Eastern European states - 15 million to be exact. There were 2.9 million expelled out of 3.5 million between 1945-47. Czechoslovakia didn't ask for war reparations and Czechoslovakia was one of the first countries who established connection with both German states

[@72Kraken]

If only the western allies managed to liberate a bit more of Europe

[@PotatoSmasher420]

Well, too bad they agreed with Soviet Union to NOT liberate further. For example american general G.S.Patton liberated western part of Czech republic but was denied when he asked for permission to advance and liberate further, while the rest of the US army rested at the border and waited for soviets to arrive from east few days later. They were able to liberate more. They just got into politics again. Yet another reason why the Czechs could see the west as traitors post war. München agreement sacrificed them to Hitler. Then they didn't liberate them when they could. All to please the other party.

[@napoleonbonaparteempereurd4676]

Hello brave soldier. I have a job for you...