Czechoslovakia Timeline

(October 28, 1918 – December 31, 1992)

Czechoslovakia was a Central European state founded in 1918 following the collapse of Austria-Hungary. It existed as an independent democracy until Nazi occupation in 1939, was re-established after World War II, fell under communist rule after the 1948 coup, experienced the liberalization movement of the Prague Spring in 1968 (suppressed by Soviet invasion), and finally returned to democracy through the peaceful Velvet Revolution of 1989 before dissolving into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993. More Less

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Founding and Interwar Era

Patriotic self-help organizations founded by Czech leaders

1848

Taking advantage of limited opportunities for political participation under Austrian rule, Czech leaders such as historian František Palacký founded various patriotic self-help organizations which gave many compatriots a chance to participate in communal life before independence.

Image source: František Palacký

Masaryk elected to the Austrian Reichsrat

1891 - 1914

An advocate of democratic reform and Czech autonomy within Austria-Hungary, Masaryk was elected twice to the Reichsrat (Austrian Parliament), from 1891 to 1893 for the Young Czech Party, and from 1907 to 1914 for the Czech Realist Party, which he had founded in 1889 with Karel Kramář and Josef Kaizl.

Image source: Tomáš Masaryk

Early administrative divisions of the new state

1918 - 1923

Different systems existed in former Austrian territory (Bohemia, Moravia, a small part of Silesia) compared to former Hungarian territory (Slovakia and Ruthenia): three lands plus 21 counties in Slovakia and three counties in Ruthenia, both divided into districts.

Independence from Austria-Hungary declared

Oct 1918

Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 as Czecho-Slovakia (until 1920), when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. It was one of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, formalized by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Image source: Czechoslovakia

Masaryk becomes first president of Czechoslovakia

Nov 14, 1918 - Dec 14, 1935

The new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He championed a democratic republic and was succeeded by his close ally Edvard Beneš.

Little Entente alliance formed

1921 - 1938

Foreign minister Beneš became the prime architect of the Czechoslovak-Romanian-Yugoslav alliance known as the Little Entente (1921–38), directed against Hungarian attempts to reclaim lost areas after World War I.

Image source: Little Entente

Reorganization into grand counties

1923 - 1927

As before, except that the Slovak and Ruthenian counties were replaced by six grand counties in Slovakia and one grand county in Ruthenia, with the numbers and boundaries of districts changed in those territories.

Four-land administrative system established

1928 - 1938

Czechoslovakia was reorganized into four lands: Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, Slovakia and Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, each divided into districts.

Ruzyně airport opens in Prague

1937

Prague's civil airport in Ruzyně became one of the most modern terminals in the world when it was finished in 1937, reflecting the country's rapid infrastructure development after its founding.

Image source: Václav Havel Airport Prague

World War II

Hitler demands control of the Sudetenland

Sep 1938

In September 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded control of the Sudetenland, a border region of Czechoslovakia with a large ethnic German population, escalating tensions that had grown since the German element became allied with the Nazis after 1933.

Image source: Munich Agreement

Munich Agreement signed

Sep 29, 1938

On 29 September 1938, Britain and France ceded control of the Sudetenland to Germany in the Appeasement at the Munich Conference; France ignored the military alliance it had with Czechoslovakia, collapsing the nation's military alliance with France.

Nazi Germany occupies the Sudetenland

Oct 1938

During October 1938, Nazi Germany occupied the Sudetenland border region, effectively crippling Czechoslovak defences. Poland also occupied Zaolzie, an area whose population was majority Polish. Slovakia became autonomous in the fall of 1938.

Image source: Sudetenland

Beneš forms government-in-exile

1939 - 1945

After the outbreak of World War II, former Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš formed a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the Allies, keeping the cause of a restored Czechoslovakia alive throughout the war.

Image source: Edvard Beneš

Construction of first motorways halted

1939

Construction of the first motorways in Czechoslovakia began in 1939, but the work was stopped after the German occupation during World War II.

Image source: Transport in Czechoslovakia

Annihilation of Jewish populations

1939 - 1945

The Jewish populations of Bohemia and Moravia (118,000 according to the 1930 census) were virtually annihilated. Many Jews emigrated after 1939; more than 70,000 were killed, while 8,000 survived at Terezín.

Image source: The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia

Dismemberment of Czechoslovakia

Mar 14, 1939 - Mar 16, 1939

On 14 March 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was dismembered by the proclamation of the Slovak State; the next day the rest of Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied and annexed by Hungary; the following day the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed.

Image source: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Nazi Germanization plan for the Protectorate

1940

In 1940, in a secret Nazi plan for the Germanization of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, it was declared that those considered to be of racially Mongoloid origin and the Czech intelligentsia were not to be Germanized.

Operation Anthropoid: Heydrich assassinated

Jun 4, 1942

On 4 June 1942, Reinhard Heydrich died after being wounded by an assassin in Operation Anthropoid, a daring resistance operation against the Nazi leadership in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Image source: Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

German war effort accelerated in the Protectorate

1943

In 1943 the German war effort was accelerated, intensifying exploitation of the Protectorate's industry and population for the Nazi war machine.

US Third Army enters Plzeň

May 6, 1945

On 6 May 1945, the third US Army of General Patton entered Plzeň from the south west during the liberation of Czechoslovakia near the end of the war in Europe.

Image source: Plzeň

Soviet Red Army enters Prague

May 9, 1945

On 9 May 1945, Soviet Red Army troops entered Prague, marking the end of the German occupation of the Czech lands and the conclusion of World War II in Europe.

Image source: Prague offensive

Communist Era

Expulsion of ethnic Germans completed

1945 - 1948

Those who remained were collectively accused of supporting the Nazis after the Munich Agreement, as 97.32% of Sudeten Germans had voted for the NSDAP in the December 1938 elections. In 1948 this provision was cancelled for Hungarians but only partially for Germans.

Image source: Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia

Carpathian Ruthenia ceded to the Soviet Union

Jun 1945

After World War II, Czechoslovakia was re-established under its pre-1938 borders, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which was occupied by and in June 1945 formally ceded to the Soviet Union, becoming part of the Ukrainian SSR.

Image source: Transcarpathia

Communist Party wins 1946 parliamentary election

1946

In the 1946 parliamentary election, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won in the Czech lands, and the Democratic Party won in Slovakia. The party's membership had surged from 80,000 in 1938 to 500,000 at Liberation and 1.3 million by the end of 1947.

Communist coup of February 1948

Feb 1948

In February 1948 the Communists seized power in a coup, ending the coalition government era and transforming Czechoslovakia into a Marxist-Leninist state under Soviet domination with a command economy.

Image source: 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état

Greek Communist refugees settle in former Sudetenland

1949

Following the expulsion of the ethnic German population, parts of the former Sudetenland, especially around Krnov and the Jeseníky mountain region, were settled in 1949 by Communist refugees from Northern Greece who had fled the Greek Civil War.

Image source: Krnov

Czechoslovakia joins Comecon

1949

From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a planned economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949.

Image source: Comecon

Currency reform causes public dissatisfaction

Jun 1953 - Jun 2, 1953

The currency reform of June 1953 caused dissatisfaction among Czechoslovak citizens, reflected in riots in the town of Plzeň from 31 May to 2 June 1953 expressing economic discontent.

Image source: Czechoslovak koruna

Warsaw Pact membership

1955

Czechoslovakia's defense status within the Soviet bloc was formalized through its membership in the Warsaw Pact, established in 1955 as a military alliance of Eastern Bloc states.

Image source: Warsaw Pact

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic proclaimed

1960

In 1960, the country officially became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, under a new Communist constitution that would later see major amendments in 1968, 1971, 1975, 1978, and 1989.

Image source: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Dubček appointed First Secretary

Jan 5, 1968

On 5 January 1968, the reformer Alexander Dubček was appointed to the key post of First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, launching the period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring.

Image source: Alexander Dubček

Bratislava Declaration signed

Aug 3, 1968

On 3 August 1968, representatives of the Communist and Worker's parties of Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, the USSR, and Czechoslovakia signed the Bratislava Declaration. Afterward, Soviet troops left Czechoslovak territory but soon returned.

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

Aug 21, 1968

The Prague Spring ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by troops of Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary, invaded Czechoslovakia on the night of 20–21 August 1968, crushing the reform movement.

Image source: Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

Federation of Czech and Slovak Socialist Republics

1969

One plank of the reform program was carried out: in 1968–69, Czechoslovakia was turned into a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic, formalized by the Constitutional Law of Federation.

Husák becomes KSČ leader and later president

1969 - 1989

Gustáv Husák was elected first secretary of the KSČ in 1969 (changed to general secretary in 1971) and president of Czechoslovakia in 1975, presiding over the normalization era following the invasion.

Image source: Gustáv Husák

Velvet Revolution and Dissolution

Gorbachev rises to power in the USSR

Mar 1985

In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. Since 1986, he and his advisers promoted Glasnost and Perestroika, weakening the grip of communist regimes across Eastern Europe.

Image source: Mikhail Gorbachev

Velvet Revolution ends communist rule

Nov 17, 1989 - Nov 28, 1989

As Marxist-Leninist governments collapsed across Central and Eastern Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their communist government during the Velvet Revolution, which began on 17 November 1989 and ended 11 days later on 28 November when all top Communist leaders and the party itself resigned, restoring democracy.

Image source: Velvet Revolution

Jakeš resigns along with CPC Presidium

Nov 24, 1989

Miloš Jakeš, a hardliner and communist leader since 17 December 1987 of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, resigned on 24 November 1989 along with the CPC's entire Presidium during the Velvet Revolution.

Image source: Miloš Jakeš

Renamed Czech and Slovak Federative Republic

1990 - 1992

Shortly after the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, until its peaceful dissolution on 31 December 1992.

Parliament dissolves Czechoslovakia

1992

In 1992, because of growing nationalist tensions in the government, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved by parliament, setting the stage for the creation of two independent states.

Image source: Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Peaceful split into two sovereign states

Dec 31, 1992

On 31 December 1992, Czechoslovakia formally separated into two independent countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, in what became known as the Velvet Divorce.

Key Facts

Czechoslovakia was founded on October 28, 1918, uniting Czech and Slovak lands after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Munich Agreement of 1938 forced Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany, leading to full occupation in 1939.
A communist coup in February 1948 brought Czechoslovakia under Soviet-aligned rule for over four decades.
The Prague Spring of 1968, a reform movement led by Alexander Dubček, was crushed by a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion.
The Velvet Revolution of 1989 peacefully ended communist rule, and Czechoslovakia dissolved peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993.

Source

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