Communist Czechoslovakia explained for visitors

Ask a Czech over fifty what communism was like and the answer is rarely a speech. It's a shrug, a story about queues, or a joke. Behind the shrug was a system that shaped everything from jobs to holidays, and it ended in 1989, not so long ago.

How it began

After the Second World War, Czechoslovakia was a democracy with a strong Communist Party, which won the largest share of the vote in the 1946 elections. In February 1948 the party took full control in a political crisis and pushed the other parties out of power. Czechoslovakia became part of the Soviet-led bloc.

The first decade

Industry and shops were nationalised, farms collectivised and opposition crushed. The secret police, the StB, watched citizens and ran networks of informers. Show trials in the early 1950s sent many people to prison for long terms or to their deaths; the best-known victim was Milada Horáková, a politician executed in 1950. A giant statue of Stalin went up on Letná hill in 1955 and came down in 1962. A metronome stands there now.

Daily life

Work was guaranteed and housing was allocated by the state. Prices were fixed and goods often scarce, so people queued and relied on personal connections. Travel abroad, especially to the West, needed permission. Schools and workplaces taught the official ideology. Many people got through by keeping their heads down, retreating to a weekend cottage (chata) and living privately. Cottage culture is still strong today; see Czech etiquette for related habits.

The thaw and the crash

By the 1960s, economic problems and a new generation were pushing for reform. In 1968 the Prague Spring tried to create "socialism with a human face". Warsaw Pact troops invaded in August, as our Prague Spring guide explains. In January 1969 a student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire in protest on Wenceslas Square.

Normalisation

The period after 1969 is known as "normalisation". Reform communists were removed from their posts, and many professionals lost their jobs. Gustáv Husák took over the party in April 1969. The regime offered stability in return for conformity. Dissidents who refused, among them the playwright Václav Havel, were harassed and sometimes imprisoned. Charter 77, a manifesto signed by intellectuals, called on the state to respect human rights.

The end

Mass protests in November 1989 brought the regime down within weeks, in the Velvet Revolution (see our explainer). Havel became president. The Czech Republic and Slovakia separated peacefully on 1 January 1993.

What remains in Prague

You don't need a museum to see the period. The metronome on Letná marks the former Stalin monument. The Memorial to the Victims of Communism on the slope of Petřín hill shows a line of figures losing parts of their bodies as they descend steps. It is by the sculptor Olbram Zoubek and was unveiled in 2002.

Housing estates, covered in our guide to communist-era architecture, are home to a large share of residents. The Žižkov tower and the Congress Centre belong to the period too. For a site that carries both Nazi and communist history, the Terezín memorial is a day trip away.

How to talk about it

Czechs have mixed feelings. Some remember hardship and fear, others stability and community, and many remember both. Ask questions rather than assuming. Be careful with jokes about the regime among people you don't know well, since humour from inside the system isn't always welcome from outside.

Do this today

Walk up to the metronome on Letná, look out over the city and imagine the statue that stood there. Then read our short history of Prague for the wider frame.