Rudolf Slansky
was born in Moravia in Czechoslovakia
in 1901. He joined
the Communist Party when it was formed in 1929 and soon became a close
associate of its leader, Klement
Gottwald.
The German
Army marched into the Sudetenland on 1st October, 1938. Slansky
fled to the Soviet Union where he remained
for most of the Second World War. In 1944 he
returned to Czechoslovakia
where he assisted
the Slovak uprising.
In
March 1945 Eduard
Benes flew
to Moscow and after meeting Joseph Stalin
agreed that in his post-war coalition he would accept several Soviet-trained
Czechs. Benes and Jan Masaryk accompanied
the Russian-sponsored Czechoslovak Corps that liberated the country
from Nazi Germany in May 1945.
Slansky became
Secretary-General of the Communist Party. In
the 1946 general election the Communist Party won the largest number
of parliamentary seats with 38 per cent of the votes. Klement
Gottwald set up a National Front government but caused great controversy
when under the orders of Joseph Stalin,
he rejected Marshall Aid.
In June 1948, when it became clear that Gottwald intended to introduce
a Russian-style political system, Eduard
Benes resigned
as president. Later that year Jan Masaryk
was found dead. He had either been murdered or had committed suicide
in protest at the imposition of a Stalinist political system.
Slansky
refused to follow the orders of Joseph Stalin
and in September, 1951, he was arrested and charged with being a follower
of Josip Tito of Yugoslavia.
Rudolf Slansky
was executed on 2nd December, 1952.
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