Zbyněk Zeman and Antonín Klimek
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205838
- eISBN:
- 9780191676802
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205838.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter talks about the magnificent welcome Beneš received in Prague in May 1945, where the great international policy was the matrix of the local divisions in Czechoslovakia. The non-communist ...
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This chapter talks about the magnificent welcome Beneš received in Prague in May 1945, where the great international policy was the matrix of the local divisions in Czechoslovakia. The non-communist parties failed in their attempt to replace the influence of Agrarian Party in the countryside after carrying out an election campaign. The outcome of the elections deeply depressed Beneš as well as the democratic parties. The communist party achieved a monopoly of political power, and Beneš was fearful of Soviet military intervention. Beneš was uncertain of his own position as the supreme commander of the Czechoslovak army. The ceremonial part of Beneš's state funeral took place on 8 September, 1948, in the building of the National Museum in Wenceslas Square in Prague.Less
This chapter talks about the magnificent welcome Beneš received in Prague in May 1945, where the great international policy was the matrix of the local divisions in Czechoslovakia. The non-communist parties failed in their attempt to replace the influence of Agrarian Party in the countryside after carrying out an election campaign. The outcome of the elections deeply depressed Beneš as well as the democratic parties. The communist party achieved a monopoly of political power, and Beneš was fearful of Soviet military intervention. Beneš was uncertain of his own position as the supreme commander of the Czechoslovak army. The ceremonial part of Beneš's state funeral took place on 8 September, 1948, in the building of the National Museum in Wenceslas Square in Prague.
Zbyněk Zeman and Antonín Klimek
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205838
- eISBN:
- 9780191676802
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205838.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter introduces Edvard Beneš as a foreign minister during the rise of the Czechoslovak Republic, and as the second president during the fall at Munich. Beneš's person attracted journalists ...
More
This chapter introduces Edvard Beneš as a foreign minister during the rise of the Czechoslovak Republic, and as the second president during the fall at Munich. Beneš's person attracted journalists and writers, particularly from writers of memories rather than from historians. There exists a full-length biography of Beneš in Czech. One of his severest critics hinted that Beneš was not a democrat by nature. Beneš thought of politics as a scientific pursuit, and approached politics with a significant resilience. Beneš was slow in coming to terms with the changing international circumstances, and he did not informed his countrymen about the true extent of change that they were to experience.Less
This chapter introduces Edvard Beneš as a foreign minister during the rise of the Czechoslovak Republic, and as the second president during the fall at Munich. Beneš's person attracted journalists and writers, particularly from writers of memories rather than from historians. There exists a full-length biography of Beneš in Czech. One of his severest critics hinted that Beneš was not a democrat by nature. Beneš thought of politics as a scientific pursuit, and approached politics with a significant resilience. Beneš was slow in coming to terms with the changing international circumstances, and he did not informed his countrymen about the true extent of change that they were to experience.
Zbyněk Zeman and Antonín Klimek
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205838
- eISBN:
- 9780191676802
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205838.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter introduces Beneš and his family background. Early on in his life Beneš converted his name from Eduard to Edvard. Beneš was born during a era which homed many free-thinkers who followed ...
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This chapter introduces Beneš and his family background. Early on in his life Beneš converted his name from Eduard to Edvard. Beneš was born during a era which homed many free-thinkers who followed the influence of the Catholic Church, Beneš's family included. He was the tenth baby in his family. Both Beneš and his wife were hard working people and ambitious, and they started their married life in a small wooden cottage with about five hectares of land and some ready cash. The success of Beneš's father did not affect the practice of parsimony in the family. Beneš had lots to do at a brick working field, and he got excellent grades in school. Beneš became a leading Czech teacher, and belonged to a profession which was held in high esteem.Less
This chapter introduces Beneš and his family background. Early on in his life Beneš converted his name from Eduard to Edvard. Beneš was born during a era which homed many free-thinkers who followed the influence of the Catholic Church, Beneš's family included. He was the tenth baby in his family. Both Beneš and his wife were hard working people and ambitious, and they started their married life in a small wooden cottage with about five hectares of land and some ready cash. The success of Beneš's father did not affect the practice of parsimony in the family. Beneš had lots to do at a brick working field, and he got excellent grades in school. Beneš became a leading Czech teacher, and belonged to a profession which was held in high esteem.
Zbynék Zeman and Antonín Klimek
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205838
- eISBN:
- 9780191676802
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205838.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Edvard Beneš was a key figure in the history of Czechoslovakia in the first three decades of her existence. He helped Thomas Masaryk to found the state in World War I, and in the 1920s he worked on ...
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Edvard Beneš was a key figure in the history of Czechoslovakia in the first three decades of her existence. He helped Thomas Masaryk to found the state in World War I, and in the 1920s he worked on foreign policy and was briefly prime minister before being elected president in 1935. His presidency saw the loss of the Sudetenland in Munich in 1938, and this was followed by the German occupation in 1939, which forced Beneš to form a London-based government-in-exile for the duration of the war. He lived to see a brief period of restored independence (1945–8), and died in 1948, in the year when Czechoslovakia became another satellite state in Stalin's Soviet Union. Beneš regarded himself as having been supremely successful in World War I and during the peace conference. He was a fair-weather politician, at his best when things were going well for him. Munich was a blow which deeply upset him, though he staged a remarkable come-back for himself and Czechoslovakia in World War II. After the conclusion of the treaty with Moscow in 1943, Beneš briefly recovered his self-confident optimism, only to lose it gradually in the subsequent years. President of a country he'd helped to create, Beneš was finally broken by the stresses imposed on him by international circumstances in a central Europe dominated first by Hitler and then by Stalin. He died a disappointed, broken man in 1948.Less
Edvard Beneš was a key figure in the history of Czechoslovakia in the first three decades of her existence. He helped Thomas Masaryk to found the state in World War I, and in the 1920s he worked on foreign policy and was briefly prime minister before being elected president in 1935. His presidency saw the loss of the Sudetenland in Munich in 1938, and this was followed by the German occupation in 1939, which forced Beneš to form a London-based government-in-exile for the duration of the war. He lived to see a brief period of restored independence (1945–8), and died in 1948, in the year when Czechoslovakia became another satellite state in Stalin's Soviet Union. Beneš regarded himself as having been supremely successful in World War I and during the peace conference. He was a fair-weather politician, at his best when things were going well for him. Munich was a blow which deeply upset him, though he staged a remarkable come-back for himself and Czechoslovakia in World War II. After the conclusion of the treaty with Moscow in 1943, Beneš briefly recovered his self-confident optimism, only to lose it gradually in the subsequent years. President of a country he'd helped to create, Beneš was finally broken by the stresses imposed on him by international circumstances in a central Europe dominated first by Hitler and then by Stalin. He died a disappointed, broken man in 1948.
Andrea Orzoff
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367812
- eISBN:
- 9780199867592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367812.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Many American professors had studied in Czechoslovakia, some of them with Masaryk himself. In response to the Nazis, they began writing scholarly works on interwar Czechoslovakia, describing it as a ...
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Many American professors had studied in Czechoslovakia, some of them with Masaryk himself. In response to the Nazis, they began writing scholarly works on interwar Czechoslovakia, describing it as a democratic paradise, a praiseworthy exception amid a Europe tilting rightward. After the 1948 coup, many Castle adherents emigrated to America; those who entered academe enshrined the Castle myth in English-language historiography.Less
Many American professors had studied in Czechoslovakia, some of them with Masaryk himself. In response to the Nazis, they began writing scholarly works on interwar Czechoslovakia, describing it as a democratic paradise, a praiseworthy exception amid a Europe tilting rightward. After the 1948 coup, many Castle adherents emigrated to America; those who entered academe enshrined the Castle myth in English-language historiography.
