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Czechoslovakia's Socialist Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Josef Kalvoda
Josef Kalvoda*
Affiliation:
Saint Joseph College (Connecticut)
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Extract

Czechoslovakia has become a socialist republic. On July 11, 1960, the recently elected (June 12) Czechoslovak National Assembly approved a new socialist constitution replacing the previously existing, though already unobserved, “people's democratic” constitution of May, 1948.1 The new official name of the state is the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR), and its coat of arms incorporates the Soviet-styled Red Star as “the symbol of the victory of socialism.” The Czechoslovak Communists proudly boast that Czechoslovakia is the first country in the world after the Soviet Union to achieve socialist production relations and to root its achievements in a socialist constitution. As they see it, the document is both a summary of gains already achieved—socialism, and a program for the transition from socialism to communism. The socialist production relations are further developing, and the country is “passing over to the building of an advanced socialist society and is mustering its forces for the transition to communism.”

Type
Articles
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 1961 , pp. 220 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1961

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References

1 Ustavni zákon ze dne 11. července 1960, Sbirka zákonů Ceskoslovenské socialistickeé republiky,.č 100, částka 40,11. července 1960 [Constitutional Law of July 11,1960, No. 100, 1960 Coll.].

2 Referát A. Novotného na zasedáni UV KSC dne 7.-8. dubna 1960:“Zásady nové ùstavy Ceskoslovenskeé republiky a připrava voleb” (“Report by A. Novotny at the Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, April 7-8, 1960: ‘Principles of the New Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Preparation of the Election’” ), Rudé právo, April 17, 1960.

3 Cf. Preamble of the Constitution, op. cit.

4 Ibid.

5 Jaromir Sedlák, Leninská teorie postupného vitězstvi socialistické revoluce (“The Leninist Theory of the Gradual Victory of the Socialist Revolution”), Rudé právo, June 3, 1960.

6 NovotnÝop. cit.

7 Ibid.

8 Zákon ze dne 9. července 1959 O JEDNOTNYCH ZEMEDELSKYCH DRUZSTVECH, zákon č. 49, Sbirka zákontů, Republiky československé, dne 24. července 1959 [Law No. 49, 1959 Coll.].

9 Professor Viktor Knapp,“Přspěvek k diskusi nové ustavy” (“Contribution to the Discussion of the New Constitution”), Rudi pravo, May 13, 1960.

10 “What this Year Has in Store,” Prague News Letter, Vol. XVI, No. 1, January 9, 1960.

11 Andrei Y., Vyshinsky, The Law of the Soviet State (New York: Macmillan Co., 1948), p. 10.Google Scholar

12 Ibid.; The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels is cited.

13 Ibid., a citation from Lenin.

14 Ibid., pp. 40-41.

15 Ibid., p. 40; Questions of Leninism by Stalin is cited.

16 Ibid., pp. 160 and 554.

17 NovotnÝ, op. cit.

18 Vyshinsky, op. cit., p. 318.

19 Cf.“Resoluce ustfedniho uÝboru KSC …“ (“Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC …“), Rudé právo and Zemědělské noviny, January 16, 1960.

20 NovotnÝ, op. cit. (Rudé právo, April 17, 1960).

21 Vyshinsky, op. cit., pp. 213, 214, and 215.

22 "Ibid., p. 247.

23 Vyshinsky, op. cit., p. 13.

24 Ibid., p. 337.

25 Rudé právo, June 13, 1960.

26 Bohemia (Germany), July, 1960.

27 Cf. Svobodné slovo and Lidovdá demokracie, April 26, 1960.

28 NovotnÝ, op. cit.

29 Ibid.

30 Sedlák, op. cit.

31 See CeskoslovenskÝ přehled, a publication of Free Europe Committee, Inc., New York, December, 1956, and January and February, 1957, issues, defending this policy.

32 Cf. “A Memorandum to the Administration and the Congress of the United States of America” by the Czech Christian Democratic Movement, October 28, 1954, outlining a new strategy in the cold war and its realistic conduct, Congressional Record—Senate, February 15, 1955, pp. 1311-12; and Appendix, February 2, 1955.

33 The objection that the liberation-revolt-aid policy would have meant war in 1956 can be easily disputed by pointing at the Soviet leaders' hesitation to send additional troops to Hungary in October, 1956. They acted only after it was clear to them that the ; United States let them have a free hand by pointing at the Soviet“right” to station troops in Hungary under the provisions of the Warsaw Treaty. Khrushchev himself indicated i on several occasions that he had opposition in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party on the question of dispatching troops to Hungary.

Inview of the disloyalty of the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary (several thousand : soldiers and officers either joined the Freedom Fighters or refused to fight them) and the need for sending largely Mongolian units to that country, the disunity in the highest, organ of the Soviet Communist Party which was not yet completely controlled by Khrushchev, the unreliability of the armies of the satellite nations, and the tense situation ', bordering on revolt in Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, it is. doubtful whether the Soviets would have gone to war.;

Cf. this writer's interpretation of the events in Eastern Europe in 1956, Titoism (New York: Vantage, 1958), Chaps. 12–14.