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Gottwald and the Bolshevization of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1929-1939)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

H. Gordon Skilling
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Extract

During the twenty years between the wars, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was forged as the instrument of eventual Communist rule in that country. In the first decade of its history the CPC was racked with inner crises, often provoked by Comintern intervention in party affairs, and always settled in accordance with the decisions of the Comintern organs of authority.

In 1929 the fate of the CPC was entrusted to Klement Gottwald. Ten years later the Czechoslovak party faithfully mirrored, in leadership and in policy, the desires of the Soviet Union and the International. Gottwald undoubtedly deserves most of the credit for this achievement and for thus molding a movement capable of undertaking the rule of postwar Czechoslovakia. After he had achieved mastery of the party, Gottwald maintained his authority almost unchallenged by serious rivals. Wherever deviations did occur, he was able to dissociate himself from direct responsibility and to overcome the opposition.

Type
Articles
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , December 1961 , pp. 641 - 655
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1961

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References

1 See Gordon Skilling, H., “The Comintern and Czechoslovak Communism, 1921-1929,“ American Slavic and East European Review, XIX, No. 2 (April, 1960), 234-47.Google Scholar

2 Chronological biographical data are given in Klement Gottwald, Spisy, at the end of each volume. See also K padesátinám soudruha Gottwalda (Prague, 1946), pp. 315 ff.; František Nečásek Mlddi Klementa Gottwalda (Prague, 1952).

3 See article cited in note 1.

4 Text of this speech is in Gottwald, Spisy, I, 311-23.

5 Ibid., I, 206.

6 “To Bolshevize the Communist Movement” (in Slovak), in Spisy, I, 13-17. Cf. an article by Stalin on the Bolshevization of the Communist Party of Germany, written in 1925, (Moscow, 1954), VII, 34-41.

7 Kopecký, V., “On the 20th Anniversary of the Gottwald Leadership,” Tvorba, February 23, 1949.Google Scholar

8 Of the 1929 Politburo, almost all were leading members of the Central Committee elected in 1931 at the sixth party congress. The publicly listed members of the 1931 Central Committee were Gottwald, Guttmann, Köhler, Slánský, Hruśka, Zápotocký, Fried, Haken, Harus, Kopecký, Reimann, Bubeníček, Appelt, Klíma, Marek, and Krosnář. The main rapporteurs at the congress were Gottwald, Šverma, Kopecký, Volavka, and Guttmann. Prominent roles were also taken by Köhler, Haken, Reimann, Kopřiva, Fried, and Slánský Many of these and other speakers were destined to have important roles after the Second World War. For this, see Protokoll des ordentlichen Parteitages der KPTsch (Prague, n.d.), especially pp. 292-94.

9 Ibid., pp. 252-53. Statistical data for the membership as a whole prior to the sixth congress are given by (Moscow, 1928), p. 50. The length of party membership at that time was given as follows: 30 per cent from the founding of the party or the split of the Social Democratic Party; 16 per cent from three to five years; 25 per cent from one to three years; and 29 per cent since the crisis of 1924-25.

10 Protokoll …der KPTsch, pp. 292-93.

11 See Theses and Resolutions Adopted at the Third World Congress of the Communist International (New York, 1921), p. 46; Protokolle des Vierten Kongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale (Hamburg, 1923), p. 363; F. Borkenau, The Communist International (London, 1938), pp. 366-68; International Press Correspondence, hereafter cited as Inprecorr, XII, No. 53, 1151; XIII, No. 16, 371; XVII (Moscow, 1934), p. 319. The figure of 150,000 for 1928 was questioned by Gottwald at the Comintern congress. The figure of 90,000 was later given for that year. Die Kommunistische Internationale vor dem VII Weltkongress: Materialien, hereafter cited as Materialien, (Moscow, 1935), p. 158. A size of 60,000 is also given here for the party following the recovery from the crisis. During the crisis the membership fell as low as 24,000.

12 Gottwald, Spisy, III, 26-32. Cf. the discussion of organizational work in The Communist International Between the Fifth and Sixth World Congresses, 1924-8 (London, 1928), pp. 10-35, 229-30, and in Materialien, cited in note 11, pp. 36-43.

13 Full text given in Za bolševickou orientaci KSČ (Prague, 1953), pp. 195-243.

14 See Borkenau, op. cit., p. 361, and Materialien, pp. 158, 160.

15 Protokoll… der KPTsch, pp. 17-44, 117-26, 323-53. See also Gottwald, Spisy, II, 217-64, 265-78. A brief report was given in Inprecorr, XI, No. 17, 342-43.

16 See Gottwald's earlier reference to Masaryk as “the political captain of finance capital,” in 1929, in Inprecorr, IX, No. 58,1239-40.

17 Protokoll …der KPTsch, p. 353.

18 Ibid., p. 343.

19 Ibid., p. 165. See also pp. 157-94; 368-84.

20 ibid., pp. 127-56; 385-403. See the remarks by Volavka and Reimann, ibid,, pp. 291-92, 302-5.

21 See Central Committee reports given in Gottwald, Spisy, III, 90-110; III, 175-201; III, 251-76; IV, 86-99. See also Gottwald's report in XII (Moscow, 1933), pp. 97-111.

22 Gottwald, Spisy, IV, 212-33.

23 For the statements of the Politburo on the expulsion of Guttmann, see Inprecorr, XIV, No. 1, 27, and No. 2, 50. See also Gottwald, Spisy, V, 65-77.

24 Gottwald, “A Clear Front Against Opportunism,” in Komunistickd revue, October, 1933, Spisy, V, 19-31. See also G. Smolyansky, “The Chief Obstacles to the Work of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia,” Communist International, X, No. 16 (August 15, 1933), 551-56. Also given in Inprecorr, XIII, No. 36, 793-95, and No. 37, 814-16. Note another article critical of the CPC, ibid., XIII, No. 37, 808-9.

25 See the article by the Czech leaders Oldner and Haken on the ECCI plenum, ibid., XIV, No. 8, 229-30; also the speeches at the plenum by Gottwald, ibid., XIV, No. 7, 187-89; and by Reimann, No. 18, 461-63.

26 Gottwald, Spisy, V, 79-100, 101-121. See also Inprecorr, XIV, No. 10, 282.

27 Inprecorr, XIV, No. 32, 835-36. See also ibid., XIV, No. 30, 787.

28 Gottwald, Spisy, V, 325; VI, 225.

29 Ibid., VI, 118-37; Inprecorr, XV, No. 18, 474; No. 21, 559.

30 VII Congress of the Communist International (Moscow, 1939). A fuller report i given in Inprecorr, Vol. XV and XVI. Czech speakers at the congress included Gottwald Slánský, Široký, Köhler, Zápotocký, Kopecký, and Šverma. For Gottwald's speech sa Inprecorr, XV, No. 61, 1494-97; VII Congress …, pp. 313-26; Spisy, VI, pp. 170-86.

31 VII Congress …, pp. 35, 48-49, 60-61, 136-37, 185-87.

32 Ibid., p. 325.

33 ibid., pp. 174-79, 322. See also K. F. McKenzie, “The Soviet Union, the Comintern and World Revolution: 1935,” Political Science Quarterly, LXV, No. 2 (June, 1950).

34 Inprecorr, XVI, No. 3, 71-72 (Šverma).

35 Gottwald, “For the Correct Carrying Out of the Line of the Seventh Congress,“ Communist International, XIII, No. 2, 79-91.

36 Inprecorr, XVI, No. 12, 335-36.

37 The proceedings were not available. See Inprecorr, XVI, No. 21, 583-84. Šmeral and Kreibich spoke on the history of the party; Gottwald on the danger of war and the tactics of the united front; Zápotocký, on trade union unity; Kopecký, on the youth, and Široký, on cadre policy. For Gottwald's report, see Spisy, VII, pp. 91-114.

38 V. Kopecký, “The Communists and T.G.M.,” Rudé právo, September 19, 1937.

39 K. Gottwald, Deset let (Prague, 1947), pp. 84-92,101-5.

40 Ibid., p. 107.

41 Speech on October 11, 1938, ibid., pp. 124-29. See also World News and Views, XVT11. No. 50, 1147-48.