The Czechoslovak government-in-exile, sometimes styled officially as the Provisional Government of Czechoslovakia ( cz, Prozatímní vláda Československa, sk, Dočasná vláda Československa), was an informal title conferred upon the Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee (''Výbor Československého Národního Osvobození'', ''Československý Výbor Národného Oslobodenia''), initially by
British diplomatic recognition. The name came to be used by other
World War II Allies as they subsequently recognised it. The committee was originally created by the former Czechoslovak President,
Edvard Beneš in
Paris,
France, in October 1939.
[Crampton, R. J. ''Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century – and after''. Routledge. 1997.] Unsuccessful negotiations with
France for diplomatic status, as well as the impending
Nazi occupation of France, forced the committee to withdraw to
London in 1940. The Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile offices were at various locations in London but mainly at a building called Fursecroft.
It was regarded as the legitimate government for
Czechoslovakia throughout the
Second World War by the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
.
[ A specifically ]anti-Fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
government, it sought to reverse the Munich Agreement and the subsequent German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, and to return the Republic to its 1937 boundaries. As such it was ultimately considered, by those countries that recognized it, the legal continuation of the First Czechoslovak Republic.
From committee to government
Seeing the end of the Republic as a ''fait accompli'', Edvard Beneš resigned as president of the First Czechoslovak Republic one week after the Munich Agreement ceded the Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...
to Nazi Germany. He initially fled to London. On 15 February 1939, he arrived in Chicago; he became visiting professor at the University of Chicago, where he took refuge in the same community that had once buoyed his predecessor and friend, Tomáš Masaryk. While there, he was urged to quickly return to Europe to organize some kind of government-in-exile. He therefore returned to Europe in July to live in Paris along with several other key players in his former administration. After World War II formally began, the group became known as the Czech National Liberation Committee, and immediately began to seek international recognition as the exiled government of Czechoslovakia. By the end of 1939, though, France and Britain had extended it the right to conclude international treaties – France on 13 November and Britain on 20 December 1939[Musil, Jírí. ''The End of Czechoslovakia''. Central European University Press. 2000. 181–186.] – but did not yet see those treaties as having been concluded in the name of the Czechoslovak Republic.
It was in fact France itself that proved the greatest obstacle to accepting the committee as a full government-in-exile. The government of Édouard Daladier[it was Daladiers fifth government, see :fr:Gouvernement Édouard Daladier (5)] was ambivalent towards the ambitions of the Committee and of Czechoslovakia in general. Though he had publicly seen the appeasement of Hitler
Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governme ...
as the road to war, Daladier ultimately capitulated to the wishes of Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
. After the war came, he and his government dithered over whether the Soviet or Nazi threat was the greater. Likewise, though he extended recognition to the committee as a non-governmental agency, his government was non-committal to Beneš himself, and saw many possibilities for a post-war Czechoslovakia.
One of its principal reservations about giving governmental status to Beneš, was the fact of the murky situation in the then-independent Slovakia (which was a satellite state of the German Empire). The French government of the winter of 1939–1940 felt that Beneš was not necessarily speaking for all Czechoslovaks, based on the relatively fluid situation in Slovakia. France's diplomacy towards Beneš was therefore agile. It avoided any direct expression of support for the Beneš Committee's desire to return to the First Republic.[ However, as Beneš was the key to getting military support from the well-trained ]Czechoslovak Army
The Czechoslovak Army (Czech and Slovak: Československá armáda) was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary.
History
In the fi ...
, France was in fact the first nation to conclude a treaty with the committee. 2 October 1939 agreement between France and Beneš allowed for the reconstitution of the Czechoslovak army on French territory.[ Ultimately, units of the First Division of the Czechoslovak Army fought alongside their hosts in the final stages of the ]Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
.
It was the failure of the Allied military forces in this battle which most directly helped the ambitions of the Beneš Committee. With the fall of France, the views of the newly appointed prime minister Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
took predominance over the concerns of the waning Third Republic. He was very much clearer than his predecessor Chamberlain with respect to Czechoslovak affairs, and quickly recognized Beneš as the president of a government-in-exile after the fall of France. Nevertheless, the Committee still felt somewhat insecure about this recognition, because it specifically mentioned Beneš as president, but did not explicitly link Beneš to the previously-existing government. Thus, they pressed the British in April 1941 for even greater clarity. On the 18th of that month, they sent a letter to the British requesting that their agreements "be concluded, as before September, 1938, in the name of the Czechoslovak Republic". British Foreign Minister
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
gave such assent on 18 July 1941.[Talmon, Stefan. ''Recognition of Governments in International Law with particular reference to governments in exile''. Oxford University Press. 1998. p. 119.]
The United States and the Soviet Union were effectively forced to do the same later in the year, as Slovakia declared war on the two countries. With an Axis government both firmly and formally in place in Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
, the only friendly government left to recognize by the later half of 1941 was that of Beneš.[ The remaining legal question was whether the Beneš government was actually a ''continuation'' of the First Republic, or a successor without solid constitutional underpinnings. This doubt was erased by the spring of 1942. Following almost six months of planning behind enemy lines, Czechoslovak Allied operatives in ]Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
fatally wounded Reinhard Heydrich, the dictator at the head of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The success of this mission, Operation Anthropoid, caused Britain and Free France (itself a government-in-exile) to formally repudiate the Munich Agreement, thus conferring '' de jure'' legitimacy on the Beneš government as the continuation of the First Republic. The government's continued health now depended on Allied military victory.
Planning for the future
Beneš hoped for a restoration of the Czechoslovak state in its pre-Munich form after the anticipated Allied victory, a false hope.
Beneš determined to strengthen Czechoslovak security against future German aggression through alliances with Poland and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, however, objected to a tripartite Czechoslovak-Polish-Soviet commitment. In December 1943, Beneš's government concluded a treaty with the Soviets. Beneš's interest in maintaining friendly relations with the Soviet Union was motivated also by his desire to avoid Soviet encouragement of a postwar communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
coup in Czechoslovakia. Beneš worked to bring Czechoslovak communist exiles in the United Kingdom into cooperation with his government, offering far-reaching concessions, including nationalization of heavy industry and the creation of local people's committees at the war's end. In March 1945, he gave key cabinet positions to Czechoslovak communist exiles in Moscow.
The "German problem"
During the latter years of the war, Beneš worked toward resolving the German minority problem and received consent from the Allies for a solution based on a postwar transfer of the Sudeten German population. Especially after the Nazi reprisals for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, most of the Czech resistance groups
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
*Czech, ...
demanded, based on German Nazi terror during occupation, the "final solution of the German question" ( cs, konečné řešení německé otázky) which would have to be "solved" by deportation of the ethnic Germans to Germany and Austria.
These demands were adopted by the Government-in-Exile, which sought the support of the Allies for this proposal, beginning in 1943.[Československo-sovětské vztahy v diplomatických jednáních 1939–1945. Dokumenty. Díl 2 (červenec 1943 – březen 1945). Praha. 1999. ()] The Government-in-Exile promulgated a series of laws that are now referred to as the "Beneš decrees
The Beneš decrees, sk, Dekréty prezidenta republiky) and the Constitutional Decrees of the President of the Republic ( cz, Ústavní dekrety presidenta republiky, sk, Ústavné dekréty prezidenta republiky) were a series of laws drafted by t ...
". One part of these decrees dealt with the status of ethnic Germans and Hungarians in postwar Czechoslovakia, including the confiscation of their property, anticipating their future deportation (see expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia
The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a series of evacuations and deportations of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II.
During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, th ...
, and Hungarians in Slovakia). However, the final agreement authorizing the forced population transfer of the Germans was not reached until 2 August 1945 at the end of the Potsdam Conference.
List of presidents of Czechoslovakia
Edvard Beneš(October 1939–2 April 1945)
List of prime ministers of Czechoslovakia
Jan Šrámek
Jan Šrámek (11 August 1870 – 22 April 1956) was the prime minister of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile from 21 July 1940 to 5 April 1945. He was the first chairman of the Czechoslovak People's Party and was a Monsignor
Monsignor (; it, ...
(21 July 1940 – 5 April 1945)
References
Further reading
*
* Neil Rees "The Secret History of The Czech Connection – The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire" compiled by Neil Rees, England, 2005. .
*
*
External links
Beneš Memo Seeking Vatican Recognition
{{Authority control
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Czech resistance groups
Former governments in exile
Governments in exile during World War II
Politics of Czechoslovakia
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