Václav Kopecký (27 August 1897 – 5 August 1961) was a Czechoslovak Communist politician, journalist and chief ideologue of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Comint ...

during the leadership of

Klement Gottwald Klement Gottwald (; 23 November 1896 – 14 March 1953) was a Czech communist politician, who was the leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1929 until his death in 1953–titled as general secretary until 1945 and as chairman fro ...

. A high-ranking member of the party since the interwar era, he spent World War II in Moscow and served as minister of culture and information in the postwar government. Kopecký was noted for his antisemitic statements, criticizing Jews for

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

and cosmopolitanism; he also stage-managed the

Slánský trial The Slánský trial (officially English: "Trial of the Leadership of the Anti-State Conspiracy Centre Headed by Rudolf Slánský") was a 1952 antisemitic show trial against fourteen members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), incl ...

Early career

He had a proletarian upringing as the thirteenth child of a small tradesman and

Sokol The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a ...

official. He joined the

in 1921. During the interwar period, Kopecký was a member of the underground Karlín communist cell along with future party leaders

and

Rudolf Slánský Rudolf Slánský (31 July 1901 – 3 December 1952) was a leading Czech Communist politician. Holding the post of the party's General Secretary after World War II, he was one of the leading creators and organizers of Communist rule in Czechosl ...

. From 1940 to 1941, Kopecký was a representative of the Comintern, spending World War II in the Soviet Union. In July 1944, he voiced the sentiments of the emerging Communist consensus on postwar nationality issues, which rejected Communist internationalism and accepted the

Czechoslovak government-in-exile 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 Czechos ...

's plans for national homogenization via the expulsion of Sudeten Germans. Expressing hope that the

Jewish question The Jewish question, also referred to as the Jewish problem, was a wide-ranging debate in 19th- and 20th-century European society that pertained to the appropriate status and treatment of Jews. The debate, which was similar to other " national ...

would "forever disappear... as a decoy for reactionary elements", Kopecký declared:

Minister

He served as the Minister of Culture and Information in the postwar Czechoslovak government. As Minister of Information, Kopecký surrounded himself with Communist sympathizing artists. Czech poet

František Halas František Halas (3 October 1901 in Brno – 27 October 1949 in Prague) was one of the most significant Czech lyric poets of the 20th century, an essayist, and a translator. Life Born as the son of textile worker, Halas worked as bookseller ...

led the ministry's publishing department; writer Ivan Olbracht headed the radio department; visual artist

Adolf Hoffmeister Adolf Hoffmeister (15 August 1902 – 24 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak illustrator, caricaturist, painter, writer, poet, journalist, politician, diplomat and traveler. Life and career Early life He was born in Prague, to the family of a Pr ...

the foreign affairs department; and a film department by

Vítězslav Nezval Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechos ...

. Under Kopecký's leadership, the Ministry of Information adapted the Nazi government's management of book publication under the guise of needing to replace the books destroyed during the Nazi occupation. Publishers had to submit their books to the publishing department of the Ministry of Information half a year in advance for review. This process did not initially involve ideological censorship and was aimed at freeing writers from the demands of the free market. After the death of Jan Masaryk, Kopecký instructed the media not to mention Masaryk's name. According to Czech historian Michal Frankl, Kopecký "distinguished himself with antisemitic diatribes," criticizing the presence of Jews in politics and attacking

and cosmopolitanism. In 1945, he accused the "Jewish super-rich like Petschek, Weinmann,

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...

, Gutman" of "blood-sucking" and argued that wealthy Jews could not live in the people's democracy. He also objected to the resettlement of Jews from

Carpathian Ruthenia Carpathian Ruthenia ( rue, Карпатьска Русь, Karpat'ska Rus'; uk, Закарпаття, Zakarpattia; sk, Podkarpatská Rus; hu, Kárpátalja; ro, Transcarpatia; pl, Zakarpacie); cz, Podkarpatská Rus; german: Karpatenukrai ...

in postwar Czechoslovakia. For Rudolf Slánský's fiftieth birthday in July 1951, Kopecký lauded him in the party newspaper '' Rudé právo'' and claimed that "already at home and at primary school lánskýabsorbed a full-blooded native Czechness". Despite their former association, Kopecký became a personal enemy of Slánský and was involved in the

as one of the main stage managers of the show trial. In December 1951, he complained that many of the alleged conspirators "come from wealthy Jewish families" and that "the great part of people with a Jewish origin" subscribe to "cosmopolitan thinking". According to Kopecký, this demonstrated that the party was not taking the anti-cosmopolitan campaign seriously enough and was underestimating the "very serious danger" posed by Zionism. Historian Karel Kaplan described Kopecký as "the party ideologue of show trials".

Later life and career

On January 31, 1953 Václav Kopecký became deputy prime minister in the

Antonín Zápotocký Antonín Zápotocký (19 December 1884 – 13 November 1957) was a Czech communist politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1953 and the president of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1957. Biography He ...

government and took over this office on March 21, 1953 in the first government

Viliam Široký Viliam Široký (31 May 1902 – 6 October 1971) was a prominent Communist politician of Czechoslovakia, the prime minister from 1953 to 1963. He also served as the leader of the Communist Party of Slovakia between 1945 and 1954. Biography ...

in which on September 14, 1953 became first deputy prime minister. He was also Minister of Culture in the Široký government from September 14, 1953 to December 12, 1954. He also took over the post of Deputy Prime Minister in the second Široký government. Kopecký resigned from government positions on December 12, 1954. However, he remained a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and retained a strong party influence. Kopecký adhered to a Stalinist line, trying to keep the party in the positions of the Gottwald period under the new conditions. Václav Kopecký died in Prague on 5 August 1961 of a pulmonary embolism. He was given a state funeral.

Early career

Minister

Later life and career

References

Further reading