The riot in Leopoldov prison on the 28th March 1990 represents a dramatic moment in modern Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak history. Its origin, course and causes were one of the expressions of the Czechoslovak state’s transition from an authoritarian to a liberal political system. In this context, the armed forces played an important role, decisively contributing to the suppression of the prisoners’ riot. The author focused on the historical analysis of archival documents from the period, memories of participants, and contemporary press. The intervention of members of the police forces of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Czechoslovak Army significantly helped to restore the rule of law and suppress the nascent anarchy. Thus it markedly increased the credibility of the state’s security forces in the eyes of the Czechoslovak public. From the position of supporting the communist regime, their existence began to shift towards becoming a guarantor of citizens’ rights and freedoms.
The published study analyses the development of Czechoslovak operation plans from the perspective of the existence of the joint state of Czechs and Slovaks as a whole. The author examines the operation documents of the French military mission in Czechoslovakia, the recruitment plans of the CS armed forces in the 1930’s, preparation of uprising within the London Ministry of National Defence, the sovietised military plans following the 1948 February events and finally the operational planning in the final federation era after 1989. On the one hand, he describes the differences of these diverse periods but on the other hand looks for the connections and common denominators in the work of military planners.
The study analyses the Czechoslovak strategic and doctrinal thinking between 1945 and 1948. There were no idealistic visions about the position of Czechoslovakia as the bridge between the East and West of Europe among the political representatives of that era. This was supposed to address the questions of international relationships, business exchange as well as defence policy. However, the fact that the Soviet Union liberated a majority of the Czechoslovak territory enforced the Sovietization of the domestic warfare, which is proved by the Košice Government Program. Germany remained in the position of the main enemy, even if it was questionable whether or not it could actually impose a threat for Czechoslovakia. However, there were voices both among the domestic politicians and military experts saying that aggression can arrive from different directions, such as Hungary. The army doctrine focused on the technical questions, in particular the army and the tank troop development. Even the partisan war concept and nuclear conflict possibility were accepted, even if the United States of America did not have any nuclear strategy for the European war area just after 1945.
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