Institute of Contemporary History

The book takes as its starting point the dramatic events of 1956 – the exposure of Stalin’s crimes at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the revolt of the Polish workers and the anti-communist uprising of the Hungarian people. It shows how the ruling Communist Party tried to stabilise the situation by violent means and by steps to raise the standard of living of the population. It looks at such significant moments of development as the election of Antonín Novotný as President of the Republic in 1957, the class and political vetting a year later, the suicide of Minister Šlechta and his wife, the completion of the collectivisation of agriculture, and the momentous success of the Czechoslovak exposition at the World Exhibition in Brussels. The work ends with the declaration of the Czechoslovak Republic as a socialist state in 1960. This apparent triumph of the communist regime, however, bore the seeds of other problems that culminated in the reform movement of the 1960s.

PERNES, Jiří. Na prahu socialismu. Československo v letech 1956–1960. Praha, Academia 2025, 480 s. ISBN 978-80-200-3601-8