Following the end of the war and the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Zápotocký emerged as one of the leaders of the left wing of the ČSSD. He was a delegate of the party's left wing to the Second World Congress of the Comintern, which was held in Petrograd between 19 July and 7 August 1920. Together with Bohumír Šmeral, he co-founded the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) after the party left broke away from the ČSSD in 1921. He was General Secretary of the KSČ from 1922 to 1925. During the 1930s, Zápotocký focused on trade union work; in 1932, he was among the organizers of a widespread strike in the Most area. Towards the later half of the 1930s, Zápotocký worked to unite the Czechoslovak trade unions on an anti-fascist platform.[1]
After the activities of the KSČ were suppressed under the terms of the Munich Agreement in 1938 and the majority of the party leadership started operating clandestinely, Zápotocký and Jaromír Dolanský represented its official leadership until it was officially banned in December of that year. After the occupation of the Czech lands by Nazi Germany the following year, Zápotocký was arrested in April while illegally trying to cross the border into Poland.[1] After being held in Pankrác Prison in Prague, Zápotocký was then imprisoned in Dresden before being sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1940.[2] as a Kapo.
After the liberation of Sachsenhausen and the end of World War II in 1945, Zápotocký returned to Czechoslovakia, where he was appointed chairman of the Central Council of Trade Unions and a member of the presidium of the Central Committee of the KSČ. He was elected to the Interim National Assembly in the same year, and went on to serve as Chairman of the succeeding Constituent National Assembly from 18 June to 18 July 1946.
Zápotocký replaced Klement Gottwald as prime minister on 15 June 1948, when the latter became president. On 14 March 1953, shortly after returning from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's funeral in Moscow, Gottwald died. As per the Ninth-of-May Constitution, Zápotocký took over most presidential duties, and was formally elected president in his own right a week later.
Zápotocký favoured a more humane way of governing, but was outflanked by the Stalinist First Secretary Antonín Novotný. In May 1953, in the wake of a monetary reform which effectively deprived the farmers and better-paid workers of all their savings, sporadic riots against the communist authorities took place. This occasion gave Novotný a chance to seize the upper hand.[3] At a meeting in Moscow, Zápotocký was told to adhere to "collective leadership" — in effect, give up power to Novotný.
Zápotocký stayed in office until his death in Prague in 1957, making him the second Czechoslovak President to die in office. His body was cremated at Strašnice Crematorium and interred.
Zápotocký wrote several novels, based on the history of the labour movement in Czechoslovakia. Two of these were made into films: Red Glow Over Kladno (Rudá záře nad Kladnem) and New Warriors Will Rise (Vstanou noví bojovníci).
Statue of Antonín Zápotocký in his birthtown Zákolany
References
^ abc"Antonin Zapotocky". Prague Castle - President of the Czech Republic. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
^Tillack-Graf, Anne-Kathleen (2012). Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. pp. 18, 64. ISBN978-3-631-63678-7.
H. Gordon Skilling, "The Formation of a Communist Party in Czechoslovakia", American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Oct., 1955), p. 346-358 doi:10.2307/3000944
H. Gordon Skilling, "The Comintern and Czechoslovak Communism: 1921-1929", American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1960), p. 234-247 doi:10.2307/3004193
_BAR.svg){kind=small}
