Edvard Beneš

Edvard Beneš was a Czechoslovak politician and diplomat who served as president from 1935 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1948. He helped establish Czechoslovakia and led its government in exile during World War II.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk: A Czech philosopher and politician who became Czechoslovakia’s first president. Masaryk and Beneš collaborated in the independence movement and the new state’s leadership.
Czechoslovak government-in-exile: The wartime government based in London that claimed to represent occupied Czechoslovakia. Beneš headed this government and worked to restore the republic’s international standing.
Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia: The postwar removal of most ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia, largely between 1945 and 1947. Beneš’s government authorized measures that enabled the expulsion and confiscation of German property.
Emil Hácha: A Czech lawyer and politician who served as president of Czechoslovakia from 1938 to 1939 and of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II. Hácha held the presidency after Beneš resigned, under conditions of German coercion and occupation.
Czechoslovak National Council: An organization of Czechoslovak exiles that promoted independence from Austria-Hungary during World War I. Beneš helped lead this wartime body that prepared the diplomatic case for a new state.
Czechoslovak–Soviet Treaty of 1943: A treaty of friendship and mutual assistance signed by Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union during World War II. Beneš’s wartime diplomacy sought Soviet support while preserving a sovereign Czechoslovak state.
Czechoslovak Communist Party: The political party that ruled Czechoslovakia as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. Its growing power narrowed Beneš’s options during the February 1948 crisis.
Klement Gottwald: A Czechoslovak Communist leader who became prime minister in 1946 and president in 1948. Gottwald’s party displaced the pluralist system Beneš had helped restore after the war.
Czechoslovakia: A state in Central Europe that existed from 1918 to 1992, apart from wartime occupation. Beneš’s political career was shaped by the state he helped found and twice led.
Košice Government Programme: The 1945 political programme that set the agenda for Czechoslovakia’s postwar National Front government. Beneš accepted a postwar settlement whose political terms constrained the restored republic.

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