Communist coup d'état of 1948

1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
Part of the Cold War
Resignation of the democratic ministers in February 1948
Date 21–25 February 1948 Location Czechoslovakia Result Appointment of a Communist-dominated government
Belligerents
Czechoslovak National Socialist Party Czechoslovak People's Party Democratic Party Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (anti-communist factions)	Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Supported by:  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Edvard Beneš Petr Zenkl (ČSNS) Jan Šrámek (ČSL) Jozef Lettrich () (DS) Bohumil Laušman (ČSSD)	Klement Gottwald Rudolf Slánský Zdeněk Fierlinger (ČSSD)

The 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état (often simply the Czech coup) (Czech: Únor 1948, Slovak: Február 1948, both meaning "February 1948") – in Marxist historiography known as "Victorious February" (Czech: Vítězný únor, Slovak: Víťazný február) – was an event late that February in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia, marking the onset of four decades of communist rule in the country.

The coup’s significance extended well beyond the country’s boundaries as it was a clear marker along the already well-advanced road to full-fledged Cold War. The event alarmed Western countries and helped spur quick adoption of the Marshall Plan, the creation of a state in West Germany, vigorous measures to keep communists out of power in France and especially Italy, and steps toward mutual security that would, in little over a year, result in the establishment of NATO and the definitive drawing of the Iron Curtain until the Revolutions of 1989.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) was in a favourable position. Its powerful influence on Czechoslovak politics since the 1920s, its clean wartime record and cooperation with non-Communist parties, its identification with the Soviet Union, one of the country's liberators, and its determination to become the country's leading political force without alarming the West (a strategy followed too by Communist parties in Italy and France) dovetailed with popular opposition to Nazi rule, the longing for real change that followed it, and the new political realities of living within the Soviet orbit to produce a surge in membership from 40,000 in 1945 to 1.35 million in 1948.

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