The Rise and Fall of a Socialist Experiment

Abstract

When in 1945, Czechoslovakia re-emerged from the ashes of the Second World War, her economic problems were similar to those with which she was confronted at the time of her foundation in 1918. Whereas during the First World War, however, the fighting never reached the territory which then became Czechoslovakia, it did so during the second one: in particular eastern and central Slovakia was affected. On the other hand, the regulated economy that the German authorities imposed on the Czech heartlands (the Protectorate) proved useful for economic reconstruction. Some of these measures were also extended to Slovakia, the economic regime of which had been more relaxed during the Second World War.