Ludvík Svoboda

November 25, 1895 (age 83)

Hroznatín, Vysočina Region, Czech Republic

Ludvík Svoboda was sent to Eastern Front was captured on 18 September 1915 at Tarnopol. He joined Czechoslovak Legion and took part in battles of Zborov and Bakhmach. He returned home through "Siberian anabasis". He worked at his father's estate before launching his military career in the Czechoslovak Army in 1921. In 1923 and in the early 1930s he taught at a military academy. After the German occupation in spring 1939 he became a member of a secret underground organization Obrana národa meaning "National Defense". It is supposed that at the same time he established connection with Soviet intelligence. In June 1939 Ludvík Svoboda fled to Poland, forming a Czechoslovak military unit in Kraków, before falling into Soviet captivity during the Soviet invasion of Poland. As he related it after the war, he escaped certain death after asking his captors to call a phone number in Moscow where they could obtain personal information about him; this worked. After the outbreak of the German offensive against the Soviet Union, Svoboda became head of the Czechoslovak military units on the Eastern Front. The Czechoslovak units fought the Germans for the first time in March 1943 at the Battle of Sokolovo in Ukraine. As a commander Ludvík Svoboda also led troops of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps in the Battle of the Dukla Pass in the fall of 1944 when, after a very heavy fighting, this unit managed to cross the Czechoslovak state border for the first time. Trusted by Klement Gottwald's exile leadership and Soviet functionaries, he quickly climbed the military ranks, becoming army general in August 1945. In World War II a substantial part of Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Red Army and the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps under the leadership of Svoboda. Ludvík Svoboda was appointed Minister of Defense while being welcomed as a hero of the Eastern Front. The Soviet Union enjoyed a great popularity among the population and in the elections of 1946 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won 38% of the vote nationwide. On 22 February 1948, nearly all of the non-Communist cabinet ministers resigned in protest of the practices of Gottwald and the other Communists. Ludvík Svoboda was one of the few who remained in office. The Communist-dominated Revolutionary Trade Union Movement voted unanimously to replace the 12 departed ministers with pro-Communist ministers. As armed workers and the People's Militias took to the streets, he refused to quell the insurrection with military force, saying "the army will not march against the people". Two days later (and one day after a general strike in which 2.5 million citizens participated), President Edvard Beneš gave in to growing pressure from Gottwald and appointed a government dominated by Communists and pro-Soviet Social Democrats - in effect, giving legal sanction to a Communist coup. The takeover was completely bloodless. Ludvík Svoboda, whose label had been that of an "apolitical" minister since the first days of his term, then joined the Communist Party and was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly at the 1948 election. Ludvík Svoboda was forced out of the army (in which he had reached the rank of Army General in November 1945) in 1950 under pressure from the Soviets. He was Deputy Prime Minister from 1950 to 1951. In the purges which followed he was imprisoned and "recommended" to save his image by committing suicide, but eventually released and stripped of all offices. His return to public life took place upon a personal wish of Khrushchev, whom Ludvík Svoboda had met during the war, and he subsequently headed the Klement Gottwald Military Academy. After the ending of the Antonín Novotný regime, in the period known as the Prague Spring, Ludvík Svoboda was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 30 March 1968, on the recommendation of Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary. He was an acceptable candidate both for Czechs and Slovaks, and as a war hero and a victim of the purges of the early 1950s, he enjoyed a very high esteem among the population. Ludvík Svoboda then gave a mild consent to the reform process of the new Party leadership until the Warsaw Pact intervention in August 1968. Horrified at his experiences in two world wars, he signed an order preventing the Czechoslovak Army from getting involved with the invading Warsaw Pact troops. He traveled to Moscow in order to secure the release of Dubček and the other reform leaders, who had been kidnapped by the invading forces. However, when Ludvík Svoboda arrived, Leonid Brezhnev demanded that he appoint a "peasant-workers' government" in order to give credence to the planned official line - that hardliners in the KSČ had themselves requested the invasion. He not only refused, but threatened to put a bullet into his head in the presence of Brezhnev unless Dubček and the other reformists were released. Nevertheless, Ludvík Svoboda could do nothing to prevent Brezhnev from forcing the Czechoslovak representatives to sign the notorious Moscow protocols, which meant a factual capitulation as they were kept secret and provided the Warsaw Pact armies with a factual licence to a "temporary stay" in Czechoslovakia. The protocols also obliged the Party leadership to promote political, cultural and other changes to stop the reform process. Ludvík Svoboda also supported Minister of Defence Martin Dzúr, who ordered the Czechoslovak army to not show any resistance. Given the public outrage and resistance, Svoboda's arbitrary action was in fact in accord with Brezhnev's intent. Ludvík Svoboda survived the removal of reformist Communists in Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the Prague Spring, while passively witnessing the purges and the suffocation of the civil liberties that had briefly been restored. He even helped muzzle the press and also contributed to Dubček's replacement with Gustáv Husák in April 1969. To the day he died, he believed and maintained that his submissive conduct before Brezhnev helped save thousands of lives from "immense consequences"; and he defended this policy by invoking his own memories of the horrors of war. Ludvík Svoboda resisted Husák's attempts to oust him from the presidency until 1975, when he was forced to retire through a constitutional act. This act stated that if the incumbent president was unable to carry out his office's duties for a year or more, the Federal Assembly had the right to elect a permanent successor. In Svoboda's case, he had been in ill health for some time, making the act relevant.

Ludvík Svoboda

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politician

Background

Ludvík Svoboda was born on November 25, 1895 in Hroznatín, Vysočina Region, Czech Republic. His father died when he was one year old and he was raised by his mother Františka who remarried to František Nejedlý.

Education

Ludvík Svoboda attended the Agricultural school at Velké Meziříčí and worked at a Vineyard. In 1915, he had to join the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Career

Ludvík Svoboda was sent to Eastern Front was captured on 18 September 1915 at Tarnopol. He joined Czechoslovak Legion and took part in battles of Zborov and Bakhmach. He returned home through "Siberian anabasis". He worked at his father's estate before launching his military career in the Czechoslovak Army in 1921. In 1923 and in the early 1930s he taught at a military academy.

After the German occupation in spring 1939 he became a member of a secret underground organization Obrana národa meaning "National Defense". It is supposed that at the same time he established connection with Soviet intelligence. In June 1939 Ludvík Svoboda fled to Poland, forming a Czechoslovak military unit in Kraków, before falling into Soviet captivity during the Soviet invasion of Poland. As he related it after the war, he escaped certain death after asking his captors to call a phone number in Moscow where they could obtain personal information about him; this worked. After the outbreak of the German offensive against the Soviet Union, Svoboda became head of the Czechoslovak military units on the Eastern Front. The Czechoslovak units fought the Germans for the first time in March 1943 at the Battle of Sokolovo in Ukraine. As a commander Ludvík Svoboda also led troops of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps in the Battle of the Dukla Pass in the fall of 1944 when, after a very heavy fighting, this unit managed to cross the Czechoslovak state border for the first time. Trusted by Klement Gottwald's exile leadership and Soviet functionaries, he quickly climbed the military ranks, becoming army general in August 1945.

In World War II a substantial part of Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Red Army and the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps under the leadership of Svoboda. Ludvík Svoboda was appointed Minister of Defense while being welcomed as a hero of the Eastern Front. The Soviet Union enjoyed a great popularity among the population and in the elections of 1946 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won 38% of the vote nationwide.

On 22 February 1948, nearly all of the non-Communist cabinet ministers resigned in protest of the practices of Gottwald and the other Communists. Ludvík Svoboda was one of the few who remained in office. The Communist-dominated Revolutionary Trade Union Movement voted unanimously to replace the 12 departed ministers with pro-Communist ministers. As armed workers and the People's Militias took to the streets, he refused to quell the insurrection with military force, saying "the army will not march against the people". Two days later (and one day after a general strike in which 2.5 million citizens participated), President Edvard Beneš gave in to growing pressure from Gottwald and appointed a government dominated by Communists and pro-Soviet Social Democrats - in effect, giving legal sanction to a Communist coup. The takeover was completely bloodless. Ludvík Svoboda, whose label had been that of an "apolitical" minister since the first days of his term, then joined the Communist Party and was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly at the 1948 election.

Ludvík Svoboda was forced out of the army (in which he had reached the rank of Army General in November 1945) in 1950 under pressure from the Soviets. He was Deputy Prime Minister from 1950 to 1951. In the purges which followed he was imprisoned and "recommended" to save his image by committing suicide, but eventually released and stripped of all offices. His return to public life took place upon a personal wish of Khrushchev, whom Ludvík Svoboda had met during the war, and he subsequently headed the Klement Gottwald Military Academy.

After the ending of the Antonín Novotný regime, in the period known as the Prague Spring, Ludvík Svoboda was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 30 March 1968, on the recommendation of Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary. He was an acceptable candidate both for Czechs and Slovaks, and as a war hero and a victim of the purges of the early 1950s, he enjoyed a very high esteem among the population.

Ludvík Svoboda then gave a mild consent to the reform process of the new Party leadership until the Warsaw Pact intervention in August 1968. Horrified at his experiences in two world wars, he signed an order preventing the Czechoslovak Army from getting involved with the invading Warsaw Pact troops. He traveled to Moscow in order to secure the release of Dubček and the other reform leaders, who had been kidnapped by the invading forces. However, when Ludvík Svoboda arrived, Leonid Brezhnev demanded that he appoint a "peasant-workers' government" in order to give credence to the planned official line - that hardliners in the KSČ had themselves requested the invasion. He not only refused, but threatened to put a bullet into his head in the presence of Brezhnev unless Dubček and the other reformists were released. Nevertheless, Ludvík Svoboda could do nothing to prevent Brezhnev from forcing the Czechoslovak representatives to sign the notorious Moscow protocols, which meant a factual capitulation as they were kept secret and provided the Warsaw Pact armies with a factual licence to a "temporary stay" in Czechoslovakia. The protocols also obliged the Party leadership to promote political, cultural and other changes to stop the reform process. Ludvík Svoboda also supported Minister of Defence Martin Dzúr, who ordered the Czechoslovak army to not show any resistance. Given the public outrage and resistance, Svoboda's arbitrary action was in fact in accord with Brezhnev's intent.

Ludvík Svoboda survived the removal of reformist Communists in Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the Prague Spring, while passively witnessing the purges and the suffocation of the civil liberties that had briefly been restored. He even helped muzzle the press and also contributed to Dubček's replacement with Gustáv Husák in April 1969. To the day he died, he believed and maintained that his submissive conduct before Brezhnev helped save thousands of lives from "immense consequences"; and he defended this policy by invoking his own memories of the horrors of war.

Ludvík Svoboda resisted Husák's attempts to oust him from the presidency until 1975, when he was forced to retire through a constitutional act. This act stated that if the incumbent president was unable to carry out his office's duties for a year or more, the Federal Assembly had the right to elect a permanent successor. In Svoboda's case, he had been in ill health for some time, making the act relevant.

Achievements

In 1946 Ludvík Svoboda was awarded the title People's Hero of Yugoslavia. He was also awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (on 24 November 1965), and Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (being awarded the latter title again in 1970 and 1975). He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize (1970).

Views

Quotations: "All I have ever done must be measured by my intention to serve best my people and my country."

Connections

Ludvík Svoboda married Irena Stratilová, afterwards named Irena Svobodová.

Mother:: Františka
Spouse:: Irena Stratilová
step-father:: František Nejedlý

Main Photo

Ludvík Svoboda

School period

College/University

Career

Achievements

Membership

Awards

Order of Clement Gottwald (1959, 1970, 1975)

Military Order of the White Lion "For Victory", 1st class (1945)

Order of the Slovak National Uprising

Czechoslovak Military Cross (1918)

Czechoslovak Military Cross (1939)

Medal For courage before the enemy (1945)

Order of February 25, 1948

St. George's Cross

Hero of the Soviet Union

Order of Lenin

Order of the October Revolution

Other Photos

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Other photo of Ludvík Svoboda

Connections

Connections

Ludvík Svoboda

Background

Education

Career

Achievements

Views

Connections

Born

Died

Nationality

Ethnicity

Career

1948

1950 - 1951

March 30, 1968 - October 28, 1975

Awards

Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1965,1970,1975)

Order of Clement Gottwald (1959, 1970, 1975)

Military Order of the White Lion "For Victory", 1st class (1945)

Order of the Slovak National Uprising

Czechoslovak Military Cross (1918)

Czechoslovak Military Cross (1939)

Medal For courage before the enemy (1945)

Order of February 25, 1948

St. George's Cross, USSR

Hero of the Soviet Union

Order of Lenin

Order of the October Revolution