People's Uprising of 1945

in the Czech lands, an antifascist uprising in May 1945.

The uprising took place at the time of the final battles of the Soviet Army against the fascist German troops. The people’s uprising was led by the clandestine Central Committee of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) and the Czech National Council (CNC), which was set up in April on the CPC’s initiative from representatives of all major groups of the resistance movement. The uprising was planned for May 7, but a spontaneous manifestation of Přresidents broke out as early as May 1, followed by similar action on May 2–3 in Nymburk, Podé-brady, Nový Bydžov, Semily, Lomnice, Turnov, and several other cities, on the night of May 4 in Kladno and Plzeñ, and on May 5 in Prague. Prague residents disarmed and blocked German Army units stationed in Prague, seized arms warehouses, and occupied the central telephone station, the electric power plant, many other plants, and most of the railroad terminals.

On May 5 the CNC announced that it was assuming power in the Czech lands as representative of the government of the National Front, which had been set up in April 1945 in the city of Koŝice. After the CNC issued the call to construct barricades, in Prague 1,600 of them were built. The insurgents, supported by partisans, disarmed the German garrisons and established the power of the revolutionary national committees. Soviet citizens who had escaped from fascist concentration camps played an active role in the uprising. The Hitlerite command moved an SS armored division and aircraft against Prague, and bitter fighting broke out in the suburbs and in the city itself. Military and technical superiority enabled the fascists to capture several districts of Prague, and the city was threatened with destruction. To help the Czech people, Soviet troops began an offensive, and as a result of the Prague operation of 1945, Prague was liberated on May 9. The uprising was victorious. It played an important role in the establishment of the people’s democratic system in Czechoslovakia.