Klement Gottwald
5th President of Czechoslovakia · Czechia · On the map · Politicians · Lived 1896 to 1953 · aged 56
He led the 1948 Communist coup that turned Czechoslovakia into a Soviet satellite, then ruled as its first Communist president until Stalin's funeral - which he attended days before his own death.
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A typical day, 30 days to 10 November 2026
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Klement GOTTWALD, předseda československé vlády, oficiální portrét (ČTK, ID FO00075657)
7th World Congress of the Communist International Executive Committee 1935
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Baterie Klement Gottwald (1)
Bledowice 1594
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-13900-0095, Berlin-Treptow, sowjetisches Ehrenmal, Kranzniederlegung.jpg?width=1200)
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R90009, Budapest, II. Weltfestspiele, Festumzug, tschechische Delegation (cropped KG).jpg?width=1200)
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R90009, Budapest, II. Weltfestspiele, Festumzug, tschechische Delegation (cropped)Awards
About this person
Klement Gottwald became general secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1929 and spent nearly two decades building the apparatus that would take power. After the Munich Agreement collapsed democratic Czechoslovakia, the right-wing Second Republic banned his party and he fled to the Soviet Union in November 1938. In 1943 he brokered an alliance with President Edvard Beneš and the London-based government-in-exile, forming the National Front to unite anti-fascist resistance. He returned as prime minister in July 1946 - the first Communist to hold the office. Four months after his party seized control in the February 1948 coup, backed by Moscow, he was elected president. He ruled until 14 March 1953, dying days after returning from Stalin's funeral.
