Political Crisis in Slovakia in 1947

The article is devoted to the coverage of the political crisis in Slovakia in 1947, which for the Czech and Slovak communists, became a kind of dress rehearsal for the future nationwide putsch of 1948. The research methodology is based on general scientific and special scientific methods, allowing the authors to avoid inconsistency, imprecision, and detachment from the objective historical process. The article's authors note that the impetus for the political crisis of 1947 was the victory of the Democratic Party in the parliamentary elections of 1946 in Slovakia. This prevented the further strengthening of the position of the communists in the national system of state power by creating the prerequisites for forming an anti-communist bloc of Czech and Slovak parties. The victory of the Democratic Party in Slovakia also stood in the way of the rapid implementation of socialist transformations on the Soviet model. To avoid political isolation and clear the way for the communization of Slovakia, the communist parties of the republic started a struggle against the Democratic Party to remove it from power. The article highlights the communists' accusation against the Democratic Party of supporting the reactionary forces of the state, connections with the people's underground and emigration. The authors did not ignore the influence of external factors and attempts of the communists to use in the fight against the democrats the dissatisfaction of partisans and the left wing of the Resistance movement with the course of “purges” of Slovak national bodies from reactionary elements. The authors of the article state that the DP leadership was not ready for an aggressive communist attack, and the expected help from the Czech democratic parties did not come. The latter believed the claims of the communists that there was a real threat of separatism and a repetition of the events of “March 14, 1939” in Slovakia. As a result, through a discrediting campaign, fabrication of cases of state “enemies”, threats of mass strikes by supporters, and provocation of a government crisis, the communists managed to eliminate the majority of the Democratic Party in the Slovak national bodies, legitimately existing as a result of the 1946 elections, and to strengthen their own positions in Slovakia. The political crisis of 1947 opened the way for Slovakia to slide from democracy to dictatorship