Third Czechoslovak Republic

The Third Czechoslovak Republic, officially the Czechoslovak Republic, was a sovereign state from April 1945 to February 1948 following the end of World War II.

After the fall of Nazi Germany, the country was reformed and reassigned coterminous borders as its pre-war predecessor state, First Czechoslovak Republic; it likewise restored the predecessor's international recognition. Due to the rise of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence, and this circumstance dominated any plans or strategies for post-war reconstruction. Consequently, the political and economic organisation of Czechoslovakia became largely a matter of negotiations between Edvard Beneš and the Communist Party members exiled in Moscow.

As early as July 1947, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin intervened against Czechoslovak participation in the Marshall Plan, and Beneš's concept of a so-called "bridge" between East and West was negated, which meant that the alliance treaty with France was not implemented. Moscow expressed doubts about the declared parliamentary path to socialism and subsequently called on the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to take power quickly. In February 1948, the Communists finally managed to provoke non-Communist parties into attempting to change the previous coalition government of Klement Gottwald and used the situation for a political coup. Czechoslovakia thus became part of the Soviet sphere of interest and later also of Stalin's power bloc.

In February 1948, the Communist Party seized full power in a coup d'état. Despite the country's official name remaining the Czechoslovak Republic until 1960, when it was changed to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, events of February 1948 are considered the end of the Third Republic.