ABSTRACT
Among the countries of East-Central Europe incorporated in the Soviet sphere of influence in the aftermath of the Second World War Czechoslovakia undoubtedly went furthest, in 1945-1948 and again in 1968, in attempting to reconcile a socialist system with political democracy. However, and this has been a more neglected subject, Czechoslovakia has also produced both in the 1950s and in the 1970s, the most entrenched and lasting brand of Stalinism in East-Central Europe. In contrast, the communist takeover of 1948 opened a period of the homogenisation of the socioeconomic systems and of the political regimes in Eastern Europe through a rigid imitation of the Soviet model which was forcefully rejected in 1968. However, it could be argued that at least in the first third of this century the Slovaks shared with the Czechs, if only in a weaker form, some of the democratic elements of Czech political culture.
