ABSTRACT
The orientation of post-war economic policy in all countries of Central and South-east Europe was decisively influenced by the presence of the Soviet Army. Czechoslovakia was the only state of the region able to make an immediate start on an effective policy of reconstruction, the basic tenets of which (annulment of the Munich Agreement, alliance with the USSR, resettlement of the Germans) had been agreed with the Allies before the end of the war. Political sympathy in Czechoslovakia was with the USSR as the liberator from the National Socialist oppressors, while the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in November 1945 reinforced this feeling of trust. At the same time, however, the Czechoslovak authorities aimed for friendly relations with the Western Allies.
