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Czech Socialist Republic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From 1969 to 1990, the Czech Socialist Republic (Česká socialistická republika in Czech; abbreviated ČSR) was the official name of that part of Czechoslovakia that is the Czech Republic today. The name was used from January 1, 1969 to March 1990.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, liberalisation reforms were stopped and reverted. The only exception was the federalization of the country. The former centralist state Czechoslovakia was divided in two parts: the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic by the Constitutional Law of Federation of October 28, 1968, which went into effect on January 1, 1969. New national parliaments (the Czech National Council and the Slovak National Council) were created and the traditional parliament of Czechoslovakia was renamed the "Federal Assembly" and was divided in two chambers: the House of the people (cz:Sněmovna lidu / sk:Snemovňa ľudu) and the House of Nations (cz:Sněmovna národů / sk:Snemovňa národov). Very complicated rules of voting were put in effect.
The federalization was symbolic only - all the real power was kept by the communist party. The increased number of "parliaments" conveniently provided more positions for party members though their role was just symbolic.
After the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia, the word "socialist" was dropped in the names of the two republics, i.e. the Czech Socialist Republic was renamed Czech Republic (still part of Czechoslovakia).
The complicated system of parliament voting (there were de-facto 5 different bodies each having right of veto) was kept after the fall of socialism, complicating and delaying political decisions during radical changes in economy.
Later, in 1993, the Czech Republic became an independent state (see Dissolution of Czechoslovakia).