Prague - The Czech Communist Party (KSČM) issued a statement on the 70th anniversary of the Munich Agreement that calls to mind pre-1989 communist history books.
Remembering the 1938 Munich Agreement signed by European powers that allowed Nazi Germany to seize Sudentenland - border regions of Czechoslovakia - KSČM claimed in its statement that it was above all the Soviet Red Army that liberated Czechoslovakia from the Nazis and brought the country independence.
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KSČM believe that Western allies entered the war only after the final result was already determined by the Soviets.
Ahistorical statement
"The statement of KSČM on the anniversary of the "Munich betrayal" is single-sided and above all ahistoric," Zdeněk Hazdra from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes told Aktuálně.cz.
He also recalled that in 1939 the Soviet Union and Germany signed the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov pact that renounced warfare between the two countries. Soon after, the Germans attacked Poland, which marked the outbreak of WWII.
"In this way, Hitler and Stalin divided Poland, both following their own purely imperial interests. When Hitler attacked Stalin's USSR in the summer of 1941, the West had been fighting Hitler already for two years," said Hazdra.
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Political scientist Martin Jeřábek from the Western Bohemian University in Pilsen pointed out that Britain was fighting Nazi Germany in 1940 and it also supported the Soviet Union financially after it was attacked by Berlin.
"Lesson still topical"
Although experts agree with KSČM that Britain, France, Germany and Italy are to be blamed for the Munich Agreement, they add that the approach of the Soviet Union was problematic too, as it showed no intention to help Czechoslovakia.
The KSČM party believes the lesson Czechs learned from the Munich Agreement is still topical. In its statement, KSČM questions the credibility of the current allies of the Czech Republic and criticizes what it percieves as subordination of the country to the USA - the presence of Czech soldiers in the US military missions abroad as well as the US plan for radar base in Brdy.
