dusha what is your overall assessment of czechoslovak socialist republic? Housing, Economy, development, positives, negatives etc
hiii lilli!! im always so happy to see u in my inbox <3
overall, id say socialism brought a lot of development to czechoslovakia, in particular in the sphere of regional development. before socialism, czechoslovakia was dealing with very intense regional disparities---between the czech and slovak parts and within these parts as well (such as western slovakia and eastern slovakia). for example, in 1930 (18 years prior to the february events of 1948), 56% of slovaks still relied on agriculture, fishing or forestry, whereas in czech lands only around 25-30% did
so the socialist govt did a lot to develop these regions. there was a big focus on industrializing slovakia, particularly the east. czech industrial development was actually outpaced by slovakia on most occasions because of this insistence on eliminating regional disparities. industrial hubs such as the košice steelworks, chemical plans in strážske and humenné, the vojany power plant, etc
the czechoslovak economy relied primarily on heavy industry, in primarily the manufacturing of industrial machinery, much of which was exported to other eastern bloc states
alongside this, there were significant advancements in housing. following ww2, a lot of infrastructure was destroyed and a significant portion of the population was still urban, so there was a lot of focus on the construction of apartment blocks. particularly in the 70s and 80s, 80,000--100,000 apartments were constructed annually (for a country of 15mil citizens!), but even in the 50s and 60s, they often constructed 20,000--50,000/yr
overall, id say socialism brought a lot of development to czechoslovakia. one of its great achievements, for example, was that czechoslovakia became the 5th country in the whole world to electrify every single town in its territory, the last village getting electricity in 1960
id say the primary negatives were the liberal reforms of dubček (though they were crushed quite quickly) and later on the lack of foresight and adaptability of the post-normalization govts, such as their inability to predict and adapt to the crisis of the late 80s, such as by switching to alternative trade partners even outside of comecon, which couldve pacified the civil unrest that ultimately led to the velvet revolution, thus preserving socialism. though ive already posted about that
these are the main complaints, i suppose. certainly, there were certain other non-ideal policies, certainly, such as environmental policies, however most of these can be contextualized quite easily, as there wasnt as much awareness about these subjects and they didnt really lead to any major devastation or anything
2087
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