BENEŠ, EDUARD (1884–1948)

Second (1935–1938) and fourth (1945–1948) president of Czechoslovakia.

Born in the village of Kožlany into a family of ten children, Eduard Beneš supported himself during his studies in Prague and abroad (Paris, Berlin, London), receiving a doctorate of laws in 1908. Beneš came to prominence during World War I as one of three founders of Czechoslovakia, along with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the Slovak leader Milan R. Štefánik. Although he first hoped that the multiethnic Austrian Monarchy could be transformed into a modern federation, under the influence of Masaryk he began to work toward breaking up the Habsburg Empire. At the Paris Peace Conference, Beneš excelled as a diplomat in gaining considerable territories for the new republic, especially in its eastern half against the claims of Hungary. However, in addition to absorbing too many ethnic minorities, Czechoslovakia's new borders proved too extenuated to be effectively defended.

Throughout the interwar period Beneš controlled Czechoslovakia's foreign policy. This was true also after his election as the country's second president, replacing the aged Masaryk in 1935. Against the double threat of Hungarian revisionism and Habsburg restoration he prevailed upon Romania and Yugoslavia to join Czechoslovakia in forming in 1919 the Little Entente. Apart from maintaining the Versailles system and very actively promoting the League of Nations, Beneš became one of the leading advocates of collective security, which received a substantial boost through the Franco-Soviet military assistance pact of 1935 and which Czechoslovakia joined. However, other countries refused to participate, and the French, under British influence, decided to appease the fascist powers instead of restraining them. The German annexation of Austria in March 1938 signaled the outbreak of the Sudeten crisis, which was settled at the infamous Munich conference at the end of September.

Facing the threat of military attack by Adolf Hitler, who pledged to rescue the German-speaking population of Czechoslovakia, Beneš and his government succumbed to joint Anglo-French pressure and agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland. Following Munich, Beneš resigned his presidency and went into exile to London with his wife. In early 1939 the Benešes left for the United States. Heralded as "Europe's most distinguished democrat," Beneš taught at the University of Chicago. Here he experienced the shock of Hitler's invasion of Prague on 15 March 1939 and the disintegration of Czechoslovakia. What followed was arguably Beneš's finest performance as, still a private person, he condemned the German occupation as an act of barbarism and breach of the Munich settlement. On 28 May 1939 Beneš met secretly with Franklin D. Roosevelt and left with the impression that the U.S. president wished to restore Czechoslovakia if the United States entered the war. He returned to London a few weeks before the German assault on Poland. Beneš's activities concentrated on the difficult task of maintaining unity among Czechoslovakia's exiles, boosting through radio broadcasts the morale of those suffering under occupation, and achieving the full recognition of his exile government from the Allied forces. After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 the Soviets began to support the restoration of Czechoslovakia within its pre-1938 borders. Beneš saw this erroneously as a confirmation of his theory of convergence, whereby Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union was bound to adopt some democratic reforms because of the close wartime alliance with Britain and the United States. Against British warnings but anxious to secure the best terms, Beneš went to Moscow in December 1943 to sign with Stalin the treaty of assistance and postwar cooperation. What followed was a steady retreat on Beneš's part under the pressure exercised by Moscow and Czechoslovak Communists.

Still deeply traumatized by the betrayal of Western powers in 1938, Beneš argued that he needed common border with the Soviet Union in order to receive military assistance to thwart a future German invasion. With regard to internal changes, Beneš issued a series of decrees ordering the expulsion of Germans and Hungarians, confiscation of their property and that of the Nazi collaborators, and nationalization of banks and heavy industry. He opposed, as in the past, Slovak aspirations for autonomy. His deteriorating health was exploited unscrupulously by Moscow and domestic Communists. Thus he had no strength to resist when Stalin vetoed Czechoslovak participation in the Marshall Plan. When it came to the showdown between Communists and noncommunists in February 1948, Beneš failed to support the latter, and by remaining in office he legalized the Communist takeover. In May 1948, nevertheless, Beneš finally refused to sign a Communist-sponsored constitution and resigned as president. After abdicating, the sick Beneš tried in vain to finish his wartime memoirs. He died of a stroke on 3 September 1948.

See alsoCzechoslovakia; Munich Agreement; Sudetenland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Beneš, Edvard. Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Beneš: From Munich to New War and New Victory. Translated by Godfrey Lias. London, 1954.

——. The Fall and Rise of a Nation: Czechoslovakia 1938–1941. Edited by Milan Hauner. New York, 2004.

Secondary Sources

Lias, Godfrey. Beneš of Czechoslovakia. London, 1939.

Hitchcock, Edward. "I Built a Temple for Peace": The Life of Eduard Beneš. New York, 1940.

Zeman, Zbyněk, and Antonín Klimek. The Life of Edvard Beneš 1884–1948: Czechoslovakia in Peace and War. Oxford, U.K., 1996.

Milan Hauner