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Czechoslovakia Government and Party Control
The Constitution of 1960, which replaced the original
communist constitution of 1948, converted the Czechoslovak
Republic into the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. According to
the Constitution, "defense of the country and its socialist
social order" was the "supreme duty and a matter of honor for
every citizen." Citizens were "duty bound" to serve in the armed
forces as prescribed by law. The law provided for a system of
universal male conscription.
The president of the federal republic is titular head of the
armed forces by virtue of his constitutional designation as
commander in chief. In that capacity, he has the power to appoint
and promote general officers, but real power is wielded by the
State Defense Council (Rada obrany statu), which alone has the
authority to formulate policy and budget the resources deemed
necessary. The council, in turn, is dominated by the KSC, which
Article 4 of the Constitution asserts is "the guiding force in
society."
In 1985 the Czechoslovak government allocated 7.6 percent of
its annual budget to defense spending. This percentage included
expenses for police, militia, and border guards. Some Western
analysts believe that this figure was quite large for a country
the size of Czechoslovakia, even if the considerable sums devoted
to internal security are taken into account. Other observers,
however, have pointed out that defense spending has never
recovered its pre-1968 levels. In any case, defense spending as a
percentage of the total budget has been gradually increasing
since 1974, when it stood at 5.7 percent.
Policy making in the armed forces since 1969 has been a
function of the State Defense Council, which was established by
law in January of that year. Although the council is a
governmental body, the interlocking nature of top governmental
and party organs ensures that the KSC controls it. Because of
official secrecy laws, little has been published concerning the
council, its meetings, or its functions. When established in
1969, the State Defense Council consisted of the first secretary
of the KSC as chairman and the premier of Czechoslovakia as vice
chairman. Members were the minister of national defense, the
chief of the General Staff, the minister of interior, the
chairman of the Czech National Front, the first secretary of the
Communist Party of Slovakia (Komunisticka strana Slovenska--KSS),
the premier of the Czech Socialist Republic, and the premier of
the Slovak Socialist Republic. In 1987 officials holding these
positions were members of the KSC Secretariat, Presidium, Central
Committee, or a combination of these bodies. Ostensibly the
council was responsible to the Federal Assembly, but the
political power of its membership made it responsible only to
itself
(see The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
, ch. 4).
According to its establishing statute, the State Defense
Council was intended to be the governmental agency charged with
evaluating the country's international obligations and threats to
national security. Based upon such evaluation, determinations
would be made concerning basic concepts of defense and the
configuration of the armed forces. The council also is
responsible for determining the proportion of the annual budget
that will be used for the support of the defense establishment,
and it has final approval of operational planning. During
wartime, it would oversee mobilization of the economy as well as
the population, direct civil defense measures, and act as the
supreme decision-making body for the military forces. The council
also is charged with internal security matters.
Defense councils were also established in the governments of
the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic,
which together constituted the federation that was one of the few
legacies of the ill-fated Action Program of Dubcek
(see The Prague Spring, 1968
, ch. 1). The legislation creating the federal
structure, the Constitutional Law of Federation of October 27,
1968, survived the period of so-called normalization under Husak
and continued in force in late 1987. Both national republics
established operating governments, but defense was among the
responsibilities retained by federal authorities
(see Government Structure
, ch. 4). The purpose and function of the defense
councils in the constituent republics was not revealed. It was
known, however, that their members were appointed and subject to
recall by the chairman of the State Defense Council.
The Ministry of National Defense is the government agency
responsible for the administration and operation of the armed
forces. As is true in most Warsaw Pact countries, this ministry
is patterned on its Soviet counterpart. Under the direction of
the State Defense Council, as of 1987 the defense ministry
organized, equipped, and trained the combat and support elements
of the military services. The ministry also planned peacetime
operations and training, as well as formulating the necessary
plans for wartime operation. Additionally, the ministry allocated
the funds that have been designated for defense in the national
budget. The minister of national defense customarily has been a
serving officer, the only four-star general on active duty.
Defense ministers have usually ranked high in the KSC (membership
in the Central Committee, for example), but as of 1987 no defense
minister had served concurrently in the Presidium.
When the military was restructured to fit the communist mold
in the late 1940s, a political network similar to that of the
Soviet forces was superimposed on Czechoslovak military
organization at every level. Political officers, assigned to all
units down to and including battalion, were subordinate to the
armed forces' Main Political Directorate, which was linked
directly to the KSC Central Committee. The chief of the Main
Political Directorate in early 1987, Lieutenant General Jaroslav
Klicha, was a member of the KSC Central Committee, as was his
first deputy. Despite their separate channels of communication
and their political subordination, political officers were
subject to normal command and could not countermand orders of
their military commanders, as had sometimes been true in the
Soviet armed forces in earlier years.
Party domination was ensured by the interlocking of party and
government positions, that is, by the practice of filling top
positions in the government with key party officials. Husak, for
example, occupied the top position in the party--general
secretary--and the top position in the government--president. In
the military, he was the commander in chief and the chairman of
the State Defense Council. In effect, all lines led to Husak, but
party control was not dependent solely on a single individual.
For example, most officers and many senior NCOs were party
members, many others aspired to membership, and young officers
and NCOs were members of party-sponsored youth organizations.
Conscripts were proselytized by unit activists, and political
orientation made up a significant part of the routine training
programs of military units. Party indoctrination courses were
part of the curricula at military schools and academies.
General Dzur, who had been appointed minister of national
defense by Dubcek in April 1968, was co-opted into the KSC
Central Committee in August of that year and continued in both
capacities until his death. Dzur's highest command position on
active duty had been as a battalion commander from 1946 until
1948, but, as evidenced by his party activity since 1943, he was
very much a politician. In addition to becoming minister of
national defense and the highest ranking member of the armed
forces, Dzur displayed unusual political acumen not only by
surviving the Dubcek debacle but also by retaining his military
and party positions. His successor, General Milan Vaclavik, was
likewise elected to the Central Committee, but only after his
appointment as minister of national defense in 1985. General
Karel Rusov, first deputy minister of national defense and second
in rank and importance to Vaclavik in the military hierarchy, had
been a member of the party since 1946 and was elected to the
Central Committee in 1981, as was General Miloslav Blahnik, the
chief of staff. Czechoslovakia had fewer high-ranking military
officers in the party hierarchy than was generally the case in
other Warsaw Pact countries.
Data as of August 1987
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