Prague uprising 5-9 May 1945 of the year
5 May 1945, an armed uprising began in the Nazi-occupied Prague. The Czech population and, above all, the police and armed forces of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were inspired by reports of Soviet and American troops approaching the borders of Czechoslovakia and decided to raise an uprising.
4 in May in Prague, the Czech government of the protectorate led by President Emil Gakha (since 1939, the president of the Protectorate formed by the occupants) completed the negotiations with the Czech National Council on the transfer of power that began on April 29 on April 1945. The Czech National Council, under the leadership of Albert Prazhak, Ph.D. and Professor of Czech and Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, was to prepare a general election to the post-war government. The Czech government issues a decree abolishing the official German language. It should be noted that in the protectorate there was a fairly significant German population - more than 3 million people. Only in the capital of the Czech Republic lived up to 200 thousand Germans. The Sudeten Germans (residents of the Sudetenland), who lived in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia for more than seven centuries, became part of the state of the Czechs only after a peace treaty that ended the First World War. Prior to 1918, the Sudetenland, like other areas of the Czech Republic (Bohemia), Moravia and Slovakia, was part of the twin Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czechoslovakia arose only after the First World War and was largely an artificial state created by the will of the Entente. The winners refused the Sudeten Germans the right to national self-determination, including them in Czechoslovakia.
The key places in the administration of the Sudetenland region were occupied by Czech officials, the Germans were expelled. The Czech government and the administration preferred their relatives, because during the global economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930-s, the territories inhabited by the Germans were most heavily covered by unemployment. Adolf Hitler, with the full support of other great powers of Europe, in the 1938 year, under the Treaty of Munich, annexed the Sudetenland to the Third Reich. And in the spring of 1939, Czechoslovakia was liquidated. German troops occupied the state, entered Prague. The German government established the Imperial protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The protectorate became an important acquisition for the Reich: every third German tank, every fourth truck of the German Armed Forces and every second machine gun were made by the protectorate industry. During the Great Patriotic War, the resistance from the Czechs and Slovaks was minimal. Activation occurred only after the appearance of Soviet and American forces near Czechoslovakia.
On the night of May 5, Prague received news of the capture of the German capital by the Soviet army. In the morning, the Prime Minister of the Czech Government, Richard Bienert, on Prague Radio announced the liquidation of the protectorate and the beginning of a general uprising against the occupiers. The head of government called on the protectorate’s armed forces and the police to join the insurgent people, and the German military units to capitulate.In Prague, the Czech National Council acted as a representative of 4 established on 1945 on April in Košice (at that time the city was already liberated by Soviet troops) of the Czechoslovak National Front, headed by the former Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Social Democrat Zdenek Fierlinger. It must be said that both the Czech communists and the nationalists were interested in the uprising. Czech nationalists, fearful of the political influence of the Soviet Union on the future of the Czech state and Czech politics, wanted to create an independent position for the future government of the country, freeing Prague by their own efforts. The nationalists were counting on the help of the Americans - in early May 1945, the advanced American units were in 80 km from the Czech capital. The communists wanted to prevent the seizure of power by the nationalists, and therefore raised a rebellion, so that when the Soviet army appeared, to occupy a dominant position in the country.
Czechs in the city began to tear down German inscriptions, banners and hang out Czechoslovak flags on the streets. In response, the German police opened fire on the rebels, and the Czech police and gendarmes, supported by members of the Resistance and volunteers, began shooting at their former colleagues. The Prague Uprising was led by General Karel Kutlvasr.
The rebels (about 30 thousand people) seized the central telegraph, post office, power station, bridges across the Vltava, railway stations with standing echelons there, including German armored trains, a number of large enterprises and the German air defense headquarters. The rebels were able to disarm several small German units. The Czech National Council began negotiations with the imperial governor, Karl Hermann Frank, and the city commandant, General Rudolf Tussaint. At the same time, the Council did not insist on the immediate surrender of the German troops in the vicinity of Prague (about 40 thousand people). The rebels built in the city to 2 thousand barricades.
It must be said that parts of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) played a big role in the uprising. In early May, the former military of the Czechoslovak army led by General Karel Kutlvashrom came into contact with the ROA, with the commander of the 1 division, General Sergei Kuzmich Bunyachenko. The Russian liberation army marched west, wanting to surrender to the Americans. Bunyachenko and his commanders relied on the support of the Czechs, wanting to obtain political asylum in Czechoslovakia, and 4 agreed to support the uprising. General Vlasov did not believe in the success of the uprising, but Bunyachenko did not interfere. But on the night of the 8, most of the Vlasovites began to leave the Czech capital, since they did not receive guarantees regarding their ally status.
After the capitulation of the Berlin garrison, Army Group Center (Commander Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner) in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and part of Army Group Austria (Commander Lothar Rendulich) decided to break through to the West to surrender to the Americans. For the retreat they needed Prague, through which important transport routes passed. Field Marshal Schörner ordered the uprising to be crushed.
German entered the streets of Prague Tanks. May 6 Wehrmacht, using armored vehicles, Aviation and artillery, captured most of the Czech capital. The rebels, armed mainly with only small arms weapons, could not hold back the onslaught of the Wehrmacht. On the same day, the ROA 1 Division (about 18 thousand soldiers) acted on the side of the rebels of the Czechs. The soldiers of Bunyachenko drove the Germans out of the western part of the city. On May 7, units of the Russian Liberation Army crossed the Vltava River and split the enemy’s positions into two parts, took Mount Petrshin and Kulishovitsa area. It was captured before 10 thousand Germans. But the Czech National Council, after some hesitation, thanked the Vlasovites and refused help from the ROA. In the evening of May 7, the Vlasovites began to leave to the west, only a part of the fighters remained with the Czech rebels. After the departure of the Bunyachenko division, the Wehrmacht again became the master of the situation in Prague. The position of the rebels in the Czech capital deteriorated sharply, the Wehrmacht ruthlessly crushed resistance, the Germans reached the center of the city, some of the rebels panicked and threw defensive structures. The Czechs lacked weapons and ammunition. In general, it is clear that the uprising was doomed to defeat, if not the appearance of Soviet tanks in Prague.
6 May American troops occupied Plzen, Ceske Budeevits and Carlsbad. The commander of the United States troops in Europe, General Dwight David Eisenhower, forbade the commander of the 3 American Army, General George Smith Patton, to advance on Prague.
The Soviet command planned to strike at the German forces of 7 in May, but the Prague Uprising forced the offensive to start earlier, without completing the regrouping of forces. The troops of the 1 of the Ukrainian Front received orders from Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev to launch an offensive on the morning of May 6.
On May 8, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, upon learning of the surrender of the Third Reich, signed in Reims, ordered the troops to leave Prague and retreat to the American zone. The German command conducted negotiations with the Czech National Council, which agreed not to hinder the retreat of German units from Bohemia. Only some SS units remained in the Czech capital (about 6 thousand soldiers - units of the 2-th tank division of the SS "Reich", 5-th tank division of the SS "Viking" and which was in the formation stage of the 44-th SS moto-infantry division of the "Wallenstein") led by Karl von Pükler, who continued the fighting.
On the morning of May 9, units of the 1 of the Ukrainian Front entered the Czech capital and suppressed the last pockets of resistance of the SS troops. During the Prague uprising 5 - 9 in May 1945, approximately 1,5 thousand Czech rebels were killed in the Czech capital, 300 soldiers of the 1 division ROA, 1 thousand German soldiers, 4 thousand civilians. On the outskirts of Prague and in the city itself, the Soviet army lost about a thousand soldiers. 10 May 1945, the Czech National Council transferred power in the Czech capital to the Czechoslovak National Front.
It should be noted that the liberation of Czechoslovakia was accompanied by violence on the part of the Czechs against the Germans - the civilian population, including women and children. The new Czech authorities decided to “cleanse the Germans” of Prague, and then the whole country. Murder, harassment, beatings, unprovoked arrests, rape were common. In a number of places were mass executions of the Germans. There is evidence that only in the first two weeks since the beginning of the uprising in Prague, from 35 to 40 thousands of Germans were killed. The Czech Republic was seized by a real psychosis, provoked by the actions of the Czech leadership. The Germans were discriminated against, and then more than 3 million people were expelled from Czechoslovakia.
Czech girl playing with a Soviet warrior.
Prague residents meet Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S.Konev.
Soviet soldier and residents of Prague.
Residents of liberated Prague welcome the car with the Soviet military.
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