Klement Gottwald

Czechoslovakian prime minister (1946–8) and president (1948–53), born in Dadice, S Czech Republic (formerly Moravia). He joined the Communist Party, becoming secretary-general in 1927. He gained prominence by opposing the Munich Agreement of 1938, and as a Communist leader, became vice-premier in the Czech provisional government in 1945. Prime minister in 1946, in February 1948 he carried out the Communist coup which averted a defeat for his party at the polls, and in June became president. Strong in the support of Moscow, whose line he followed closely, he established a complete dictatorship in Czechoslovakia.

Klement Gottwald (November 23, 1896, Dědice (Vyškov), South Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) - March 14, 1953) was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ or CPCz or CPC), prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia. Subsequently, he was (1921) one of the founders of the KSČ, 1921-1926 newspaper editor and KSČ functionary in Slovakia, since 1925 member of the KSČ Central Committee, 1926 - 1929 the leader of the Central Political and Propaganda Committee of the KSČ Central Committee, 1929 - 1948 member of the parliament, 1929 - 1945 Secretary-General of the KSČ, 1935 - 1943 a secretary of the Comintern, 1939 - 1945 one of the leaders of Communist resistance (in Moscow), 1945 - 1953 chairman of the KSČ, 1945 - 1946 vicepremier, 1946 - 1948 Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak government, 1948 - 1953 President of Czechoslovakia.

In March 1945, Edvard Beneš, who had been elected President of Czechoslovakia 1935-38 and who had been head of Czechoslovakia's provisional government-in-exile in London since 1941, agreed to form a National Front government with Gottwald. Elected to the first Czech post-war government following the 1946 election, Gottwald became Premier of Czechoslovakia.

On May 9, 1948, after an effective coup d'état, parliament (the National Assembly) passed a new constitution (the Ninth-of-May Constitution). On June 14, the National Assembly elected Klement Gottwald as the new President of Czechoslovakia.

Gottwald died in 1953, just nine days after attending Stalin's funeral. He was succeeded by Antonín Zápotocký, the Premier of Czechoslovakia from 1948 - 1953.

Zlín, a city in Moravia (Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic), was renamed Gottwaldov after him during 1949–1990.