|
|
In 1918 Prague became the capital of the newly independent Czechoslovak
republic. By 1930 the population had reached 850,000. The city
suffered a setback following the surrender of large parts of Bohemia
and Moravia to Germany under the Munich Agreement of 1938. The
citizens rose in revolt on May 5, 1945, and held the city until
the Red Army arrived four days later. After World War II economic
reconstruction began, careful planning was necessary to restore
and preserve the historic monuments of the city centre. From the
1970s there was an increasing emphasis on the development of new
satellite communities. The city continued to grow, although most
of its population growth was attributable to annexation. The so-called
Prague Spring of 1968, a short-lived excursion into liberalised
social and governmental controls attempted by the government of
Alexander Dubcek, was terminated by Soviet military action in
August of that year. In November 1989, Prague's Wenceslas Square
became the cradle of the movement that swiftly ended four decades
of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. An officially sanctioned
march in the city, commemorating the death of a student at the
hands of Nazis in 1939, resulted in police violence and public
disorder. Indignation at the current regime kindled further unrest,
and in the second half of November students, young intellectuals,
and later older people, totalling some half a million, demonstrated
in the streets of the capital. Subsequent pressure led to the
resignation of the entire Communist Party leadership and the formation
of a coalition government headed by non-Communists. When Czechoslovakia
itself was dissolved into its constituent republics on Jan. 1,
1993, Prague maintained its prominent international status as
capital of the Czech Republic.
|