Podíl československé Bezpečnosti na přípravě a provedení měnové reformy v roce 1953
Involvement of Czechoslovak Security Services in the preparation and implementation of the monetary reform in 1953

Summary/Abstract: The monetary reform in Czechoslovakia in 1953 was the culmination of a series of reforms in the countries of the Soviet bloc. It was largely prepared and implemented, in cooperation with the bodies of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and state authorities, by the repressive apparatus controlled by the Ministry of National Security. The apparatus consisted of a non-uniformed secret police known as the State Security Service, a uniformed riot police known as the Public Security Service, the People’s Militia, composed of armed workers dedicated to the Communist Party, and the Border Guard and Interior Guard Services, responsible for surveillance of the state border and important buildings within the country. The leaders of these forces were informed of the planned monetary reform in the evening of 29 May 1953 at a meeting held in Prague, and then they set up their own exchange centres (however, at these centres, money was exchanged under the same conditions as elsewhere). The State Security Service was tasked with the monitoring of the situation among the population – with the help of a network of secret agents. The Public Security Service, supported by the People’s Militia, was mainly responsible for patrolling the streets and monitoring the exchange centres. The whole operation was led by the main officials of the State Security Service, with Public Security Service commanders appointed as their deputies. Communists were concerned about potential local and limited public disorders organized by “class enemies”. Instead, many places saw strikes and work stoppages that locally turned into anti-communist demonstrations. The largest protests took place in Pilsen and Ostrava, where the local Security Services and the party apparatus failed to suppress them, and the crisis was not stopped until the arrival of reinforcements from other regions, including troops of the Czechoslovak Army. The initiators and main participants were tried, and even more people were punished out of court (transferring to heavier and less paid jobs, pay cuts, expelling students and teachers from schools or preventing students from studying, dismissals, evictions, etc.). Protests accompanying the monetary reform and developments in neighbouring countries drew the attention of the communist leadership to the possibility of large-scale unrest, or even an armed uprising. The monetary reform helped to overcome economic problems of the regime in the early 1950s, and Czechoslovakia was spared major effects of the crisis of the communist system in 1956, which, however, resulted in more significant problems linked to the deteriorating economic situation in the 1960s.

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