Ministr zahraničních věcí Vladimír Clementis, jeho úřad a jeho diplomaté
Minister of foreign affairs V. Clementis, his office and his diplomats

Summary/Abstract: The study is concerned with the activities of Vladimír Clementis (1901-1952) in directing the diplomacy of Czechoslovakia, especially in the role of foreign minister in the period 1948-1950. As head of Prague diplomacy after the communist coup of February 1948, Clementis, a leftist intellectual and “undogmatic” communist, still attempted to achieve some degree of autonomy in the foreign policy of people’s democratic Czechoslovakia. However, the growing Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West reduced the space for such a policy almost to zero. The views of Moscow became the deciding factor for the diplomatic activity of Czechoslovakia, and the majority of specific steps, including the appointment of personnel to the Prague diplomatic apparatus, were not decided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but by the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In February 1949, Clementis was forced to introduce a radical reorganization of his office according to the model of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which gave the Prague foreign ministry roughly the organizational structure it retained for the whole 40 year duration of the regime. In relation to the overall development of world politics, Clementis had to give up most of his more independent positions. However, pressure from the “Stalinists” led by V. Široký, led to him being deprived of his post in March 1950 and replaced by Široký himself. In 1952, Clementis fell victim to a fabricated political trial.

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