Czechoslovakia

[chek-uh-sluh-vah-kee-uh, -vak-ee-uh]

noun

1. a former republic in central Europe: formed after World War I; comprised Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and part of Silesia: a federal republic 1968–92. 49,383 sq. mi. (127,903 sq. km). Prague.

Czechoslovakia

/ ˌtʃɛkəʊsləʊˈvækɪə /

noun

1. Czech name: Československo. a former republic in central Europe: formed after the defeat of Austria-Hungary (1918) as a nation of Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia and Slovaks in Slovakia; occupied by Germany from 1939 until its liberation by the Soviet Union in 1945; became a people's republic under the Communists in 1948; invaded by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, ending Dubček's attempt to liberalize communism; in 1989 popular unrest led to the resignation of the politburo and the formation of a non-Communist government. It consisted of two federal republics, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which separated in 1993 See also Czech Republic Slovakia

Czechoslovakia

1. Former republic in central Europe, bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the north and west, Ukraine to the east, and Austria and Hungary to the south. Its capital and largest city was Prague.

The Munich Pact partitioned Czechoslovakia in 1938, giving one of its regions, the Sudetenland, to Germany in an attempt to avoid war.

Communists seized complete control of the government in 1948. During the 1960s, a movement toward liberalization effected many democratizing reforms. An alarmed Soviet Union, along with its Warsaw Pact allies, put an abrupt end to the movement by invading Prague in 1968.

Czechoslovakia was created by the union of the Czech lands and Slovakia, which took place in 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart.

The country surrendered to German control in 1939 and was liberated by American and Soviet forces at the end of World War II.

The communist government, confronted by mass pro-democracy demonstrations, resigned in 1989. In 1991, the last Soviet troops left the country. The end of communist rule resulted in the split of the republic into two independent states, The Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 1993.

Other Word Forms

• Czechoslovakian adjective
• Czecho-Slovakian adjective
• non-Czechoslovakian adjective

Example Sentences

Czechs and Slovaks will rally in both countries Monday, the anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in former Czechoslovakia, to denounce the leaders they say have betrayed its legacy.

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The family went to Czechoslovakia and then Poland, barely staying one step ahead of the Nazis, before catching one of the last ships bound for England in July 1939.

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Hasek scored five goals in 56 games for Czechoslovakia and led the country as captain to the World Cup quarter-finals in Italy in 1990.

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At Munich the UK and France forced Czechoslovakia to surrender territory and not long after its independence to Nazi Germany.

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From the mid-1950s Eurovision quickly established itself as a big deal in Western Europe, while in the Eastern bloc song festivals in Czechoslovakia and Poland acquired the occasional tag of 'Intervision'.

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