Czechoslovakia, 1947 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
On 10 September 1947 the Czechoslovak public was shocked by the revelation of an assassination attempt on three non-communist ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Petr Zenkl, Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, and Justice Minister Prokop Drtina, who had been sent parcels containing explosives designed to detonate on opening, in the affair known as the Krcman case. The plot came amid a growing communist-led offensive against the non-communist parties in the coalition, as the Communist Party, controlling the Interior Ministry and the security police, used propaganda and salami tactics to undermine its rivals. The communist interior minister Vaclav Nosek and the communist-dominated police showed a conspicuous lack of interest in investigating, but an inquiry initiated by Justice Minister Drtina traced the parcel bombs to communist officials at the party secretariat in Olomouc.
The Krcman affair became a major point of contention that fed directly into the crisis of February 1948, when the communists seized full control of Czechoslovakia.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
31509131947
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The non-communist ministers survived the parcel-bomb plot; the affair fed the crisis that led to the communist takeover in February 1948.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →