Czechoslovakia, 1951 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as a dissident coup conspiracy in Czechoslovakia on 25 February 1951, the third anniversary of the February 1948 communist seizure of power, during the intra-party purge that would culminate in the Slansky show trial. Through late 1950 and early 1951 a special secret-police unit under Karel Svab, guided by Soviet advisors, worked to uncover alleged anti-state conspiratorial elements within the Communist Party itself. The Sling affair, in which the regional party secretary Otto Sling was accused under torture of plotting to overthrow party secretary general Rudolf Slansky and replace him with Marie Svermova, and the arrest of high-ranking communists including Foreign Minister Vladimir Clementis, unfolded in this period.
Slansky himself was not arrested until November 1951 and was executed with ten co-defendants in December 1952. No discrete documentation of a distinct plot precisely on 25 February 1951 appears in accessible English sources, but it fits the pattern of the fabricated anti-state conspiratorial center prosecutions of the pre-Slansky purge.
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
31502251951
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The Gottwald regime pursued the intra-party purge that led to the Slansky trial; the party leadership held power throughout.
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
The Guardian
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 →