Ludvik Svoboda, Hroznatin, Czech Republic
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N 49° 17.805 E 015° 54.607
33U E 566170 N 5460843
Ludvík Svoboda (25 November 1895 – 20 September 1979) was a Czechoslovak general, politician and was later the president of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
Waymark Code: WMG0CZ
Location: Kraj Vysočina, Czechia
Date Posted: 12/28/2012
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Ludvík Svoboda (
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In the early 1930s he taught at a military academy. After the German occupation in the spring 1939 he fled to Poland. After the outbreak of the German offensive against the USSR Svoboda became head of the Czechoslovak military units on Eastern front. He quickly climbed the military ranks becoming army general in August 1945.
Ludvík Svoboda was appointed Minister of Defense of Czechoslovakia in 1945. On 22 February 1948, nearly all of the non-Communist cabinet ministers resigned in protest of the practices of Klement Gottwald (
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After the ending of the Antonín Novotný regime, in the period known as the Prague Spring, Svoboda was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 30 March 1968. Svoboda survived the removal of reformist Communists in Czechoslovakia while passively witnessing the Party purges and suffocation of former civic liberties.
Ludvik Svoboda lived in difficult times and participated in both world wars. He has a number of admirers and also a lot of critics. Many historians particularly criticizes his subordinate attitude towards the former Soviet Union.
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