On May 5, 1945, an armed uprising began in Prague occupied by the Nazis. The Czech population and, above all, the employees of the police and the armed forces of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were encouraged by reports of Soviet and American troops approaching the borders of Czechoslovakia and decided to raise an uprising.
On May 4, in Prague, the Czech government of the protectorate, headed by President Emil Hacha (since 1939, the president of the Protectorate formed by the occupiers), completed negotiations with the Czech National Council on the transfer of power, which had begun on April 29, 1945. The Czech National Council, led by Albert Prazak, Ph. D. and professor of Czech and Slovak literature at the University of Bratislava, was to prepare a general election for the post-war government. The Czech government issues a decree abolishing the official German language. It should be noted that there was a fairly significant German population on the territory of the protectorate - more than 3 million people. Up to 200 thousand Germans lived in the capital of the Czech Republic alone. The Sudeten Germans (residents of the Sudetenland), who lived in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia for more than seven centuries, became part of the Czech state only after the peace treaty that ended the First World War. Until 1918, the Sudetenland, like other regions of Bohemia (Bohemia), Moravia and Slovakia, was part of the two-pronged Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czechoslovakia emerged only after the First World War and was in many ways an artificial state created by the will of the Entente. The winners denied the Sudeten Germans the right to national self-determination, incorporating them into Czechoslovakia.
Czech officials took key positions in the administration of the Sudetenland, and the Germans were expelled. The Czech government and administration gave preference to their kinsmen, as during the global economic crisis in the early 1930s, territories inhabited by Germans were most affected by unemployment. Adolf Hitler, with the full support of other great powers in Europe, in 1938, according to the Munich Treaty, annexed the Sudetenland to the Third Reich. And in the spring of 1939, Czechoslovakia was liquidated. German troops occupied the state and entered Prague. The German government established the Imperial Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Protectorate became an important acquisition for the Reich: every third German tank, every fourth truck of the German Armed Forces and every second machine gun were manufactured by the protectorate's industry. During the Great Patriotic War, resistance from the Czechs and Slovaks was minimal. Activation took place only after the appearance of Soviet and American forces near Czechoslovakia.
On the night of May 5, Prague received news of the capture of the German capital by the Soviet army. In the morning, Prime Minister of the Czech government Richard Bienert - on the Prague radio announced the liquidation of the protectorate and the beginning of a general uprising against the occupiers. The head of government called on the armed forces of the protectorate and the police to join the insurgent people, and the German military units to surrender.
In Prague, the Czech National Council acted as a representative of theKosice (at this time the city was already liberated by Soviet troops) of the National Front of Czechoslovakia, headed by the former Ambassador of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union, Social Democrat Zdenek Fierlinger. I must say that both Czech communists and nationalists were interested in the uprising. Czech nationalists, feared the political influence of the Soviet Union on the future of the Czech state and Czech politics, wanted to create an independent position for the future government of the country, liberating Prague on their own. The nationalists counted on the help of the Americans - at the beginning of May 1945, the advanced American units were 80 km from the Czech capital. The communists wanted to prevent the seizure of power by the nationalists, and therefore raised an uprising in order to take a dominant position in the country when the Soviet army appeared.
Czechs in the city began to tear down German inscriptions, banners and hang Czechoslovak flags on the streets. In response, German police opened fire on the rebels, and Czech police and gendarmes, supported by members of the Resistance and volunteers, began shooting at their former colleagues. The Prague uprising was led by General Karel Kutlvashr.
The rebels (about 30 thousand people) seized the central telegraph, post office, power plant, bridges across the Vltava, railway stations with echelons standing there, including German armored trains, a number of large enterprises and the German air defense headquarters. The rebels were able to disarm several small German formations. The Czech National Council began negotiations with the imperial governor Karl Hermann Frank and the city's commandant, General Rudolf Tussain. At the same time, the Council did not insist on the immediate surrender of German troops in the vicinity of Prague (about 40 thousand people). The rebels built up to 2 thousand barricades in the city.
It must be said that units of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) played a large role in the uprising. In early May, the former military of the Czechoslovak army, led by General Karel Kutlvashr, made contact with the ROA, with the commander of the 1st division, General Sergei Kuzmich Bunyachenko. The Russian liberation army marched westward, wanting to surrender to the Americans. Bunyachenko and his commanders hoped for the support of the Czechs, wishing to obtain political asylum in Czechoslovakia, and on May 4 agreed to support the uprising. General Vlasov did not believe in the success of the uprising, but did not interfere with Bunyachenko. But already on the night of the 8th, most of the Vlasovites began to leave the Czech capital, since they did not receive guarantees about their allied status.
After the surrender of the Berlin garrison, Army Group Center (commanded by Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner) in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and part of Army Group Austria (commander Lothar Rendulich) decided to break through to the west to surrender to the Americans. To retreat, they needed Prague, through which important transport routes passed. Field Marshal Schörner ordered the suppression of the uprising.
German tanks entered the streets of Prague. On May 6, the Wehrmacht, using armored vehicles, aircraft and artillery, captured most of the Czech capital. The rebels, armed mainly with small arms only, could not hold back the onslaught of the Wehrmacht. On the same day, the 1st ROA division (about 18 thousand fighters) took the side of the rebellious Czechs. Bunyachenko's soldiers drove the Germans out of the western part of the city. On May 7, units of the Russian Liberation Army crossed the Vltava River and cut the enemy positions into two parts, took Mount Petrshin and the Kulishovitsy area. Up to 10 thousand Germans were taken prisoner. But the Czech National Council, after some hesitation, thanked the Vlasovites and refused to help the ROA. On the evening of May 7, the Vlasovites began to leave to the west, only some of the fighters remained with the Czech rebels. After the departure of the Bunyachenko division, the Wehrmacht again became the master of the situation in Prague. The situation of the rebels in the Czech capital deteriorated sharply, the Wehrmacht ruthlessly crushed the resistance, the Germans went to the center of the city, part of the rebels, panicking, threw defensive structures. The Czechs experienced a shortage of weapons and ammunition. In general, it is clear that the uprising was doomed to defeat, if not for the appearance of Soviet tanks in Prague.
On May 6, American troops occupied Plzen, Ceske Budujovice and Karlsbad. General Dwight David Eisenhower, commander of the United States forces in Europe, has forbidden the commander of the US 3rd Army, General George Smith Patton, to advance on Prague.
The Soviet command planned to strike at the German troops on May 7, but the Prague Uprising forced the offensive to begin earlier, without completing the regrouping of forces. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front received an order from Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev to launch an offensive on the morning of May 6.
On May 8, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, upon learning of the surrender of the Third Reich signed in Reims, ordered the troops to leave Prague and retreat to the American zone. The German command was negotiating with the Czech National Council, which agreed not to interfere with the retreat of German units from Bohemia. Only a few SS formations remained in the Czech capital (about 6 thousand soldiers - units of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Reich", the 5th SS Panzer Division "Viking" and the 44th SS Panzer Division "Wallenstein", which was at the stage of formation) led by Karl von Pückler, who continued the fighting.
On the morning of May 9, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the Czech capital and suppressed the last centers of resistance of the SS troops. During the Prague Uprising on May 5-9, 1945, approximately 1,500 Czech rebels, 300 soldiers of the 1st ROA Division, 1,000 German soldiers, and 4,000 civilians were killed in the Czech capital. On the outskirts of Prague and in the city itself, the Soviet army lost about a thousand soldiers. On May 10, 1945, the Czech National Council handed over power in the Czech capital to the National Front of Czechoslovakia.
It should be noted that the liberation of Czechoslovakia was accompanied by violence from the Czechs against the Germans - the civilian population, including women and children. The new authorities of the Czech Republic decided to "cleanse the Germans" from Prague, and then the whole country. Murders, bullying, beatings, unprovoked arrests, and rape were commonplace. In a number of places, mass executions of the Germans took place. There is evidence that only in the first two weeks after the beginning of the uprising in Prague, from 35 to 40 thousand Germans were killed. The Czech Republic was seized by a real psychosis, provoked by the actions of the Czech leadership. The Germans were discriminated against, and then more than 3 million people were expelled from Czechoslovakia.
A Czech girl plays with a Soviet soldier.
Residents of Prague meet Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev.
Soviet soldier and residents of Prague.
Residents of liberated Prague welcomed a car with Soviet servicemen.
