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Czechoslovakia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Czechoslovakia chĕsˈkōslōvĕnˌskō, former federal republic, 49,370 sq mi (127,869 sq km), in central Europe. On Jan. 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (see Slovakia) bec...

Karviná

(Encyclopedia)Karviná kärˈvĭnä [key], Ger. Karwin, city (1991 pop. 68,405), NE Czech Republic, in Moravia, near the Polish border. It is an industrial center of the Ostrava-Karviná coal-mining region. Formerl...

Mečiar, Vladimír

(Encyclopedia)Mečiar, Vladimír, 1942–, Slovakian political leader. A member of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia, Mečiar was ousted in 1970 after having supported party reforms following the Warsaw Pact in...

Husák, Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Husák, Gustav go͝osˈtäf ho͝oˈsäk [key], 1913–91, Czechoslovakian political leader. A member of the Communist party from 1933, he helped to lead the Slovak national uprising against the German...

Gottwald, Klement

(Encyclopedia)Gottwald, Klement klāməntˈ gôtˈvält [key], 1896–1953, Czechoslovak Communist leader, b. Moravia. After World War I he helped found the Czechoslovak Communist party and served on the party's ce...

Locarno Pact

(Encyclopedia)Locarno Pact, 1925, concluded at a conference held at Locarno, Switzerland, by representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The request of Gustav Stre...

Havel, Václav

(Encyclopedia)Havel, Václav vätsˈläv hävĕl [key], 1936–2011, Czech dramatist and essayist, president of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the Czech Republic (1993–2003). The most original Czech dramatist to ...

Grechko, Andrei Antonovich

(Encyclopedia)Grechko, Andrei Antonovich əndrāˈ əntôˈnəvĭch grĕchˈkō [key], 1903–76, Soviet army officer and minister of defense. As a World War II commander he took part in the liberation of the Cauca...

Bican, Josef

(Encyclopedia)Bican, Josef, 1913–2001, Czech soccer player, b. Vienna. A forward with over 800 competitive goals, he is considered by many to be soccer's greatest scorer. Known as “Pepi,” Bican joined Rapid V...

Pan-Germanism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Germanism, German nationalist doctrine aiming at the union of all German-speaking peoples under German rule. Pan-Germanists considered that not only the German groups in neighboring countries, suc...