Zlín strips communist dictator Klement Gottwald of freedom of the city

The city of Zlín, in eastern Moravia, stripped on Thursday the communist dictator and Czechoslovak president Klement Gottwald of freedom of the city he was awarded in 1946. The motion was supported by 34 out of 38 council members; two communist councilmen voted against it. In 1949, the city of Zlín, where the Baťa shoe company was based, was renamed Gottwaldov, in honour of Klement Gottwald, who led the communist coup in 1948, and served as the country’s first communist president until his death in 1953.