Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Sat, 25 Jul 2026 05:26:51 +0200https://english.radio.cz/major-general-karel-lukas-first-victim-communist-purges-1948-8621170© 2026 Radio Prague International February 1948 brought great political change in Czechoslovakia. On the 25th of that month, the Communist Party took power and declared the country a "people's democracy", as the first step towards achieving Socialism and ultimately Communism. As one of the first steps of the new regime, the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party began to purge dissidents from all social levels, according to Marxist-Leninist principles. The very first victim of these purges was Major General Karel Lukas, who was assassinated in prison after the Communist takeover. But it was something much simpler than politics that led the Secret Police to eliminate this particular military figure. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/4f5197446b1f6808606b2a0aab5e5a67.png?timestamp=1583150525 https://english.radio.cz/major-general-karel-lukas-first-victim-communist-purges-1948-8621170 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9