Career
A cabinet maker by training, he joined the Social Democratic Party in 1912. He was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, but along with most Czech soldiers defected to the Russians late in the war.
A charter member of the KSČ in 1921, he edited the party's newspaper in Bratislava from 1921 to 1926. From 1925 onward he was a member of the KSČ Central Committee. In 1927, he became secretary-general of the KSČ, and two years later he was elected to the National Assembly. He became a secretary of the Comintern in 1935, a post he held until its dissolution in 1943.
After the Munich Agreement of 1938, Gottwald spent the next seven years in exile in Moscow. From 1939 onward he was one of the leaders of the Czech resistance.
In March 1945, Edvard Beneš, who had been elected President of Czechoslovakia 1935–38 and who had been head of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London since 1941, agreed to form a National Front government with Gottwald. As part of the deal, Gottwald became deputy premier under Zdeněk Fierlinger.
In 1946, Gottwald gave up the secretary-general's post to Rudolf Slánský and was elected to the new position of party chairman. That March, he led the party to an astonishing 38% of the votes. This was easily the KSČ's best performance in an election. As it turned out, it would be the best showing by a European Communist party in a free election.
Read more about this topic: Klement Gottwald
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