Czechoslovakia: An Unfortunate Accident

One winter night in 1948, two weeks after the Communists had seized power in Czechoslovakia, Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk fell to his death from his third-floor apartment in the Cernín Palace. Despite an official report that he had committed suicide, many Czechoslovaks believed he had been murdered by Soviet secret police. During Alexander Dubček's short-lived regime in 1968, a new inquest was ordered into Masaryk's death. Then came the Soviet invasion. Last week the new report was finally released, and it proved to be a tortured compromise between the Soviet position (suicide)...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!