Karel Kramář
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| Karel Kramář | |
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| In office 14 November 1918 – 8 July 1919 |
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| Succeeded by | Vlastimil Tusar |
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| Born | December 27, 1860 Vysoké nad Jizerou, Austrian Empire |
| Died | May 26, 1937 (aged 76) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Political party | Young Czech Party, National Democratic Party |
| Occupation | Politician |
Karel Kramář (December 27, 1860 - May 26, 1937) was a Czech politician.
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[edit] Biography
Leader of the Young Czech Party in Austria-Hungary and later of the National Democratic Party in Czechoslovakia. A liberal nationalist with close ties to the political elite in Prague and Vienna, Kramář pursued a policy of cooperation with the Austrian state as the best means of achieving Czech national goals before the First World War, even as he favored closer ties between the Czechs and the Russian Empire. His commitment to this policy of cooperation with the Austrian government ("positive politics" in the parliance of the day) led him to resign his leadership of the Young Czech party in 1914 as the party drifted toward a more nationalist and oppositional stance. During the First World War the Austrian authorities charged Kramář with treason, tried him and ultimately sentenced him to 15 years of hard labour. His imprisonment acted however to galvanise Czech nationalist opinion against the Austrian state. The new Emperor Karl I released Kramář as part of a general political amnesty in 1917.
Formerly a close associate of Tomáš Masaryk, later the first president of Czechoslovakia, Kramář and Masaryk were barely on speaking terms by 1914. Kramář, as the most prominent politician in Czechoslovakia, was named the country's first prime minister (14 November 1918 - 8 July 1919), much to the displeasure of Masaryk. Kramář, a strong Russophile who was married to a Russian aristocrat, subsequently represented Czechoslovakia at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 but later resigned over Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš's failure to support anti-Bolshevik White forces in Russia.
Following the first general election in Czechoslovakia, Kramář's party, now the National Democratic party, became a minor player in the various interwar governments of the new state. Later, Kramář worked together with Jiří Stříbrný in the National Union (Narodni sjednoceni).
In May 1919, an anarchist named Alois Šťastný made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Kramář.
[edit] Foreign Policy
During his time in the National Assembly (1918-1937), Kramář worked in the Committee for Foreign Affairs. While working for this committee he made many speeches on Foreign Policy. Eventually Kramář began dividing countries into popular and unpopular nations (Georgiev). Countries such as Great Britain, France, pre-World War One Poland, were into the popular category. On the other hand, countries that he deemed unpopular were Germany, the Soviet Union, post-war Poland, and the Hungary.
[edit] Opinions on Foreign Policy with Russia
Kramář gave all of him sympathy to the Russian Nation, and developed a strong dislike for Bolshevik Russia. Kramář was a full supporter and strong believer in the Russian Nation; he was not a supporter of the Soviet Union. In fact he discouraged Czechoslovakian support of the Soviet Union for several reasons; to begin with Kramář disagreed with the way the Janov was being used. Which was being used for agitation rather than the support of those suffering from the famine. He also disapproved of the tactics used by the secret police. Because of these problems Kramář was very disappointed in 1934 when Czechoslovakia established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. One of Kramář's biggest problems with the Soviet Union was the idea of Bolshevism (Georgiev).
[edit] Problems with Bolshevism
Other than thinking that Bolshevism was an evil German creation; Kramář also believed that the Bolsheviks could pose a problem due to their loyalty to the German state. But the loyalty to Germany wasn't Kramář's main problem with Bolshevism. Instead he constantly rejected the idea of centralized production, and the result of that being one social class. Kramář did not believe that Bolshevism would be around for very long because he perceived that they weren't really supported by their citizens and it seemed that they only way they could keep control over these people was through scare tactics and cruel violence. Kramář firmly believed that eventually the Bolshevik state would fall, and he sincerely hoped that it would happen during his lifetime (Georgiev).
[edit] Opinions on Foreign policy with Germany
Other than seeing Bolshevism as a German creation, Kramář had been criticizing Germany for years. He blamed the German's for the start of World War One and he believed that they were only using the Austro-Hungarian empire as a tool to achieve other means. After the Treaty of Versailles Kramář warned against allowing the Germans to revise the treaty, and he criticized the system of Reparations, believing that the Germans must pay all the reparations completely due to the damage done to countries such as France. In 1919 Kramář also warned against the developing relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union.
[edit] Opinions on Foreign policy with Hungary
Kramář also strongly disliked the Hungarians. His main reason for contempt was their lack of Slavic roots. He also worried that they would try to revise the Treaty of Trianon. He believed that one day the Hapsburg's might try to return to the throne.
[edit] Sources
Karel Kramářs Speeches in the National Assembly (1918-1937), in: Georgiev, J., Kysela, J. (ed.): Kapitoly z dějin stavovského a parlamentního zřízení (Chapters from the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions), Praha 2004, s. 149 – 169 – vyšlo v roce 2005: Can be found online at http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Pd-oPyD3OLkJ:upol.ff.cuni.cz/ucitele/lustigova/kramar_publik05.pdf+karel+Kramar&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us&client=firefox-a 9-11-07
See Joint Czech and Slovak Digital Parliamentary Library, 14 November 1918, 1st session in period 1918-20, http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1918ns/ps/stenprot/001schuz/s001001.htm
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