Karel Kaplan (born 28 August 1928, Horní Jelení) is a Czech historian, who specialized in the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and post

periods in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. He has written books about Czech political trials during the 1950s, the situation of Jews in Central Europe during

, and the Communist takeover in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Biography

During the Prague Spring in 1968, he worked in the Committee of rehabilitation. He accessed classified documents of the

Czechoslovak Communist Party The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Comint ...

(KSČ). After the end of Prague Spring, Karel Kaplan fell into disgrace. He worked in a factory from 1972 to 1976, and in 1976 asked for political asylum in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. After his exile he published documents on secret Soviet activities, which were serialised in the Italian magazine '' Panorama''.'Stalin ‘decided on third world war’', ''The Times'' (6 May 1977), p. 1.'Rosenberg papers ‘in archives of Czech Communist Party’', ''The Times'' (16 May 1977), p. 5. Kaplan claimed he had discovered files that described a secret meeting in the Kremlin in January 1951, where

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

announced his plan for a war with the United States within three or four years, with the aim of driving the Americans out of Europe. In 1990 Kaplan went back to Czechoslovakia. He continues his academic research in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Some translated works

* ''Dans les Archives du Comité Central: Trente ans de secrets du bloc soviétique'', 1978, . * ''The Short March: The Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia 1945-1948'', 1987, . * ''Report on the Murder of the General Secretary'', April 1990 ** ''Zpráva o zavraždění generálního tajemníka'', 1992 (in Czech)

References

External links

Karel Kaplan: Přibližovat se k pravdě
at

Czech Radio Český rozhlas (ČRo) is the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating since 1923. It is the oldest radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second oldest in Europe after the BBC. The service broadcasts throughout the C ...

Kronikář komunistického Československa. Karel Kaplan a studium soudobých dějin (A Chronicler of Communist Czechoslovakia: Karel Kaplan and Contemporary History), Contemporary History (02/2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Karel 1928 births Living people 20th-century Czech historians Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Czechoslovak defectors People from Pardubice District Historians of communism Communist Party of Czechoslovakia members Czechoslovak expatriates in West Germany 21st-century Czech historians