Branislav Kinčok: The beginnings of party investigation in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on the example of Vojtech Jančík

In 1949, in Czechoslovakia, not only did criminal penalties for persons whom the new regime marked as so-called class enemies begin in earnest, but his representatives working in the party and state apparatus gradually became the targets of repression. The affected officials became the subject of party investigations led by various specialised commissions. Vojtech Jančík, a post-war employee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Communist Party of Slovakia, was one of them. Based on the presented documents, it is possible to illustrate how the investigation on the party ground was handled in a specific transitional phase in the autumn of 1949, when the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia succumbed to pressure from abroad and, as a result, the party investigation began to grow into a state security investigation.