Rudolf Slánský (31 July 1901 – 3 December 1952) was a leading Czech communist politician. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia immediately after World War II, he was one of the leading organizers of the party's rule from 1948.
Following the Tito-Stalin split, a wave of purges occurred in the ruling communist parties of Eastern Europe designed to ensure alignment to the Soviet Union. In Czechoslovakia, Slánský was one of 14 leaders arrested in 1951 and tortured into confessing "crimes". Put on show trial in November 1952, after eight days he was convicted of high treason and along with 10 others sentenced to death. Slánský was executed five days later in December 1952.
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Early life
Born at Nezvěstice, now in Plzeň-City District. Slánský's family was Jewish and conservative. He attended secondary school in Plzeň at the Commercial Academy.
After the end of World War I, he went to Prague, the capital, where he discovered a leftist intellectual scene in institutions such as the Marxist Club. In 1921, Slánský joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia when it broke away from the Social Democratic Party. He rose within the party and became a senior lieutenant of its leader, Klement Gottwald. At the Fifth Party Congress in 1929, Slánský was named a member of the party Presidium and the Politburo, and Gottwald became General Secretary.