Hrad

Hrad (with lowercase h) means "the castle" in Czech and Slovak languages and is commonly used as a part of castle name, e.g. "Pražský hrad" (Prague Castle) or "Spišský hrad" (Spiš Castle).

Hrad as a political term

Hrad with upprecase "H" was and is used as an abbreviation for political groups centered around the President of Czechoslovakia and later the President of the Czech Republic.

The first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk, had initially very limited formal powers - to represent the country abroad, to declare war and make peace and to name ambassadors. Masaryk who wished to implement the American model with strong president used his very high informal authority to obtain more of formal powers (e.g. to recall government ministers) and to set up a more-less independent political structure centered around his person.

The common term used for this structure was "the group of the Castle" ("skupina okolo Hradu" - after Prague Castle, the official seat of the president) or shortly "Hrad". The term was used by the media and often as a slur by political opponents.

The group included organizations as Czechoslovak Unity of Legionnaires ("Československá obec legionářů" - soldiers from the Czechoslovak Legions), Legiobanka (a large bank), Czechoslovak Hussite Church which Masaryk helped to establish, individual entrepreneurs, politicians from several parties and influential journalists (e.g. Ferdinand Peroutka and Karel Čapek). The group had significant monetary resources available and kept an informal intelligence network. In 1925 they established a new political party (mockingly nicknamed "the party of the Castle", "Hradní strana") but it failed in 1925 parliamentary elections and dissolved five years later.

The next president, Edvard Beneš, tried to follow the direction set by Masaryk and kept "Hrad" above and outside political parties . After communist takeover of the power in Czechoslovakia (February 1948) the real center of power moved to the Central Committee of the Party and to Moscow and the role of president became purely ceremonial in practice.

After fall of communist party from power (1989) the new president Václav Havel equipped with very high informal authority tried to keep up his powers against rising influence of political parties. The effort had failed and Havel's role eventually became mostly ceremonial. The term "Hrad" had occasionally appeared again in Czech media to label the political movements, parties and individuals centered around Havel. Since they were unsuccessful the term was invariably meant as a mockery.

Since the end of World War II Czech historians are using the term in works about politics of prewar Czechoslovakia.

External links

* [http://www.kap.zcu.cz/opory/cps1/jaka_byla_prvni_republika.pdf Overview of political structures in prewar Czechoslovakia] (in Czech, PDF file)