Josef Plojhar a rok 1968. Konec jedné ministerské kariéry

Catholic priest and chairman of the Czechoslovak People’s Party, and supreme functionary of the Board of pro-regime organisations (e.g. long-term vice-chairman of the Association of Czechoslovak Soviet Friendship), Josef Plojhar, was a distinctive figure in the political world of Communist Czechoslovakia during the first twenty years of its existence. He was one of the historically longest serving ministers of health and spent an unbelievable twenty years and one month in this position. He survived a number of political upheavals and purges within the terms of post-February Czechoslovakia. All this makes him an indisputably interesting figure, who has been neglected by previous historic research. This study is about the end of the climactic political career of this Catholic priest and chairman of the Czechoslovak People’s Party, who was Minister of Health from 1948 to 1968. His political downfall came about in connection with the Prague Spring in 1968.