Operations K and R (Czechoslovakia)

Operations K and R (Czechoslovakia) Akce K ("Action K", short for Akce Kláštery, meaning "Monasteries Operation") and Akce Ř ("Action Ř", short for Akce Řeholnice, meaning "Nuns Operation"), were two coordinated Communist state clendestine operations conducted in Czechoslovakia during 1950. The twin operations were aimed at male and female Catholic religious orders, with the purpose of dismantle monastic life confiscate ecclesiastical property, and bring religious institutions under strict state control. Operation K took place on 13–14 of April targeting male monastic orders, while Operations R, targeting female monastic orders, was executed in two wave between July to September 1950.

In 1948 Czechoslovakia came under Communist control, following the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état led by Klement Gottwald. The Communist regime followed the Stalinist principles considered the Catholic Church to be a channel for foreign influence or a potential threat to the regime. In order to eliminate the threat beforhand, the StB along with other security forces executes series of operations targeting female and male religious orders, sending them to forced labour camps, confiscating church assets and isolating the clergy. The first stage of these operations bean in April 1950.^[1][2][3][4] These operations were conducted after a series of staged trails against church leaders to make them look bad, later justifying government operations.^[5][6]

Operation K (K for the word klášter-Czech for monastery) was executed on the night of the 13-14 of April. The operatoions is also known by the name of “St. Bartholomew’s Night of Monks.”.^[7][8] During that violent operation, 219 male Catholic monasteries were raided and 2,376 monks were illegally arrested, assets confiscated, religious buildings looted and destroyed.^[8][2] The monks who were arrested were sent to hard labor camps, there they were treated harshly, given small food portions, suppressing their dignity and health.^[2][8]

Operation Ř (Ř for the word řeholnice-Czech for nuns) was executed on july 1950. Operation K, was conducted in two phases:

Phase 1, took place between 26 July up to around 15 August 1950, targeting the most prominent female religious institutions in Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia.^[8][7]

Phase 2, took place between 27–28 September up to November 1950, targeting remaining female convents.^[8][7]

Unlike Operation K that was based on military raids, this operation was done using government pressure. Authorities were the means to execute the operation by ordering convents to close, transfaring nun to institutions managed by the state or combined monasteries. All together 4000 nuns were taken out of convents around Czechoslovakia.^[1] Many of the nuns were taken to forced labor in hospitals, schools, or textile factories, all under government watch.^[1]

These two operations had a crucial effect on the Catholic Church's monastic system in Czechoslovakia. The government achieved its goals by taking control over Church actiivties, shutting down independent religious education and spiritual life and confescating church assets and cultural items. The outcome of these actions was a 40 year collapse in religious life . During a period of twenty years from 1948-1968, there was a 50% decrese in the number of Catholic priests, because of arrests, government propaganda, and spying. This forced new priests to be trained secretly in seminars mainlky located in Slovakia and Moravia.^[1][2][4][7]

Following the Velvet Revolution that took place in 1989 the Czechoslovakian government and later on both government of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, made many measures to address these injustices. They publicly acknowledged the wrongdoing, passed laws to partially return confiscated Church property, and rehabilitated clergy and monastics who had been wrongfully imprisoned. In addition, they supported historical research and public remembrance through institutions such as the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) and the Security Services Archive.^[1][2][3]

• Catholic Church
• STB