Page:The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic (1948).pdf/15

 Republics, reached its climax through the Slovak and Czech risings of 1944 and 1945 with the national and democratic revolution of our people, and was brought to a victorious conclusion in the liberation of Prague by the Red Army, on May 9th, 1945.

''We have decided now that our liberated State shall be a national State, rid of all hostile elements, living in brotherly harmony with the family of Slav States and in friendship with all peace-loving nations of the world. We wish it to be a People's democratic State where the People not only make the laws through their representatives, but also carry them into effect through their representatives. We wish it to be a State in which the entire economy shall serve the people and be so directed that general prosperity should grow, that there should be no economic crises and that the national income should be justly distributed. Along this road we wish to attain to a social order in which exploitation of man by man shall be completely abolished—to socialism.''

In this spirit we have laid down in the second part of this Constitution its Fundamental Articles, and in the third we have expounded them in detail, whereby we propose to give a firm foundation to the Legal Order of our People's democracy. 11