Czechoslovak communists repeatedly purged destructive membership percentages to protect doctrinal purity

Evidence

Concerned with the purity of party ranks, Czech communist leaders purged their membership regularly, and at higher rates than any other party. For example, in 1948–51, two purges cast out 750,000 members, or 32% of party members. In the most radical purge, the “normalization” drive of 1969–70 eliminated a third of the party’s members and decimated the party intellectuals. The Czech party still railed against “non-Leninist thinking” within the party as late as 1988, and insisted that it was “wholly natural and logical that the party demands … Bolshevization.” — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 180

Categorization

• XREF: Speaks to whether a threat-hardened belief system expels internal dissenters (purges its own moderates) rather than tolerating them — directly relevant to correction-backfire dynamics. — connects to: Post-1968 purges destroyed society’s faith in the Czech party’s legitimacy — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 199; The Czech party purged over 28 percent of its members after 1968 — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 197

Broader Connections

• The Czech party purged over 28 percent of its members after 1968 #exemplifies (0.90) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 197
• Post-1968 purges destroyed society’s faith in the Czech party’s legitimacy #expands (0.85) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 199