Bedřich Reicin

Who was Bedřich Reicin?

Bedřich Reicin was a Czechoslovak army officer and politician.

Reicin was born into a poor Jewish family. He first studied at a gymnasium, and later at a business college from which he was expelled after discovery of his activism for the communist party. In the 1930s, Reicin became a functionary of a communist youth organization and contributor of the party newspaper Rudé Právo. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939, he was imprisoned by the Gestapo. He was released after seven months and, in 1940, he managed to flee into the Soviet Union. There he worked as a radio propagandist. After the attack by Germany on Soviet Union, he was interned. In February 1942, he joined the newly formed First Czechoslovak Army Corps and soon became a propaganda officer there. In 1945, Reicin was named the head of the counter-intelligence service of the Corps, a role he reprised after the war. Between 1948 and 1951, Reicin served as the Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for army personnel management. In 1948, he obtained the rank of brigade general, and in 1950 the rank of division general.