The non-Communist ministers seem to behave as…

The non-Communist ministers seem to behave as if this is just an old-fashioned pre-1939 governmental crisis, not knowing that the Communists are mobilizing from below to take complete power.

To help them do this, the Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, arrives in Prague to arrange a coup.

Armed militia and police take over Prague, Communist demonstrations are mounted and an anti-Communist student demonstration is broken up.

The ministries of the non-Communist ministers are occupied, civil servants dismissed and the ministers prevented from entering their own ministries.

The army is confined to barracks and does not interfere.

Communist "Action Committees" and trade union militias are quickly set up, armed, and sent into the streets, as well as being prepared to carry through a purge of anti-Communists.

In a speech before 100,000 of these people, Gottwald threatena a general strike unless Beneš agreea to form a new Communist-dominated government.

Zorin at one point offers the services of the Red Army, camped on the country's borders.

However, Gottwald declines the offer, believing that the threat of violence combined with heavy political pressure will be enough to force Beneš to surrender.

As he will say after the coup, Beneš "knows what strength is, and this led him to evaluate this [situation] realistically".