The uprising was a consequence of the economic crisis into which the country had been plunged by the Communist Party government, and in particular the currency reform decided on 30 May 1953, which robbed the majority of society of its savings and reduced the benefits of the working class, which had previously been strongly supported. Some of them subsequently turned against the regime. The Pilsen Uprising was the largest of more than 130 strikes and riots that took place in Czechoslovakia between 2 and 5 June 1953. 

About 20,000 people – mainly the workforce of the Škoda factories – participated in the uprising, taking control of a large part of the city for almost a day. Busts of the communist president Klement Gottwald were thrown out of the windows of the town hall, and a large banner reading "With the Soviet Union for eternity" was set on fire. It was only in the evening that the protest was suppressed by summoned armed army, police, and border guard units.
During the uprising in Pilsen, 250 people were injured on both sides, 331 others were convicted in political trials, and a wave of repression and purges followed. On the other hand, the regime, facing the threat of internal collapse, was forced to make certain concessions that led to an improvement in the living standards of the population, which ultimately stabilized its rule.
Following the Pilsen uprising, further unrest occurred in other communist satellite states. Just two weeks later, on June 17, 1953, the uprising in the GDR took place, followed three years later by the workers' uprising in Poznań (Posen), Poland (Poznań Uprising) and the National Uprising in Hungary. However, at that time, the situation in Czechoslovakia remained calm.