Gustav Husák

Gustav Husák (1913-1991), Slovak political leader who served as head of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969 to 1987, and president of Czechoslovakia from 1975 to 1989. Husák returned Soviet-style repression to Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) after the reformist Prague Spring movement was crushed in 1968.

Husák was born near Bratislava, Slovakia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied and later practiced law in Bratislava, and in 1933 he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPCz). During World War II (1939-1945), after Slovakia became nominally independent under German protection, Husák became a leader of the then-illegal Communist Party in Slovakia. In 1944 he helped lead an unsuccessful Slovak uprising against German rule.

After the war, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were reunited under the influence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Husák became Slovak premier. A strong contingent in 1945, the Communists took complete control of the government in 1948. During that postwar period Husák became a member of the Federal Assembly and of the Presidium (the party’s powerful executive committee) of Czechoslovakia. In 1950 Husák was accused of “Slovak bourgeois nationalism” and expelled from the party in a purge by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In that same purge, many Communist leaders, including Foreign Minister Vladimir Clementis (Husák's mentor and former law partner), were executed after show trials. Husák was arrested in 1951 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954. Released in 1960, he was not readmitted to the CPCz until 1963. In April 1968, after Alexander Dubček, a reformer, had become first secretary, or head, of the CPCz, Husák was made a deputy premier of Czechoslovakia and head of the Slovak Communist Party. As a victim of Soviet repression, Husák appeared to be aligned with the party’s progressive leaders, though little he did or said publicly supported this. As deputy premier, Husák oversaw the federalization of Czechoslovakia—the formation of autonomous Czech and Slovak units.

As first secretary, Dubček initiated major liberal reforms, including freedom of speech, assembly, and religion; greater freedom for non-Communist parties and groups; and the allowance of some private enterprise. Czechoslovaks reveled in the period known as the Prague Spring before Soviet-led forces invaded in August 1968, and Dubček was forced to back off the reforms while Husák pledged adherence to Soviet authority. The Soviet leadership chose Husák to preside over the 'normalization' of Czechoslovakia, and he replaced Dubček in April 1969 as first secretary (after 1971 the title changed to general secretary) of the CPCz. Husák soon did away with most of the liberal reforms and reimposed strict political and cultural controls. Husák's regime was marked by mass arrests of reform-minded intellectuals, purges of the CPCz and trade unions, and police crackdowns on political dissidents.

Husák was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1975. In response to the reform proposals of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Husák urged cautious improvement rather than fundamental change. Because of his resistance, Husák was forced to retire as general secretary of the CPCz in 1987, but he remained in the largely ceremonial office of president until forced to resign by a mass uprising in December 1989 against the Communist government. He was expelled from the CPCz in January 1990 and died the following year.