Husák, Gustáv
Czechoslovak politician, leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CCP) 1969–87 and president 1975–89. After the 1968 Prague Spring of liberalization, his task was to restore control, purge the CCP, and oversee the implementation of a new, federalist constitution. He was deposed in the popular uprising of November–December 1989 and expelled from the CCP in February 1990.
Husák, a lawyer, was active in the Resistance movement during World War II, and afterwards in the Slovak Communist Party (SCP), and was imprisoned on political grounds 1951–60. Rehabilitated, he was appointed first secretary of the SCP in 1968 and CCP leader 1969–87. As titular state president he pursued a policy of cautious reform. He stepped down as party leader in 1987, and was replaced as state president by Václav Havel in December 1989 following the ‘velvet revolution’.
Husák, a lawyer, was active in the Resistance movement during World War II, and afterwards in the Slovak Communist Party (SCP), and was imprisoned on political grounds 1951–60. Rehabilitated, he was appointed first secretary of the SCP in 1968 and CCP leader 1969–87. As titular state president he pursued a policy of cautious reform. He stepped down as party leader in 1987, and was replaced as state president by Václav Havel in December 1989 following the ‘velvet revolution’.
© RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
Encyclopaedia search
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Advertisement starts
Advertisement
Advertisement ends
Country search
Dictionary search
Brazil flag
Health search
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Skip to page content | Text onlyGraphical version of this page
TalkTalk Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main navigation, to the page content, or to more links within homepage.
Page Footer
Access keys
You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
- (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
- (1) Navigate to Home page.
- (2) Navigate to My email.
- (3) Navigate to My Account.
- (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
- (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
- (6) Navigate to Members channel.
- (7) Navigate to Services channel.
- (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
- (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
- ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
- (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
- (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
- (x) Text only version of this page.
