Slovak national revival leader and codifier of standard Slovak who raised the Slovak volunteers against the Hungarian government in 1848
Born in 1815 at Uhrovec in the Kingdom of Hungary, the son of a Lutheran teacher, he studied and taught at the Lutheran Lyceum in Pressburg (Bratislava). At the University of Halle he came under the influence of Hegel and Herder, and in 1843 he and his friends created a new standard Slovak language based on the central Slovak dialects. Elected to the Diet for Zvolen in 1847, he demanded the abolition of serfdom and the use of Slovak in elementary schools. In May 1848 he co-wrote the Demands of the Slovak Nation, which brought a Hungarian warrant for his arrest, and in June he attended the Slavic Congress in Prague. In September the Slovak National Council was founded in Vienna with him among its leaders, and it launched an armed uprising and the volunteer campaigns; when the volunteers were demobilised in 1849 he withdrew. He died in 1856 after a hunting accident.
Career timeline
- 1843Codified standard Slovak
- 1847–1848Deputy for Zvolen in the Hungarian Diet
- 1848–1849Leader in the Slovak National Council and the volunteer campaigns
Catholic priest who led Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party and was president of the Slovak Republic, a Nazi client state
Born to Slovak Catholic parents in Nagybiccse (now Bytča) in the Kingdom of Hungary, he became a priest. Joining the Slovak People’s Party in 1918, he sat in the Czechoslovak parliament from 1925, was minister of health and physical education in 1927 and became party leader on Hlinka’s death in 1938 and premier of autonomous Slovakia. When Germany seized the Czech lands in March 1939, he became prime minister and, in October, president of the independent Slovak Republic. His government deported Slovak Jews to camps in Germany and occupied Poland in 1942 and again in 1944, after German forces crushed the Slovak National Uprising. Extradited to Czechoslovakia, he was hanged for treason in 1947.
Slovak Communist who succeeded Jan Masaryk as foreign minister and was executed after the Slánský trial of 1952
As deputy foreign minister, he backed rejection of the Marshall Plan; after the 1948 coup he became foreign minister and organized Czechoslovak air support for Israel. Forced out and arrested in 1950, he was executed after the 1952 Slánský trial.
A lawyer from Tisovec in Slovakia, he was a left-wing intellectual who co-edited Dav, a cultural and political journal of great influence among interwar Slovak intellectuals. He sat as a Communist deputy. He became foreign minister after Jan Masaryk’s death in March 1948 and served until 1950. Accused of “Titoism” and “national deviation”, he was sentenced to death at the Slánský trial of 1952 and executed on 3 December; he was later rehabilitated.
Career timeline
- 1925Joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, practised law, and organized communist cells in Slovakia.
- 1935Became a Communist Party deputy in the National Assembly.
- 1945Became state secretary for foreign affairs.
- 1948–1950Served as foreign minister, helped organize the coup, and arranged air support for Israel.
- 1950Was forced to resign amid accusations of deviationism and then arrested.
- 1952Was convicted in the Slánský trial and hanged.
- 1963Was rehabilitated posthumously.
Czechoslovakia's longest-serving leader, who crushed the Prague Spring and built 'normalization'
On 10 December 1989, Husák swore in the first non-communist majority government in 41 years — and resigned the presidency hours later, personally witnessing the formal end of the regime he had built.
A Slovak communist lawyer, he served in the leadership of the 1944 Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis. After the war he consolidated communist rule in Slovakia, but was purged in 1950 for 'bourgeois nationalism' and imprisoned for a decade. Rehabilitated in 1963, he became vice-premier during Dubček's Prague Spring, then reversed after the Soviet invasion to lead the purge of reformers. As KSČ general secretary (1969–1987) and president (1975–1989), he presided over 'normalization': combining relative material stability with secret-police suppression of dissent. He resigned during the 1989 Velvet Revolution, handing power to the first non-communist government in 41 years.
Career timeline
- 1933Joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
- 1944Led Slovak National Uprising; vice-chairman, Slovak National Council
- 1946–1950Chairman, Board of Commissioners for Slovakia; led suppression of Democratic Party
- 1954–1960Sentenced to life for 'bourgeois nationalism'; imprisoned at Leopoldov
- 1968Vice-premier during Prague Spring; switched to anti-reform after Soviet invasion
- 1969–1987First Secretary, then General Secretary of the KSČ; architect of normalization
- 1975–1989President of Czechoslovakia
- 1989Resigned amid the Velvet Revolution
