The miner's son and technocrat who led the Prague Spring government, then signed the Moscow Protocol under duress
In July 1968, amid controversy over the 'Two Thousand Words' manifesto, Černík told parliament: 'This declaration is certainly not an expression of counterrevolution but only the opinion of one segment of the Party.'
Reform communist prime minister of Czechoslovakia (1968–1970). A technocrat from a mining family, he served as minister of fuels and energy and chairman of the State Planning Commission before his appointment as premier at the April 1968 Central Committee plenum that adopted the Action Programme. Together with Dubček he led the Prague Spring; after the August invasion he was seized and taken to Moscow, where he signed the Moscow Protocol. He promised to continue reforms upon his return, but under Husák was removed and expelled from the party in 1970, spending the next twenty years as a deputy director of a research institute.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1921Born into a mining family in Ostrava, works as a lathe operator
- 1945~49Joins KSČ, graduates from Ostrava Higher School of Mining
- 1956~60Secretary of the KSČ Central Committee
- 1960~63Minister of Fuels and Energy
- 1963~68Deputy PM and Chairman of the State Planning Commission
- 1968.4~70.1Prime Minister: Action Programme, Prague Spring, Moscow Protocol
- 1970~71Removed from office, expelled from KSČ
- 1970~89Economic deputy director at a Prague research institute
Related historical events
The October 1968 troops treaty and the "truncheon law"
After signing the Moscow Protocol, Černík as prime minister personally carried through the institutionalization of the occupation. At the Czechoslovak delegation's talks in Moscow on 3-4 October 1968 (Černík with Dubček and Husák present), the two governments agreed to draft and sign a treaty on the temporary stationing of Soviet troops; on 14-15 October delegations led by Kosygin and Černík negotiated the text. On 16 October Kosygin and other Soviet representatives signed it at the Černín Palace in Prague, the Czechoslovak government approved it the same day, and parliament accepted it on 17 October. The so-called "truncheon law" (Legal Measure of the Federal Assembly No. 99/1969, on temporary measures to maintain and protect public order) was enacted in response to the August 1969 protest demonstrations; besides Černík it bore the signatures of Dubček and President Svoboda. The law was used to suppress demonstrations in Wenceslas Square and elsewhere in August 1969. Czech historiography treats these signatures as the turning point at which Černík passed from Prague Spring leader to executor of normalization.