The last Czechoslovak Communist president Gustáv Husák was born on 10 January 1913 in Slovakia.

He joined the Communist Youth Union when he was 16 and still studying at the grammar school in Bratislava. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during his studies at the university in Bratislava. During the Second World War he was jailed few times for the illegal communist activities and in 1944 he became one of the leaders of the Slovak uprising against the Nazis.

After the war he became a quasi-Prime Minister of Slovakia until 1950. In 1950, he became a victim of the Stalinist purge and was sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment. He spent six years in prison until 1960. After the De-Stalinization in Czechoslovakia his membership in the Party was restored in 1963.

As he was cooperating with the Soviets after the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in August 1968 he succeeded Dubček in the function of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in April 1969.

Husák was elected the president in 1975 and under his almost 20 years leadership Czechoslovakia became one of Moscow’s most loyal allies.

Husák resigned from the presidency after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and died almost forgotten on 18 November 1991.