Jozef Lenárt
Jozef Lenárt (3 April 1923 – 11 February 2004) was a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 1963 to 1968.
Jozef Lenárt | |
|---|---|
.jpg.webp) Jozef Lenárt (1970) | |
| Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia | |
| In office 20 September 1963 – 8 April 1968 | |
| Preceded by | Viliam Široký |
| Succeeded by | Oldřich Černík |
| Acting President of Czechoslovakia | |
| In office 22 March 1968 – 30 March 1968 | |
| Preceded by | Antonín Novotný |
| Succeeded by | Ludvík Svoboda |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 April 1923 Liptovská Porúbka, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) |
| Died | 11 February 2004 (aged 80) Prague, Czech Republic[1][2][3] |
Life and career
Born in Liptovská Porúbka, Slovakia, he graduated from a chemistry high school and worked for the Baťa company. He became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) and of the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS).
Lenart was a member of the federal parliament (whose name changed several times) from 1960 to 1990, and was Speaker of the Slovak National Council from 1962 to 1963. He was also a member from 1971 to (?)1990. He served as Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia between 1963 and 1968.
Although ethnically Slovak, he became a Czech citizen after the country split in 1993.
On the basis of insufficient evidence, on 23 September 2002 Lenárt was acquitted of treason charges (along with his co-defendant Miloš Jakeš), related to his handling (or lack thereof) of the Prague Spring events in 1968.[4] He was accused of attending a meeting at the Soviet embassy in Prague on the day after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, planning to establish a new "workers and farmers'" government.
Jozef Lenárt was one of the most resilient figures in Czechoslovakia's communist hierarchy, occupying one post or another in the leadership for no less than a quarter of the century. That achievement was all the more remarkable because his career at the top straddled a succession of regimes and several abrupt changes in policy.
He died in Prague in 2004.
Major functions
- 1950–1953, 1957–1966, and 1970–(?)1990: Member of the KSS
- 1956–1958: Leading Secretary of the Regional Committee of the KSS
- 1958–1962: Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSS
- 1958–(?)1990: Member of the Central Committee of the KSČ
- 1962–1963: Chairman of the Slovak National Council
- 1963–1968: Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
- 1968–1970: Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSČ
- 1970–1987: First Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSS
- 1970–(?)1990: Member of the Presidium of the KSČ
- 1971–(?)1990: Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Front of the Slovak Socialist Republic, and Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Front of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
References
- "Jozef Lenart, 80, a Czech Prime Minister". The New York Times. 13 February 2004.
- "Obituary: Jozef Lenart". TheGuardian.com. 12 March 2004.
- "Jozef Lenart, 80; Czech Prime Minister Cleared of Treason". Los Angeles Times. 13 February 2004.
- Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2002 - Czech Republic". Refworld. Retrieved 2020-03-24.