1913- . 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 Nov-Dec 1989. Husak, 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 1968
and CCP leader 1969-87. As titular state
president he pursued a policy of cautious
reform. He stepped down as party leader 1987,
and was replaced as state president by Vaclav
Havel in Dec 1989 following the `gentle
revolution'.