Editing Gustáv Husák (section)

== Leader of Czechoslovakia ==
As the [[Soviet Union]] grew increasingly alarmed by Dubček's liberal reforms in 1968 ([[Prague Spring]]), Husák, originally Dubček's ally and a moderate supporter of the reform programme, began calling for caution.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

[[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|After the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia in August]], Husák  participated in the Czechoslovak-Soviet negotiations between the kidnapped Dubček and [[Leonid Brezhnev]] in Moscow. Husák changed course and became a leader among those party members calling for the reversal of Dubček's reforms. An account for his [[pragmatism]] was given in one of his official speeches in [[Slovakia]] after the 1968 events, during which he ventured a rhetorical question, asking where the opponents of the Soviet Union wished to find allies of Czechoslovakia that might come to support the country against Soviet troops.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Supported by Moscow, he was appointed leader of the [[Communist Party of Slovakia (1939)|Communist Party of Slovakia]] in as early as August 1968, and he succeeded Dubček as first secretary (title changed to general secretary in 1971) of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]] in April 1969. He reversed Dubček's reforms and purged the party of its liberal members in 1969–1971.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} In 1975, Husák was elected [[President of Czechoslovakia]]. During the two decades of Husák's leadership, Czechoslovakia became one of Moscow's most loyal allies.

In the first years following the invasion, Husák managed to appease the outraged civil population by providing a relatively satisfactory living standard and avoiding any overt reprisals{{Clarify|date=March 2023|reason=.Of what?}} as were seen in the 1950s. His regime was not a complete return to the heavy-handed Stalinism that had prevailed during the first 20 years of Communist rule in the country. At the same time, the people's rights were somewhat more restricted than was the case in [[János Kádár]]'s [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]] and [[Josip Broz Tito]]'s [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. Indeed, on the cultural level, the level of repression approached that seen in [[Erich Honecker]]'s [[East Germany]] and even [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]]'s [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]]. There was a campaign of repression by the [[secret police]] ([[StB]]) targeting dissidents represented later by [[Charter 77]] as well as hundreds of unknown individuals who happened to be targets of the StB's pre-emptive strikes. The repression intensified over the years as Husák grew more conservative.

Starting in the early 1970s, Husák allowed those who had been purged in the aftermath of Prague Spring to rejoin the party. However, they were required to publicly distance themselves from their past support for reform.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

The latter part of Husák's tenure saw a struggle within the Politburo over whether to adopt [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]]-style reforms. While the hardliners, led by [[Vasiľ Biľak]], were vehemently opposed to [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]], moderates led by [[Prime Minister]] [[Lubomir Strougal]] strongly favoured reform. Husák himself stayed neutral until April 1987, when he announced a somewhat half-hearted reform program scheduled to start in 1991.

Later that year, however, Husák yielded his post as general secretary to [[Miloš Jakeš]] in response to a desire for younger leaders (Jakeš and [[Ladislav Adamec]]) to share in power.

On 24 November 1989, the entire Presidum of the Communist Party, including Husák, resigned in the wake of the [[Velvet Revolution]]. The party officially abandoned power four days later, when the legislature deleted the portions of the Constitution that codified the party's "[[vanguardism|leading role]]." On 10 December, Husák swore in a new government. Although it was headed by communist [[Marián Čalfa]], it had a non-communist majority—the first in 41 years that was not dominated by communists and/or [[fellow traveler]]s. He resigned later that day, just hours after presiding over the formal end of the regime he had largely created. In an attempt to rehabilitate its image ahead of [[1990 Czechoslovakian parliamentary election|the first free elections in 44 years]], the Communist Party expelled him in February 1990. 

He died on 18 November 1991, at the age of 78, and was buried at the Dúbravka cemetery.