Gustáv Husák (10 January 1913 – 18 November 1991) was a Slovak-born Czechoslovak Communist politician who rose from underground activism and resistance to leadership. As a young law student he joined the Communist Party in 1933 and participated in the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, even enduring jail time under the Tiso regime. After the war, he helped consolidate Communist authority in Slovakia until he was purged during Stalinist trials in 1950, imprisoned until 1960, and rehabilitated in 1963.
Amid the Prague Spring, Husák initially supported cautious reform but ultimately aligned with Soviet interests, becoming First Secretary (later General Secretary) of the Communist Party in April 1969 and initiating the era of "normalization". He then served as President of Czechoslovakia from 1975 to 1989, presiding over a repressive regime that tightly controlled dissent through the StB secret police while maintaining relative economic stability.
Husák stepped down amid the Velvet Revolution in December 1989, was expelled from the party in February 1990, and passed away in Bratislava in 1991.
Further Reading
For more information about the "normalization" period in Czechoslovak history under Husák's leadership, see this Wikipedia article.