List of Presidents of Czechoslovakia
Encyclopedia
The President of Czechoslovakia was the head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

 of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

, from the creation of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 until the end of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic
Czech and Slovak Federal Republic
Czech and Slovak Federal Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from April 1990 until 31 December 1992, when the country was dissolved into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.- Adoption of the name :Since 1960, Czechoslovakia's official name had been Czechoslovak Socialist Republic...

 in 1992.

In periods when the post of the President of Czechoslovakia was vacant, some presidential duties were carried out by the Prime Minister: Jan Syrový
Jan Syrový
Jan Syrový was a Czechoslovak Army four star general and the prime minister during the Munich Crisis.-Early life and military career:...

 (5 October 1938 – 30 November 1938), Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...

 (7 June 1948 – 14 June 1948), Antonín Zápotocký
Antonín Zápotocký
Antonín Zápotocký was communist Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1953 and President of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1957....

 (14 March 1953 – 21 March 1953), Viliam Široký
Viliam Široký
Viliam Široký was a prominent Communist politician of Czechoslovakia, the Prime Minister from 1953 to 1963, and briefly serving as the acting President of Czechoslovakia following the death of Antonín Zápotocký from 13 November to 19 November 1957. He also served as the leader of the Communist...

 (13 November 1957 – 19 November 1957), Josef Lenart (22 March 1968 – 30 March 1968), Marián Čalfa
Marián Calfa
Marián Čalfa was a Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia during and after the Velvet Revolution, as well as acting President for 19 days, and was a key facilitator of smooth power transfer from the Communists to a new democratic representation.An ethnic Slovak, he was a member of KSČ, the Communist...

 (10 December 1989 – 29 December 1989) and Jan Stráský
Jan Stráský
Jan Stráský is a Czech politician.Stráský studied philosophy and political economy at the Charles University in Prague. During the 1960s-'80s he worked at the Central bank of Czechoslovakia...

 (20 July 1992 – 31 December 1992). However, the Czechoslovak Constitutions do not define anything like a post of acting president, often misleadingly mentioned on English Wikipedia pages.

The second section lists the General Secretaries
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...

 of the totalitarian Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ)
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....

 in 1948-1989, then possessing full control over the country and hence de facto representing the executive power.

List of Presidents of Czechoslovakia

# Portrait Name Assumed office Left office Political Party
(1918-1938)
1 Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 14 November 1918 14 December 1935 Non-partisan
2 Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...

18 December 1935 5 October 1938 Czechoslovak National Socialist Party
(1938-1939)
3 Emil Hácha
Emil Hácha
Emil Hácha was a Czech lawyer, the third President of Czecho-Slovakia from 1938 to 1939. From March 1939, he presided under the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.-Judicial career:...

30 November 1938 15 March 1939 Non-partisan
(1939-1945)
Emil Hácha remained State President of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...

, a de jure autonomous region incorporated into Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

.
Edvard Beneš proclaimed himself President within the Czechoslovak government-in-exile
Czechoslovak government-in-exile
The Czechoslovak government-in-exile was an informal title conferred upon the Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee, initially by British diplomatic recognition. The name came to be used by other World War II Allies as they subsequently recognized it...

, recognized as the only legitimate Czechoslovak Government during the Second World War.
Jozef Tiso
Jozef Tiso
Jozef Tiso was a Slovak Roman Catholic priest, politician of the Slovak People's Party, and Nazi collaborator. Between 1939 and 1945, Tiso was the head of the Slovak State, a satellite state of Nazi Germany...

 became President of the quasi-independent, pro-Nazi and clero-fascist
Clerical fascism
Clerical fascism is an ideological construct that combines the political and economic doctrines of fascism with theology or religious tradition...

 Slovak Republic.
(1945-1948)
4 Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...

4 April 1945 7 June 1948 Czechoslovak National Socialist Party
(1948-1989)
Official names: 1948-1960 Czechoslovak Republic, 1960-1990 Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until end of 1989 , a Soviet satellite state of the Eastern Bloc....

5 Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...

14 June 1948 14 March 1953 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....

6 Antonín Zápotocký
Antonín Zápotocký
Antonín Zápotocký was communist Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1953 and President of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1957....

21 March 1953 13 November 1957 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....

7 Antonín Novotný
Antonín Novotný
Antonín Novotný was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, and also held the post of President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968. He was born in Letňany, now part of Prague....

19 November 1957 22 March 1968 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....

8 Ludvík Svoboda
Ludvík Svoboda
thumb|Svoboda and [[I Corps |I Czechoslovak Army Corps]]Ludvík Svoboda was a Czechoslovak general and politician...

30 March 1968 28 May 1975 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....

9 Gustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák was a Slovak politician, president of Czechoslovakia and a long-term Communist leader of Czechoslovakia and of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia...

29 May 1975 10 December 1989 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....

(1989-1992)
10 Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...

29 December 1989 20 July 1992 Civic Forum
Civic Forum
The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989...

 / Non-partisan

List of General Secretaries of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) 1948-1989

# Portrait Name Took office Left office
1 Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...

April 1945 14 March 1953
2 Antonín Novotný
Antonín Novotný
Antonín Novotný was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, and also held the post of President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968. He was born in Letňany, now part of Prague....

14 March 1953 5 January 1968
3 Alexander Dubček
Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...

5 January 1968 17 April 1969
4 Gustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák
Gustáv Husák was a Slovak politician, president of Czechoslovakia and a long-term Communist leader of Czechoslovakia and of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia...

17 April 1969 17 December 1987
5 Milouš Jakeš
Milouš Jakeš
Miloš Jakeš was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1987 until 1989...

17 December 1987 24 November 1989
6 Karel Urbánek
Karel Urbánek
Karel Urbánek was the last Communist leader of Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution, between November and December 1989....

24 November 1989 20 December 1989

See also



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