Abstract
JUDr. Gustáv Husák, CSc. (1913-1991) was involved in the Czech-Slovak public space for sixty years with a significant footprint even today.
The book discusses his public activities, thoughts and political life. It's based on a thorough research and is chronologically structured, intertwined with thematic areas, however an analytical approach prevails.
The first chapter focuses on Husák's youth, the factors that led him to the communist movement, and his early activism. This is followed by a portrayal of the Husák's activities during the Second World War, his role in the resistance, participation in a propaganda trip to the Nazi conquered Ukraine, and his vision of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union.
His later involvement in the Slovak National Uprising provided the legitimacy of his later political career in the post-war era, when he successfully led the struggle for the communist monopoly of political power in Czechoslovakia and attempts to present the Communist Party of Slovakia as a national party. Next two chapters show the origins of Slovak bourgeois nationalism and the way Husák was incorporated with in, criminalized and eventually absolved.
Further, the difficulties with Husák's return to politics are highlighted, which brought him for the time being to the field of historical science and opposition activities. The public support and activism during the Prague Spring helped Husák to become a vice-chairman of the Czechoslovak government and a leading position in the formation of federalization of Czechoslovakia.
Although the image of Husák as a reformer was so strengthened, he remained convinced of the necessity of a communist power monopoly and a strong alliance with the Soviet Union as the guarantor of national independ-ence and post-war socialism. After the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czech-oslovakia, this with his agility sufficiently convinced Moscow and cemented his position as the leader of the Communist Party for the next two decades.
The final chapters present Husák as a skilled tactician and political practitioner who, after tragic death of his second wife, suffered from apathy that accompanied his gradual departure from public life. The final part of the book focuses on his-torical sources and historiography.
Referencing specific examples it portrays in detail relations between historians and Gustáv Husák and, moreover, it presents a typology of possible historical narratives about him. The text consistently stresses the fundamental interdependence of domestic events and international factors, whilst shedding light on personal relationships between Husák and other major figures.
A thematic analysis is framed to a greater extent in connection with the Czech-Slovak relations, in which Husák played a significant role. His background in Slovak nationalism, and identity of a nationally oriented Slovak Communist, punitively criminalised him and still yet earned a large recognition of the Slovak public, who rightly assumed him as the father of the Czecho-Slovak federation whose foundation he actually built.
However, he always prioritised party discipline over national interest. In this context, we can perceive Gustáv Husák paradoxically both as a destructor and an architect of Slovak statehood upon which the foundation of today's Slovakia is built.
In this respect, the intention of the text purposefully transcends the biographical motif.