Jozef Lenárt

Jozef Lenárt
File:Jozef Lenart.jpg
Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
In office 20 September 1963 – 8 April 1968
Preceded by	Viliam Široký
Succeeded by	Oldřich Černík
Acting President of Czechoslovakia
In office 22 March 1968 – 30 March 1968
Preceded by	Antonín Novotný
Succeeded by	Ludvík Svoboda
Personal details
Born	(1923-04-03)3 April 1923 Liptovská Porúbka, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Died	Prague, Czech Republic
Nationality	Slovak

Jozef Lenárt (3 April 1923 in Liptovská Porúbka, Slovakia – 11 February 2004 in Prague) was a Slovak politician.

He graduated from a chemistry high school and worked for the Baťa company. He became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) and of the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS).

Lenart was a member of the federal parliament (whose name changed several times) from 1960 to 1990, and was Speaker of the Slovak National Council 1962–1963. He was also a member from 1971 to (?)1990. He served as Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia between 1963 and 1968.

Although ethnically Slovak, he became a Czech citizen after the country had split in 1993.

On the basis of insufficient evidence, on 23 September 2002 Lenárt was acquitted of treason charges (along with his co-defendant Miloš Jakeš), related to his handling (or lack thereof) of the Prague Spring events in 1968. He was accused of attending a meeting at the Soviet embassy in Prague on the day after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, planning to establish a new workers and farmers' government.

Jozef Lenárt was one of the most resilient figures in Czechoslovakia's communist hierarchy, occupying one post or another in the leadership for no less than a quarter of the century. That achievement was all the more remarkable because his career at the top straddled a succession of regimes and several abrupt changes in policy.

Major functions

• 1950–1953, 1957–1966, and 1970–(?)1990: Member of the KSS
• 1956–1958: Leading Secretary of the Regional Committee of the KSS
• 1958–1962: Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSS
• 1958–(?)1990: Member of the Central Committee of the KSČ
• 1962–1963: Chairman of the Slovak National Council
• 1963–1968: Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
• 1968–1970: Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSČ
• 1970–1987: First Secretary of the Central Committee of the KSS
• 1970–(?)1990: Member of the Presidium of the KSČ
• 1971–(?)1990: Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Front of the Slovak Socialist Republic, and Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Front of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

See also

• List of Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia
• List of Presidents of Czechoslovakia

Political offices
Preceded by Viliam Široký	Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia 1963–1968	Succeeded by Oldrich Černík
Preceded by Antonín Novotný	President of Czechoslovakia (acting) 1968	Succeeded by Ludvík Svoboda