Oldřich Černík (October 27, 1921 – October 19, 1994) was a Czechoslovak

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

political figure A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He was the prime minister of Czechoslovakia from April 8, 1968, to January 28, 1970. A party official and well-known technocrat, Černík was a strong supporter of the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First ...

reforms of 1968. In August 1968 he was forced to go to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

along with other politicians, and when he returned he asked the Czech people to cooperate with the Soviet Union but promised to continue reforms. After party leader

Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubček (; 27 November 1921 – 7 November 1992) was a Slovak politician who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (''de facto'' leader of Czechoslovak ...

was replaced with

Gustáv Husák Gustáv Husák (, , ; 10 January 1913 – 18 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak communist politician of Slovak origin, who served as the long-time First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969 to 1987 and the president o ...

in 1969, Černík publicly distanced himself from his previous support of reform. It was not enough to prevent him from being forced out as prime minister in 1970; he was expelled from the party soon afterward. He attempted a political comeback in the early 1990s after the end of the communist regime. In 1994, he survived a serious car accident; shortly afterward he died in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

of cardiac arrest. His grave portrait at the Vyšehrad Cemetery was created by Jitka Malovaná.

References

1921 births 1994 deaths Politicians from Ostrava Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia Members of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia (1960–1964) Members of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia (1964–1968) Members of the Chamber of the People of Czechoslovakia (1969–1971) Czech communists Prague Spring People of the Velvet Revolution Communist Party of Czechoslovakia prime ministers Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery Technical University of Ostrava alumni {{Czech-politician-stub