Lubomír Štrougal (19 October 1924 – 6 February 2023) was a Czech politician who was the prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 1970 to 1988.

Biography

Štrougal was born in

Veselí nad Lužnicí Veselí nad Lužnicí (; ) is a town in Tábor District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,500 inhabitants. It lies at the confluence of the Lužnice and Nežárka rivers. Administrative division Veselí nad Luž ...

on 19 October 1924. His father, a communist, died in a concentration camp during World War II. Štrougal studied law at

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. Štrougal joined the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

, and in the late 1950s became a member of its Central Committee. Štrougal was agriculture minister between 1959 and 1961, and then

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

until 1965. In 1968, he became deputy prime minister under

Oldřich Černík Oldřich Černík (27 October 1921 – 19 October 1994) was a Czechoslovak Communist political figure. He was the prime minister of Czechoslovakia from 8 April 1968 to 28 January 1970. A party official and well-known technocrat, Černík was ...

. At first he rejected the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia by

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

forces, but later became a prominent figure in

Gustáv Husák Gustáv Husák ( , ; ; 10 January 1913 – 18 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak politician who served as the long-time First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969 to 1987 and the President of Czechoslovakia from 1975 ...

's regime. Štrougal became the prime minister of Czechoslovakia on 28 January 1970. In the 1980s, he supported

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

, the reform process initiated by Soviet President

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

. He resigned as prime minister on 12 October 1988 due to conflicts with Communist Party chairman

Miloš Jakeš Miloš Jakeš (12 August 1922 – 10 July 2020) was a Czech communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1987 until 1989. He resigned from his position in late November 1989, amid the Velvet Revo ...

, a hard-liner. Following the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

of 1989, Štrougal decided to retire from politics; he was ultimately expelled from the party in February 1990. The Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism Police of the Czech Republic (UDV) alleged that, in 1965, Štrougal had prevented investigation of crimes conducted by the communist State Security in the late 1940s. Štrougal was acquitted of the charge in July 2002. In 2022, Štrougal was again put on trial, along with former Interior Minister , for ordering the killing of citizens trying to cross the border into the west. However, experts from the psychiatric hospital where he was being treated said he was suffering from mild

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

and could not comprehend the court proceedings. Regardless, Štrougal claimed that the killings were not his responsibility. Štrougal died on 6 February 2023, at the age of 98.

References

External links

*
Štrougal’s biography on the website of the Czech Government
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strougal, Lubomir 1924 births 2023 deaths People from Veselí nad Lužnicí Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Prime ministers of Czechoslovakia Agriculture 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) Members of the Chamber of the People of Czechoslovakia (1971–1976) Members of the Chamber of the People of Czechoslovakia (1976–1981) Members of the Chamber of the People of Czechoslovakia (1981–1986) Members of the Chamber of the People of Czechoslovakia (1986–1990) Communist Party of Czechoslovakia prime ministers Czech communists People of the Velvet Revolution Charles University alumni Czechoslovak World War II forced labourers