Antonín Novotný
| Antonín Novotný | |
|---|---|
Antonín Novotný in 1968
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| First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia | |
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In office 14 March 1953 – 5 January 1968 |
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| Preceded by |
Klement Gottwald as Party Chairman |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Dubček |
| 7th President of Czechoslovakia | |
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In office 19 November 1957 – 22 March 1968 |
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| Preceded by | |
| Succeeded by | Ludvík Svoboda |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 December 1904 Letňany, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 28 January 1975 (aged 70) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| Political party | Communist Party of Czechoslovakia |
| Spouse(s) | Božena Novotná |
| Signature |  |
Antonín Josef Novotný (10 December 1904 – 28 January 1975) 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. An ardent hardlineer, Novotný was forced to yield the reins of power to Alexander Dubček during the short-lived reform movement of 1968.
Antonín Novotný was born in Letňany, Austria Hungary, now part of Prague, Czech Republic. The Novotný family was working class in social origin and he worked from an early age as a blacksmith.
Novotný was a charter member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) at its founding in 1921. He became a professional Communist Party functionary in 1929.
In 1935, Novotný was selected as a delegate to the 7th World Congress of Comintern. He was made a regional party secretary in Prague in 1937 and made secretary and editor of the CPC's newspaper in the South Moravian Region in 1938.
With the coming of World War II and occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939, the CCP was outlawed and forced into an underground existence. Novotný served as one of the leaders of the CCP in the underground movement in Prague. Novotný was finally arrested by the German secret police, the Gestapo, in September 1941 and was immediately deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
Novotný managed to survive his concentration camp experience and was liberated by American troops on 5 May 1945.
After the war, Novotný returned to Czechoslovakia and resumed his activity in the Czech Communist Party. He was elected a member of the governing Central Committee of the CPC in 1946. He was promoted to the Secretariat of the Central Committee in September 1951 and became one of the party's top leaders on the CPC's Politburo following the arrest of Rudolf Slánský for alleged "Titoism" in November of that same year.
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