gustáv husák (10 january 1913 – 18 november 1991) was a czechoslovak communist politician of a slovak origin, 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 to 1989. his rule is known as the period of the normalization (normalizace in czech, normalizácia in slovak) after the prague spring.