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. A hardline supporter of Stalinism before and after the death of the Soviet leader, 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.
Belfast Telegraph | 23 Jun 2018