Jiri Horak, 79; Led Czech Social Democrats After Communism’s Fall
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Jiri Horak, 79, the first leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party after the fall of communism, died Friday of brain cancer at his home in Florida.
Horak headed the Social Democrats from 1990 to 1992 after the so-called Velvet Revolution, led by playwright and democracy activist Vaclav Havel, peacefully toppled communist rule.
In 1993, Horak moved back to the U.S., where he had immigrated in 1951, three years after the Communist Party took power in what was then Czechoslovakia.
From 1961 to 1971, he was chairman of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, an umbrella organization of Czechoslovaks in exile.
Havel, who stepped down as Czech president earlier this year, awarded Horak the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Order in 2000 for his outstanding contributions to democracy.
The prize is named for the founder of post-World War I Czechoslovakia, who served as its first president.
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