Zdenek Fierlinger

Born July 11, 1891, in Olomouc; died May 2, 1976, in Prague. Czechoslovak state and political figure and diplomat.

Fierlinger was educated as an economist. From 1919 to 1945 he was engaged in diplomatic work, representing Czechoslovakia in the League of Nations from 1928 to 1932 and serving as envoy and then ambassador to the USSR for most of the period between 1937 and 1945. On Dec. 12, 1943, on behalf of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, he signed the Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance, and Postwar Cooperation. In 1945–46, Fierlinger was prime minister in the first government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks, which was organized in the part of the city of Kosice liberated from the fascist occupiers; from 1946 to 1953 he was deputy prime minister. He was a deputy to the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1971, president of the assembly from 1953 to 1964, and a member of the assembly’s Presidium from 1964 to 1968. Fierlinger joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1948. From 1949 to 1971 he was a member of the party’s Central Committee, and from 1948 to 1966 a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee.