Otakar Gusak ( April 23, 1885 , Nymburk , Austria-Hungary (now Central Bohemia , Czech Republic ) - June 12, 1964 , Prague , Czechoslovakia ) - Czechoslovak military and statesman, Minister of National Defense of Czechoslovakia (1920-1921), general . Honorary Citizen of Nymburk (1998).
| Otakar Gusak | ||||||||||
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| Czech Otakar Husák | ||||||||||
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| Date of Birth | April 23, 1885 | |||||||||
| Place of Birth | Nymburk , Austria-Hungary (now MR | |||||||||
| Date of death | June 12, 1964 (aged 79) | |||||||||
| Place of death | Prague , Czechoslovakia | |||||||||
| Affiliation |  Czechoslovakia | |||||||||
| Type of army | infantry | |||||||||
| Years of service | 1914- | |||||||||
| Rank | V class general | |||||||||
| Commanded | Minister of National Defense of Czechoslovakia | |||||||||
| Battles / wars | World War I
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| Awards and prizes |
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Biography
Born in the family of a railwayman. He graduated from a real gymnasium and the chemistry department of the Prague Industrial School. After working at a factory in České Budějovice, he entered the annual military service in the 28th infantry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian army. He went into the reserve in 1907 with the title “sergeant major” (eight years later his regiment became known as the “Prague Children Regiment”). In 1908 and 1910, O. Gusak underwent monthly military training and was promoted to ensign .
Graduate of the Czech Technical University (1909). Since January 1911, he did not work for a long time as a chemist in a French company. After he left for the Russian Empire, where in 1914 he became director of a private chemical plant in Warsaw. Member of the First World War. Volunteer joined the Czech squad , acting as part of the Russian army . He became one of the first eight Czech officers, commanders of the Czech squad. He commanded a platoon, and since January 1916 - the Czechoslovak rifle regiment. In April 1916 he became a member of the Military Committee of the Union of Czechoslovak Associations in Russia, participated in the construction of Czechoslovak military units.
In the spring of 1917 - the battalion commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Czechoslovak Legion . Before the battle of Zborowski (1917) he was seriously wounded. After treatment, he was appointed commander of the first transport of the Czechoslovak Legion, who went to France, where he participated in the battle of Pois Terron as a battalion commander. In December 1918, together with T.G. Masaryk, he returned to his homeland, where he was appointed the first head of the Military Office of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic (1919−1920). Since 1920 - Brigadier General .
From September 15, 1920 to September 26, 1921, he served as Minister of National Defense of Czechoslovakia in the first government of Jan Cherney . As a minister, he completed the unification of internal and foreign Czechoslovak military units into a single Czechoslovak army.
After the resignation of the government, as a chemical engineer in the 1920s, he created Explosia's explosives plant and became its first director.
In the years 1934-1937 he visited the USSR many times, where he lived for a long time. He provided extensive contracts for the construction of ammunition production enterprises in the territory of the Soviet Union. At the same time, he participated in negotiations on the sale of licenses for the production of heavy artillery systems and their ammunition by the joint-stock company, the former Škoda factories in Pilsen. Thanks to this, the Soviet military industry acquired the most advanced equipment for the production of artillery shells and dynamite from Czechoslovakia.
Soon after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, O. Husak was arrested and until 1945 he was in prisons and concentration camps Dachau and Buchenwald .
After the end of World War II in 1945, he was appointed director of the Synthesia chemical company near Pardubice , which he directed until March 1948, after which he was fired. After the Communists came to power , he was arrested.
In 1950 he was arrested and imprisoned until 1956. To get a pension, he worked as a night watchman until the fall of 1960.
In 1968 he was rehabilitated.
Rewards
- Order of Milan Rastislav Stefanik II degree
- Czechoslovak Military Cross (1918)
- Victory Medal
- Czechoslovak revolutionary medal
- St. George medal 4 degrees
- Commander of the Legion of Honor
- Legion of Honor Officer
- Commander of the Legion of Honor
- Military Cross (France)
- Honorary Citizen of Nymburk (1998)