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The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Slovakia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Slovak Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 15,577 Politicians, 59 of which were born in Slovakia. This makes Slovakia the birth place of the 49th most number of Politicians behind Bosnia and Herzegovina and Saudi Arabia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Slovak Politicians of all time. This list of famous Slovak Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Slovak Politicians.

Photo of Alexander Dubček

1. Alexander Dubček (1921 - 1992)

With an HPI of 75.59, Alexander Dubček is the most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 72 different languages on wikipedia.

Alexander Dubček (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈaleksander ˈduptʂek]; 27 November 1921 – 7 November 1992) was a Slovak statesman who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (de facto leader of Czechoslovakia) from January 1968 to April 1969 and as Chairman of the Federal Assembly from 1989 to 1992 following the Velvet Revolution. He oversaw significant reforms to the communist system during a period that became known as the Prague Spring, but his reforms were reversed and he was eventually sidelined following the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968. Best known by the slogan, "Socialism with a human face", Dubček led a process that accelerated cultural and economic liberalization in Czechoslovakia. Reforms were opposed by conservatives inside the party who benefited from the Stalinist economy, as well as interests in the neighboring Soviet-bloc who feared contagion, western subversion, strategic vulnerability, and loss of institutional power. For reasons of institutional interests in the Soviet Union such as those of the military and KGB, false reports, and the growing concern among the Soviet leadership that Dubček was no longer able to maintain control of the country, Czechoslovakia was invaded by half a million Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops on the night of 20–21 August 1968. This was intended to enable a coup by conservative forces. That coup, however, could not materialize due to lack of a viable pro-Soviet replacement leadership and the unexpected extraordinary popularity of Dubček and the reformist leadership. Soviet intervention ushered in a period of maneuver between conservatives and reformers where conservatives relied on Soviet influence to shift the balance of power, reversing reforms of the Prague Spring. Dubček was forced to resign as party head in April 1969, succeeded by Gustáv Husák, a former reformer and victim of Stalinism who was ambiguously favored by Moscow. This signaled the end of the Prague Spring and the beginning of normalization. Dubček was expelled from the Communist Party in 1970, amid a purge that eventually expelled almost two-thirds of the 1968 party membership. This mostly purged the younger generation of post-Stalin communists that he represented along with many of the most competent technical experts and managers. During the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Dubček served as the Chairman of the federal Czechoslovak parliament and contended for the presidency with Václav Havel. The European Parliament awarded Dubček the Sakharov Prize the same year. In the interim between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution, Dubček withdrew from high politics but served as a leading inspiration and symbolic leader for Eurocommunism, maintaining intermittent contact with European communist reformers, especially in Italy and the Soviet Union. Also in 1989, just before his death, Andrei Sakharov would write, "I am convinced that the 'breath of freedom' which the Czechs and the Slovaks enjoyed when Dubček was their leader was a prologue to the peaceful revolutions now taking place in eastern Europe and Czechoslovakia itself." Sakharov credited Dubček and the Prague Spring as his inspiration. At the time of his death in an automobile crash in 1992, Dubček remained an important political figure. Many saw him as the destined future president of newly-formed Slovakia. Since that time, his life and work have been significantly re-evaluated. This comes after long being over-shadowed by simplistic cold war narratives and rhetoric. According to Jan Adamec, a historical scholar based in Prague: "I think there is a trend that became apparent around 2009, and became even more visible after Václav Havel's death, which shows certain reconsideration of the period between 1968 and 1989. The picture is becoming more diverse, and is no longer as black and white as it was in the 1990s – the communist evil and the fearful, suppressed society. The picture is now gaining a variety of colours."

Photo of Ladislaus the Posthumous

2. Ladislaus the Posthumous (1440 - 1457)

With an HPI of 71.63, Ladislaus the Posthumous is the 2nd most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Ladislaus V, more commonly known as Ladislaus the Posthumous (Hungarian: Utószülött László; Croatian: Ladislav Posmrtni; Czech: Ladislav Pohrobek; German: Ladislaus Postumus; 22 February 1440 – 23 November 1457), was Duke of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He was the posthumous son of Albert of Habsburg with Elizabeth of Luxembourg. Albert had bequeathed all his realms to his future son on his deathbed, but only the estates of Austria accepted his last will. Fearing an Ottoman invasion, the majority of the Hungarian lords and prelates offered the crown to Vladislaus III of Poland. The Hussite noblemen and towns of Bohemia did not acknowledge the hereditary right of Albert's descendants to the throne, but also did not elect a new king. After Ladislaus's birth, his mother seized the Holy Crown of Hungary and had Ladislaus crowned king in Székesfehérvár on 15 May 1440. However, the Diet of Hungary declared Ladislaus's coronation invalid and elected Vladislaus king. A civil war broke out which lasted for years. Elizabeth appointed her late husband's distant cousin, Albert VI to her child's guardian. However, as a representative of the interests of the Austrian and Hungarian estates, he could not defend himself against his rival, Frederick III, King of the Romans, who in turn took over his role as guardian of Ladislaus. Albert had to renounce his guardianship and in return received the mighty Hungarian border castle Forchtenstein, including a principality in the Hungarian-Styrian-Carinthian area. Ladislaus lived at Frederick's court (mainly in Wiener Neustadt), where Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II) wrote a treatise on his upbringing. After his mother died in late 1442, Ladislaus' interests were represented by a Czech condottiere, John Jiskra of Brandýs, in Hungary, and by the Czech Catholic lord, Ulrich II of Rosenberg, in Bohemia. Ladislaus' rival in Hungary, Vladislaus, fell in the Battle of Varna in November 1444. The next year, the Diet of Hungary offered to acknowledge Ladislaus as king if Frederick III renounced his guardianship. After Frederick III rejected the offer, the Diet of Hungary elected John Hunyadi regent in 1446. In Bohemia, the head of the moderate Hussites (or Utraquists), George of Poděbrady, took control of Prague in 1448. The Estates of Austria forced Frederick III to resign the guardianship and hand over Ladislaus to them in September 1452. Royal administration was formally restored in Hungary after Hunyadi resigned the regency in early 1453, but he continued to control most royal castles and revenues. Ulrich II, Count of Celje (his mother's cousin) became Ladislaus' main advisor, but an Austrian baron, Ulrich von Eytzinger, forced Ladislaus to expel Celje from his court. Although Ladislaus was crowned king of Bohemia on 28 October 1453, Poděbrady remained in full control of the government. During the following years, Eytzinger, Hunyadi and Poděbrady closely cooperated to mutually secure their positions. Ladislaus was reconciled with Ulrich II in early 1455. With the support of the leading Hungarian barons, Ladislaus persuaded Hunyadi to withdraw his troops from most royal castles and renounce the administration of part of the royal revenues. After the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II decided to invade Hungary, Ladislaus and Ulrich II left the kingdom. The sultan laid siege to Belgrade. Hunyadi relieved the fortress on 22 July 1456, but he died two weeks later. Ladislaus and Ulrich II returned to Hungary and tried to force Hunyadi's son, also named Ladislaus, to renounce all royal castles and revenues, but Ladislaus Hunyadi murdered Ulrich II on 9 November, forcing Ladislaus to grant an amnesty to him. However, most Hungarian barons were hostile towards Ladislaus Hunyadi. With their support, Ladislaus captured him and his brother, Matthias. After Ladislaus Hunyadi was executed in March 1457, his relatives stirred up a rebellion against Ladislaus, forcing him to flee from Hungary. Ladislaus died unexpectedly in Prague. He was the last male member of the Albertinian Line of the House of Habsburg.

Photo of John Zápolya

3. John Zápolya (1487 - 1540)

With an HPI of 71.32, John Zápolya is the 3rd most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 46 different languages.

John Zápolya or Szapolyai (Hungarian: Szapolyai/ Zápolya János; Croatian: Ivan Zapolja; Romanian: Ioan Zápolya; Slovak: Ján Zápoľský; 1487 – 22 July 1540), was King of Hungary (as John I) from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Ferdinand I, who also claimed the title King of Hungary. He was Voivode of Transylvania before his coronation, from 1510 to 1526.

Photo of Jozef Tiso

4. Jozef Tiso (1887 - 1947)

With an HPI of 70.26, Jozef Tiso is the 4th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 46 different languages.

Jozef Gašpar Tiso (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈjɔzef ˈtisɔ], Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈjoʒɛf ˈtiso]; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. In 1947, after the war, he was executed for treason in Bratislava. Born in 1887 to Slovak parents in Nagybiccse (today Bytča), then part of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, Tiso studied several languages during his school career, including Hebrew and German. He was introduced to priesthood from an early age, and helped combat local poverty and alcoholism in what is now Slovakia. He joined the Slovak People's Party (Slovenská ľudová strana) in 1918 and became party leader in 1938 following the death of Andrej Hlinka. On 14 March 1939, the Slovak Assembly in Bratislava unanimously adopted Law 1/1939 transforming the autonomous Slovak Republic (that was until then part of Czechoslovakia) into an independent country. Two days after Nazi Germany seized the remainder of the Czech Lands, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed. Jozef Tiso, who was already the prime minister of the autonomous Slovakia (under Czechoslovak laws), became the Slovak Republic's prime minister, and, in October 1939, he was elected its president. Tiso collaborated with Germany in deportations of Jews, deporting many Slovak Jews to extermination and concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland, while some Jews in Slovakia were murdered outright. Deportations were executed from 25 March 1942 until 20 October 1942. An anti-fascist partisan insurgency was waged, culminating in the Slovak National Uprising in summer 1944, which was suppressed by German military authorities, with many of its leaders executed. Consequently, on 30 September 1944, deportations of Jews were renewed, with additional 13,500 deported. When the Soviet Red Army overran the last parts of western Slovakia in April 1945, Tiso fled to Austria and then Germany, where American troops arrested him and then had him extradited back to the restored Czechoslovakia, where he was convicted of high treason, betrayal of the national uprising and collaboration with the Nazis, and then executed by hanging in 1947 and buried in Bratislava. In 2008, his remains were buried in the canonical crypt of the Cathedral in Nitra, Slovakia.

Photo of Gustáv Husák

5. Gustáv Husák (1913 - 1991)

With an HPI of 68.89, Gustáv Husák is the 5th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 56 different languages.

Gustáv Husák (UK: , US: , Slovak: [ˈɡustaːw ˈɦusaːk]; 10 January 1913 – 18 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak politician 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 for the period of normalization after the 1968 Prague Spring.

Photo of Gyula Andrássy

6. Gyula Andrássy (1823 - 1890)

With an HPI of 67.95, Gyula Andrássy is the 6th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Count Gyula Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka (8 March 1823 – 18 February 1890) was a Hungarian statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary (1867–1871) and subsequently as Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (1871–1879). Andrássy was a conservative; his foreign policies looked to expanding the Empire into Southeast Europe, preferably with British and German support, and without alienating Turkey. He saw Russia as the main adversary, because of its own expansionist policies toward Slavic and Orthodox areas. He distrusted Slavic nationalist movements as a threat to his multi-ethnic empire.

Photo of Francis II Rákóczi

7. Francis II Rákóczi (1676 - 1735)

With an HPI of 67.42, Francis II Rákóczi is the 7th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 41 different languages.

Francis II Rákóczi (Hungarian: II. Rákóczi Ferenc, Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈraːkoːt͡si ˈfɛrɛnt͡s]; 27 March 1676 – 8 April 1735) was a Hungarian nobleman and leader of Rákóczi's War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–1711 as the prince (Hungarian: fejedelem) of the Estates Confederated for Liberty of the Kingdom of Hungary. He was also Prince of Transylvania, an Imperial Prince, and a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Today he is considered a national hero in Hungary. His name is historically also spelled Rákóczy, in Hungarian: II. Rákóczi Ferenc, in Slovak: František II. Rákoci, in German: Franz II. Rákóczi, in Croatian: Franjo II. Rákóczy (Rakoci, Rakoczy), in Romanian: Francisc Rákóczi al II-lea, in Serbian: Ференц II Ракоци. Although the Hungarian parliament offered Rákóczi the royal crown, he refused it, choosing instead the temporary title of the "Ruling Prince of Hungary". Rákóczi intended to bear this military-sounding title only during the anti-Habsburg war of independence. By refusing the royal crown, he proclaimed to Hungary that it was not his personal ambition that drove the war of liberation against the Habsburg dynasty.

Photo of Ferenc Szálasi

8. Ferenc Szálasi (1897 - 1946)

With an HPI of 67.01, Ferenc Szálasi is the 8th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Ferenc Szálasi (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈfɛrɛnt͡s ˈsaːlɒʃi]; 6 January 1897 – 12 March 1946) was a Hungarian military officer, politician and leader of the Arrow Cross Party who headed the government of Hungary during the country's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II. Szálasi served with distinction during World War I as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1925, he became a staff officer of the restored Kingdom of Hungary under Regent Miklós Horthy. Initially apolitical, Szálasi embraced right-wing ultranationalism in the early 1930s and became a passionate advocate of the irredentist Hungarism. In 1937, he founded the Hungarian National Socialist Party, having retired from the military and fully devoted himself to politics. He attracted considerable support through his virulently nationalist and antisemitic program, while his followers became increasingly radical, leading to his imprisonment in 1938. While in prison, he was proclaimed leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party, which quickly became one of the most powerful political forces in the country. Szálasi was granted amnesty in 1940, but had to operate his party clandestinely after Horthy outlawed it on the outbreak of World War II. Following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944 and Horthy's ousting in October, Szálasi was made head of government and head of state. His pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Government of National Unity, was dominated by members of the Arrow Cross Party. The regime imposed martial law, participated in Germany's war efforts and recommenced the Holocaust in Hungary, which had been halted by Horthy. His militias were singularly responsible for the murder of 10,000–15,000 Hungarian Jews.Szálasi's collaborationist government, with its authority limited to the city of Budapest and its environs, only lasted 163 days. Facing the advance of Soviet and Romanian forces, Szálasi and his cabinet fled the country shortly before the Siege of Budapest began. He was captured by American troops in Austria in May 1945 and returned to Hungary to face trial. The Government of National Unity, which had relocated to Munich, was formally dissolved the next day. The People's Tribunal in Budapest found him guilty of war crimes and high treason, and sentenced him to death. He was executed by hanging on 12 March 1946.

Photo of Béla I of Hungary

9. Béla I of Hungary (1016 - 1063)

With an HPI of 66.38, Béla I of Hungary is the 9th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

Béla I the Boxer or the Wisent (Hungarian: I. Bajnok or Bölény Béla, Slovak: Belo I.; c. 1015 – 11 September 1063) was King of Hungary from 1060 until his death. He descended from a younger branch of the Árpád dynasty. Béla's baptismal name was Adalbert. He left Hungary in 1031, together with his brothers, Levente and Andrew, after the execution of their father, Vazul. Béla settled in Poland and married Richeza (or Adelaide), daughter of Polish king Mieszko II Lambert. He returned to his homeland upon the invitation of his brother Andrew, who had in the meantime been crowned King of Hungary. Andrew assigned the administration of the so-called ducatus or "duchy", which encompassed around one-third of the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, to Béla. The two brothers' relationship became tense when Andrew had his own son, Solomon, crowned king, and forced Béla to publicly confirm Solomon's right to the throne in 1057 or 1058. Béla, assisted by his Polish relatives, rebelled against his brother and dethroned him in 1060. He introduced monetary reform and subdued the last uprising aimed at the restoration of paganism in Hungary. Béla was fatally injured when his throne collapsed while he was sitting on it.

Photo of Rudolf von Laban

10. Rudolf von Laban (1879 - 1958)

With an HPI of 64.40, Rudolf von Laban is the 10th most famous Slovak Politician.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Rudolf (von) Laban, also known as Rudolph von Laban (Hungarian: Lábán Rudolf; 15 December 1879 – 1 July 1958), was an Austro-Hungarian, German and British dance artist, choreographer and dance theorist. He is considered a "founding father of expressionist dance", and a pioneer of modern dance. His theoretical innovations included Laban movement analysis (a way of documenting human movement) and Labanotation (a movement notation system), which paved the way for further developments in dance notation and movement analysis. He initiated one of the main approaches to dance therapy. His work on theatrical movement has also been influential. He attempted to apply his ideas to several other fields, including architecture, education, industry, and management.Following a rehearsal of choreography he had prepared for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Laban was targeted by the Nazi party. He eventually found refuge in England in 1937. Between 1945 and 1946, he and his long-term partner Lisa Ullmann founded the Laban Art of Movement Guild in London, and The Art of Movement Studio in Manchester, where he worked until his death. The Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London has continued this legacy.

Pantheon has 59 people classified as politicians born between 800 and 1980. Of these 59, 23 (38.98%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living politicians include Andrej Babiš, Ivan Gašparovič, and Vladimír Mečiar. The most famous deceased politicians include Alexander Dubček, Ladislaus the Posthumous, and John Zápolya. As of April 2022, 5 new politicians have been added to Pantheon including Eduard Kukan, Ján Čarnogurský, and Eduard Heger.

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Which Politicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Politicians since 1700.