Miloslav Rechcígl (WFAC)

Presidency of Miloslav Rechcígl
	28 October 1975 – 5 June 1982
President	Miloslav Rechcígl
Party	Republican Party
Election	1975, 1980
Seat	Prague Castle
	← Svoboda • Hájek →
	Presidential Standard

Miloslav Rechcígl
Miloslav Rechcígl
7th President of Czechoslovakia
	In office; 28 October 1975 – 5 June 1982
Prime Minister	Alexander Dubček; Libor Zink; Alexander Dubček; Jiří Horák
Preceded by	Ludvík Svoboda
Succeeded by	Jiří Hájek
18th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
	In office; 18 July 1961 – 4 July 1969
President	Jan Masaryk; Štefan Osuský; Ludvík Svoboda
Preceded by	Václav Majer
Succeeded by	Alexander Dubček
Federal Minister of Agriculture
	In office; 1954–1957
Prime Minister	Jozef Lettrich
Preceded by	Juraj Slávik
Succeeded by	Michal Bakula
Member of the Federal Assembly
	In office; 1954–1972
Constituency	Mláda Boleslav
Czech Minister of Agriculture
	In office; 1950–1954
Member of the Czech National Assembly
	In office; 1946–1954
Constituency	Mláda Boleslav
Member of the Czechoslovak National Assembly
	In office; 1935–1938
Constituency	Mláda Boleslav
Personal details
Born	13 May 1904; Chocnějovice, Austria-Hungary
Died	5 October 1985 (aged 81); Mladá Boleslav, CR, Czechoslovakia
Nationality	Czech
Political party	Republican Party
Spouse(s)	Marie Rajtrová; (m. 1926, died 1982)
Children	Miloslav Jr.; Marta
Alma mater	Prague Commercial Academy
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Miller
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Miloslav Rechcígl (13 May 1904 – 5 October 1985) was a Czech politician, miller and business executive, serving as the chairman of the Republican Party (RS) from 1965 to 1981, prime minister of the Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia from 1961 to 1969, and president of Czechoslovakia from 1975 to 1982.

He displayed a strong dedication to a broad vision of market-based liberal democracy and anti-communism, and started many reforms and is remembered for administrating the government efficiently. A shrewd politician, Rechcígl was deeply committed to the idea of political compromise. In foreign policy, he worked to improve relations with Germany and Austria, and was deeply committed to a Western-oriented foreign policy.

Early life and career[]

Miloslav Rechcígl was born as the oldest child of miller Adolf Rechcígl and Marie Rechcíglová (nee Berglová) in Chocnějovice, Austria-Hungary, on 13 May 1904. He had a younger sister, Anna (1906–1926) as well as two younger half-brothers, Adolf and Stanislav. In 1917 he lost his mother, and his widowed father found it necessary to remarry because he could not manage the affairs of the mill without a wife, particularly with two small children. In 1918, his father married Marie Ferklová. Rechcígl had frail health throughout his life, and had to take pills and had numerous medical examinations.

From 1910 to 1915 he attended elementary school in Drahotice, and from 1915 to 1918 he attended high school (Gymnazium) in Mnichovo Hradiště. He initially wanted to study law, but his parents would not hear of it. Instead, he attended the Prague Commercial Academy (Obchodní akademie) from 1918 to 1922, finishing with a final Maturity Examination. He also attended classes at the Prague University of Commerce (Vysoká škola obchodní). From 1922 to 1924 he worked in a bank in Český Dub. In 1926 he took over the management of his father's mill in Chocnějovice. In 1928, his father Adolf bought himself another mill in Šaravcota Lhota, where he moved with his wife and two small children. In 1928, at the age of twenty-four, he bought the Chocnějovice mill from his father. On 26 July 1926 Miloslav Rechcígl married Marie Rajtrová. They had two children: a son, Miloslav Jr. (born in 1930), and a daughter, Marta (born in 1933).

From 1928, he worked in various professional organizations of millers, including the Millers’ Association, Trade Millers’ Alliance of Czechoslovakia, Czech Territorial Union of Millers and the Central Union of Millers in Czechoslovakia of which he became executive secretary. 1930-1934 he held the positions of Executive Secretary in the Alliance of Commercial Mills in Bohemia (Sdružení obchodních mlýnů v Čechách) which later changed its name to the Miller's Cooperative (Mlynářské družstvo). In 1934 he became the Deputy Director of the Czechoslovak Millers' Cooperative (Mlynářské družstvo ČSR) until 1942, when it was abolished. In 1938, through his initiative, the supreme organization of Czechoslovak millers was established under the name Central Office of Czechoslovak Millers and he became its President.

He also worked in professional agricultural organizations and became a member of all such organizations in his district. He was a council member of the Czech Agricultural Board in Prague, chairman of its economic section, a member of the cultivator committee, and a member of the Central Office of Agricultural Board in Czechoslovakia. He became a member of the Czechoslovak Agricultural Academy and officer of agricultural economists. Rechcígl was vice-chairman of the water agricultural organization in his district and an officer of the Water Agricultural Union of Czechoslovakia, chairman of the Economic Council in Mladá Boleslav, executive secretary of the Economic Institute of North Bohemia, and vice president of the Union of Economic Councils, as well as chairman of the Committee for Regulating the River Jizera and its Tributaries.

Early political career[]

While a student Prague Commercial Academy he was involved in the organisation of the agrarian students and later in various organizations of agrarian youth in the country and the agrarian Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (RSZML). At the age of twenty-six he was elected chairman of the County organization of the Party and two years later, a member of the Party's Regional organization.

In the 1935 parliamentary election, at the age of 31, he was elected as the youngest member to the Czechoslovak National Assembly, representing the Mladá Boleslav District. In this capacity, he devoted his energies to economic problems, and served on several committees, relating to agriculture, industry and commerce, and international relations. He rented an appartment in the Vinohrady section of Prague. When at home in the weekends, he devoted much time to the affairs of his mill, meetings with his constituents, attending political meetings and helping farmes solve their problems. In his absence, the daily managment was run by his wife and an old classmate.

During World War II, Rechcígl was a member of the resistance movement Defense of the Nation (Obrana národa), delivering flour to the resistance movement as well as selling flour on the black market.

Following the end of the war, he was a member of the Provisional Federal Council from 1945 to 1946, where he contributed in forming Czechoslovakia's Federal Constitution of 10 April 1946. Later that year, he was elected to the Czech National Assembly for the Mláda Boleslav constituency. He was re-elected in 1950, and served as the Czech Minister of Agriculture from until 1954. In the 1954 federal election he was elected to the Federal Assembly's Chamber of Deputies representing the Mláda Boleslav constituency. From 1954 to 1958 he served as Federal Minister of Agriculture in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Josef Černý and Jozef Lettrich. In 1955 he was appointed deputy leader of the party when Lettrich was elected chairman following Černý's retirement.

Rechcígl immediately saw the need to modernize the party and to attract an additional electorate with the continuing decline of the agrarian share of the population. Lettrich and Rechcígl soon began reorganizing and rejuvenating the party organization of the Republicans to attract additional electorate, but the process had not been completed in time for the 1958 election defeat. In the subsequent leadership election in 1959 he was elected leader of the party and became Leader of the Opposition. By 1960 Rechcígl and the party leadership had finished the reorganisation and rejuvenation process, and by 1961 the party had narrowed the Social Democratic lead in the polls.

Rechcígl, whose mild manner and compromise-seeking style were reminiscent of that of Antonín Švehla, proved to be an effective and successful leader. To promote the Republican manifesto, "Prosperity for Tomorrow" (Czech: Prosperita pro zítřek, Slovak: Prosperita pre zajtrajšok) during the 1961 federal election, Rechcígl decided to appeal to the voters both in person and by capitalising on the medium of television, which had begun to transforming the public's perception of politics. The Republican Party emerged victorious in the 1961 federal election, ending four years of Social Democratic government.

Prime Minister (1961–1969)[]

Presidency (1975–1982)[]

On 1 January 1982 President Miloslav Rechcígl made a surprise announcement during his televised New Year's Address, stating that he would resign as president, citing his advanced age and declining health as the reason for his resignation. He handed his resignation to the President of the Federal Assembly Vilém Bernard the following day, and remaied in office until Jiří Hájek was sworn in as the next president on 5 June 1982.

Retirement[]

Death[]

Rechcígl died in Mláda Boleslav on 5 October 1985, at the age of 81, and was given a state funeral. He was buried in the family graveyard in Chocnějovice.

Honours[]

National honours[]

Country	Honours	Year
Czechoslovakia	Order of the White Lion 1st Class (Civil Division) with Collar Chain	1975 (ex officio)
Czechoslovakia	Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 1st Class	1975 (ex officio)
Czechoslovakia	Order of the White Double Cross 1st Class	1975 (ex officio)

Foreign honours[]

Country	Honours	Medal Ribbon	Year
Austria	Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash of the Order of Merit of the Austrian Republic	File:AUT Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria - 2nd Class BAR.png	1976
Denmark	Knight of the Order of the Elephant		1978
Finland	Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (with collar)		1981
France	Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour		1977
Italy	Knight Grand Cross with Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic		1979
Template:Country data Germany Germany	Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Special class of the Grand Cross	File:GER Bundesverdienstkreuz 9 Sond des Grosskreuzes.svg	1976
Norway	Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav		1982
Soviet Union	Order of Friendship of Peoples		1978
Sweden	Knight of the Order of the Seraphim		1981
United Kingdom	Order of the British Empire		1979
Yugoslavia	Order of the Yugoslav Star		1977