Miloš Jakeš, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, died on July 10th at the age of 97. He was Czechoslovakia’s leader during the counterrevolutionary events of 1987-1989 which are known as the “Velvet Revolution”.
Born in 12 August 1922 at České Chalupy, the son of a poor family, he began working at the age of 15. He joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1945, just after the end of World War II. In 1955 he began his studies at the CPSU Higher College in Moscow and graduated in 1958.