The Slovak people are an ethnic group predominantly residing in the modern-day nation of Slovakia and its surrounding areas. Slovaks have played an active role in European history, including politically, militarily, scientifically, culturally, and religiously. Ethnic Slovaks have inhabited Central Europe since the Middle Ages. Slovaks were minority citizens of Hungary, and subsequently Austria-Hungary, from the 7th Century until the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 by the Treaty of Versailles. After Slovak calls for greater autonomy dissolved the Czechoslovak parliament, the Slovak Republic was formed in 1993. The major language among Slovaks is Slovak.
The page lists notable people who are citizens of Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, or are of Slovak identity, ancestry or ethnicity.
Politics
Politicians (contemporary)
Presidents:
Michal Kováč (1930–2016) – first president of Slovakia Rudolf Schuster (1934) – second president (Schuster is of German and Hungarian ancestry) Ivan Gašparovič (1941) – third president (previously Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic) Andrej Kiska (1963) – fourth president (co-founder of a non-profit charitable organization called Dobrý anjel) Zuzana Čaputová (1973) – fifth president and first female president Peter Pellegrini (1975) – sixth president and eighth prime minister
Prime ministers of the Slovak Republic: Vladimír Mečiar (1942) – first and third prime minister Jozef Moravčík (1945) – second prime minister Mikuláš Dzurinda (1955) – fourth prime minister Robert Fico (1964) – fifth, seventh and twelfth prime minister Iveta Radičová (1956) – sixth and first female prime minister Peter Pellegrini (1975) – eighth prime minister Igor Matovič (1973) – ninth prime minister Eduard Heger (1976) – tenth prime minister Ľudovít Ódor (1976) – eleventh and first ethnic Hungarian prime minister
Speakers of National Council of the Slovak Republic:
Pavol Hrušovský (1952) – Third and Sixth speaker of Parliament Richard Sulík (1968) – Fifth speaker of Parliament
Other: Irena Bihariová – Slovak Romani lawyer and politician, leader of Progressive Slovakia from June 2020 to May 2022 Augustín Čisár – Diplomat and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic to the Russian Federation. Miroslav Jenča – Former United Nations ambassador of Slovakia to Mexico Miroslav Lajčák (1963) – Former minister of foreign affairs of Slovakia and president of the United Nations General Assembly for the 72nd session Jesse Ventura (1951) – 38th governor of the U.S. state of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, as well as an actor, author, and former professional wrestler. His parents were from Slovakia, and his legal name is James George Janos.
Politicians (19th and 20th century)
Alexander Dubček (1921–1992) – First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and architect of the Prague Spring; after the Velvet Revolution, Chairman of Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937) – first president of Czechoslovakia; son of a Slovak father and a Moravian mother Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919) – astronomer, scientist, politician, and general; one of the founders of Czechoslovakia Gustáv Husák (1913–1991) – First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and President of Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s Štefan Marko Daxner (1822–1892) – Slovak lower nobleman of Swiss descent, politician, lawyer, and poet who of outlined a program unifying the requests for national (Slovak), cultural, political and social liberties Andrej Hlinka (1864–1938) – priest and founders of the Slovak People's Party Milan Hodža (1878–1944) – Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, politician and journalist Fedor Hodža (1912–1968) – politician and lawyer; the son of Milan Hodža. Vojtech Tuka (1880–1946) – Slovak People's Party politician, teacher Alexander Mach (1902–1980) – Slovak People's Party politician, journalist Martin Rázus (1888–1937) – politician, priest Vavro Šrobár (1867-1950) – Slovak doctor and politician who was a major figure in Slovak politics in the interwar period. Jozef Miloslav Hurban (1817–1886) – priest, politician and Speaker of Slovak National Council Michal Miloslav Hodža (1811–1870) – one of the leaders of a Slovak national movement and member of Slovak National Council, Lutheran priest, poet, linguist Vladimír Clementis (1902–1952) – Communist politician Ľudovít Štúr (1815–1856) – the leader of Slovak national movement, the creator of standard Slovak, politician, poet, journalist, publisher, teacher, philosopher and member of the Hungarian Parliament
Fighters, warriors, soldiers and revolutionaries Jozef Gabčík (1912–1942) – soldier who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, architect of the Holocaust, under Operation Anthropoid. Jozef Miloslav Hurban (1817–1886) – freedom fighter and leader of the 1848 Slovak National Uprising against the Hungarians. Rudolf Viest (1890–1945?) – anti-Fascist military leader, member of the Czechoslovak government in exile, member of the Slovak National Council and the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak army during the Slovak National Uprising. First and only Slovak to reach the position of general in the interwar Czechoslovak Army. Ján Golian (1906–1945?) – Supreme Military Leader of the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis. Golian was murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp. Michael Strank – U.S. marine during World War II; the leader of the group of U.S. marines who photographed in Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. Augustín Malár (1894–1946) – WWII general who commanded the East Slovak units of the First Slovak Republic, a Nazi protectorate state. Died in a concentration camp. Jozef Turanec (1892–1957) – Slovak general and Nazi sympathizer during World War II. Matej Kocak (1882–1918) – United States Marine Corps sergeant during World War I, posthumously awarded both the U.S. Army and Navy Medals of Honor for action against the enemy on July 18, 1918. He was born in the town of Gbely, in Western Slovakia, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1906.
First ladies Livia Klausová – first lady of the Czech Republic Silvia Gašparovičová – first lady of Slovakia
Religion
Notable religious figures Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič (1888–1960) – martyr and Righteous Among the Nations Zdenka Schelingová (1916–1955) Basil Hopko (1904–1976) Andrej Hlinka (1864–1938)
Religious leaders Štefan Moyses (1797–1869) – Bishop, patriot and the first president of the Matica Slovenská, the first Slovak cultural institution. Jozef Roháček (1877–1962) – Protestant activist and scholar who translated the first Slovak Bible from the original languages Alexander Rudnay (1760–1831)(hung.: Rudnay Sándor) – Parish priest who became Archbishop of Esztergom, Prince Primate of the Kingdom of Hungary and a Cardinal. Ján Sokol (1933) – Priest and former archbishop of the Archdiocese of Trnava Juraj Haulik (1788–1869) – Croatian Cardinal of Slovak ethnicity and the first archbishop of Zagrab. Acting Ban of Croatia for two separate terms. Jozef Tomko (1924) – Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and former Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples Róbert Bezák (1960) – former Archbishop of Trnava
Science and technology
Philosophers, polyhistors and teachers
Pavol Jozef Šafárik (Paul Joseph Schaffarik, Pavel Josef Safarik) (1795–1861) – poet, professor, polyhistor Jakob Jakobeus (1591–1645) – poet, historian, priest, and writer
Linguists, humanists and historians Anton Bernolák (1762–1813) – Lower nobleman, Jesuit, creator of the first standard version of Slovak (in the 1780s), which was based on western Slovak dialects. Ľudovít Štúr (Ludevít Štúr) (1815–1856) – Best known for his role in the development of modern Slovak. In 1844 he suggested that the central Slovak dialect be used as the standard language of the Slovaks, and in 1846 he codified the new language standard in his Nauka reči Slovenskej (Theory of the Slovak Language) Adam František Kollár (Adam Franz Kollar) (1718–1783) – Lower nobleman, historian and jurist who rose to the ranks of Imperial-Royal Court Councilor and Chief Imperial-Royal Librarian of Empress Maria Theresa. Coined the term ethnology. Janko Matúška (1821–1877) – author of the Slovak national anthem Martin Hattala (1821–1903) – linguist
Inventors and engineers Jozef Murgaš (1864–1929) – inventor of the wireless telegraph (forerunner of the radio), and holder of other patents include the spinning reel (for fishing), the wave meter, the electric transformer, the magnetic detector, and an engine producing electromagnetic waves. Aurel Stodola (1859–1942) – engineer and professor, enabled the construction of steam and gas turbines (around 1900), constructor of a movable artificial arm (the Stodola arm) in 1915 John Dopyera (Ján Dopjera) (1893–1988) – inventor of music instruments, invented the Dobro resonator guitar
Aviation Ján Bahýľ (1865–1916) – military engineer, inventor of a motor-driven helicopter (four years before Bréguet and Cornu). Bahýľ was granted 7 patents in all, including the invention of the tank pump, air balloons combined with an air turbine, the first petrol engine car in Slovakia (with Anton Marschall) and a lift up to Bratislava castle. Štefan Banič (1870–1941) – inventor of the military parachute and of the first actively used parachute Ivan Alexander Getting (1912–2003) – American physicist and electrical engineer, credited (along with Bradford Parkinson) with the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Natural sciences and medicine Vojtech Alexander (1857–1916) – revolutionary radiologist Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (1923–2008) – American physician and Nobel Prize winner of Slovak descent Andreas Jaszlinszky (18th century) – Jesuit physics professor Ján Jesenský (Johann Jessenius) (1566–1621) – physician, surgeon, anatomist, rector of Charles University, Protestant activist and politician Ján Vilček (1933) – biomedical scientist, educator, inventor and philanthropist
Geology and mineralogy Dimitrij Andrusov (1897–1976) – geologist and paleontologist, founder of modern Slovak geology Jan Veizer (1941) – geochemist and paleoclimatologist
Archeology Andrej Kmeť (1841–1908) – botanist, archaeologist Ján Kollár – pastor, writer, archaeologist, academic
Physics Dionýz Ilkovič (1907–1980) – physicist Stefan Janos (1943) – low temperature physicist living in Switzerland Ivan Wilhelm :cs:Ivan Wilhelm (1942) – nuclear physicist, former rector of Charles University in Prague
Mathematics Jur Hronec – mathematician Igor Kluvánek – mathematician Samuel Mikovíny – Hungarian mathematician, engineer and map maker Tibor Šalát – mathematician, author of many mathematical textbooks in Slovak Peter Štefan – mathematician Štefan Znám – mathematician
Computer science Juraj Hromkovič – Slovak computer scientist living in Switzerland
Astronomy Matthias Bel – 17th century astronomer. He made first relatively precise measurement of distance from Earth to Sun.
Astronomers (20th century) Milan Rastislav Štefánik Milan Antal Ladislav Brožek Ľubor Kresák Dušan Kalmančok Ľudmila Pajdušáková Vladimír Porubčan Juraj Tóth
Astronauts / cosmonauts Ivan Bella (1964) – the first cosmonaut of Slovakia (in 1998) Eugene Cernan (1934) – U.S. astronaut, last man to set foot on the Moon, son of the Slovak immigrant Ondrej Čerňan. Michael Fincke (1967) – U.S. astronaut, current American record holder for time in space, grandson of Margaret Hornyak Fincke
Economists Lubos Pastor (1974) – Slovak-American financial economist, currently the Charles P. McQuaid Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Culture
Literature See list of Slovak prose and drama authors. See list of Slovak poets.
Music
Classical
Composers
Alexander Albrecht (1885–1958) – composer, conductor, teacher Ján Levoslav Bella (1843–1936) – composer, author of the first Slovak opera "Kováč Wieland" Juraj Beneš (1940–2004) – composer