Rudolf Chmel

Rudolf Chmel (born 11 February 1939) is a Slovak politician who was Minister of Culture in the government of Slovakia from 2002 to 2005 and again in 2006. He was also the last ambassador of Czechoslovakia accredited to Hungary, a member of the Parliament of Slovakia, and a writer and editor. From 2010 to 2012, he was the Deputy Prime Minister in Iveta Radičová's government.

Education and literature career

He graduated in 1961 in Slovak literature and language at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. He received the academic title DrSc. in 1992 and became an associate professor in 1993. Between 1993 and 2000 he was the president of the Open Society Foundations in Bratislava. He taught at Charles University in Prague and at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava.

From 1961 he worked for the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, initially at the Slovak Literature Institute, later, in 1964, he moved to the World Literature and Languages Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He became a researcher at the Literary Studies Institute in 1973. Between 1972 and 1982 he was an editor of the journal Slovenská literatúra (Slovak Literature) and from 1982 he was secretary of the Czechoslovak Writers Union. In 1988 he became editor-in-chief of journal Slovenské pohľady (Slovak Views).

Personal life

He speaks Czech, Slovak, Russian, Hungarian, Polish and German.

He is married and has four children.