Schuster was born in
Košice. From 1964 to 1990, he was a member of the
Communist Party of Slovakia. Before becoming president, he was mayor of
Košice in 1983–1986 and 1994–1999 respectively. He was also the last Communist president of the
Slovak National Council (1989–1990), Ambassador of Czechoslovakia to Canada (1990–1992) and a leader of the
Party of Civic Understanding (
SOP – Strana občianskeho porozumenia, 1998–1999). Schuster speaks German (including
Mantak dialect),
Slovak,
Czech, Russian, English and Hungarian fluently. Schuster's father's family is of
Carpathian German origin, while his mother's family is of Hungarian origin. Rudolf Schuster was married in 1961 to Irena Trojáková (died 2008) and he has two children (son Peter and daughter Ingrid) and two granddaughters. In his private life, he is a sports fan, a traveller and a writer. He is also a camera fan. In 1998, Schuster founded the centre-left
Party of Civic Understanding. In 1999, he received honorary citizenship from
Miskolc, as recognition of the good cooperation between the city and Košice during his mayorship. meets with President of Slovakia Rudolf Schuster at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava on 22 November 2002. In 2004, Schuster sought re-election in the
2004 presidential election and received 7.4% of the votes. == Writing ==