Český historik o osudu slovenského intelektuála v meandroch dvadsiateho storočia
A Czech Historian on the Fate of a Slovak Intellectual in the Labyrinths of the Twentieth Century

Summary/Abstract: Zdeněk Doskočil’s biography, "V žaláři a vyhnanství: Ladislav Novomeský v éře stalinismu a poststalinismu" [In Prison and Exile: Ladislav Novomeský in the Era of Stalinism and Post-Stalinism], presents the fate of the Slovak and Czechoslovak poet, journalist and politician Ladislav Novomeský (1904–1976). In interwar Prague, Novomeský was involved in the activities of the Slovak left-wing cultural group DAV. During the Second World War he became a member of the illegal leadership of the Slovak Communist Party and after the war he was a deputy of the National Assembly and, as Commissioner (povereník) of Education and Enlightenment, also a member of the Slovak government. In 1951 he was arrested and, in 1954, in a political trial together with Gustáv Husák (1913–1991) and other so-called Slovak bourgeois nationalists, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Having been released a year later, however, he returned to public life and eventually to high political office during the 1960s. The reviewer introduces in detail the content of each chapter and comments on some events and contexts, such as Novomeský’s post-war political activities, the political trial of the “bourgeois nationalists” and its consequences for Slovak culture, Novomeský’s imprisonment and his lifelong belief in communist ideals. Doskočil’s biography, in her opinion, provides a lesson in honest historical work that draws on extensive archival research and on the solid knowledge of the relevant literature. It offers an empathetic and accurate portrait of a prominent Slovak artist and left-wing intellectual in the context of the turbulent events of Czechoslovak history, as presented by an unbiased Czech historian.

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