'The Last Hussite' Is Leaving: Zdenek Nejedly in the Snares of CPCz Policy on Culture and the Arts after the Second World War Cover Image

"Poslední husita" odchází Zdeněk Nejedlý v osidlech kulturní politiky KSČ po roce 1945
'The Last Hussite' Is Leaving: Zdenek Nejedly in the Snares of CPCz Policy on Culture and the Arts after the Second World War

Author(s): Jiří Křesťan
Subject(s): History
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro soudobé dějiny

Summary/Abstract: The article is an outline of a fragment of the political biography of the leading Communist intellectual and politician Zdenek Nejedly (1878-1962), in which the author tries to depict Nejedly's role in making Czechoslovak policy on the arts and culture after the Liberation in May 1945 and, particularly, after the Communist takeover of February 1948. He then seeks to link this role with the personal side of Nejedly's life. He presents Nejedly as a respected historian and musicologist and as a participant in debates on politics and the arts, who in the interwar period had increasingly inclined towards the radical leftwing and gained considerable authority owing to his participation in the struggle against Nazi Germany, particularly as a member of the Communist leadership-in-exile in Moscow (having joined the Party in 1939). A consequence of this was his position in post-war Czechoslovakia, where he held a number of posts, including Mi¬nister of Education, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, and the first Chairman of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

  • Issue Year: XII/2005
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 09-44
  • Page Count: 36
  • Language: Czech