Dissident Czech author Milan Kundera was yesterday accused of denouncing a Western spy in the 1950s.
Kundera who is famous for satirizing the Czechoslovak Communist regime in novels such as 'The Joke' vehemently denied the accusation. Now aged 79, he has lived in France since 1975.
The institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes which collects and publishes Communist secret police files, claimed that it had found documents which proved that Kundera had informed on a fellow student. Part of the Czech state, the institute is widely regarded as credible.
One speculates whether the Communist secret police named Kundera in the document as a way to smear him at a later date. If you were found out as an informer you became a social outcast. In any case, more research will be needed to judge the authenticity of the accusation.
One thinks back to the revelation that Gunter Grass was a member of the Wehrmacht during World War Two and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's latter-day support for Russian President Putin. Author's hailed for their work in defending human liberties are often found out to have a dark past.
Read more here: The Independent
Kundera who is famous for satirizing the Czechoslovak Communist regime in novels such as 'The Joke' vehemently denied the accusation. Now aged 79, he has lived in France since 1975.
The institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes which collects and publishes Communist secret police files, claimed that it had found documents which proved that Kundera had informed on a fellow student. Part of the Czech state, the institute is widely regarded as credible.
One speculates whether the Communist secret police named Kundera in the document as a way to smear him at a later date. If you were found out as an informer you became a social outcast. In any case, more research will be needed to judge the authenticity of the accusation.
One thinks back to the revelation that Gunter Grass was a member of the Wehrmacht during World War Two and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's latter-day support for Russian President Putin. Author's hailed for their work in defending human liberties are often found out to have a dark past.
Read more here: The Independent
Moving on from authors, your article leads me to think about other well known public figures with a dubious background. Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, was linked to left wing revolutionary student groups in the 1960s and 70s and was involved with street violence.
ReplyDeleteAs I open up this can of worms to the extreme I am led to the case of Adolf Hilter. Born in Austria, Adolf was not even a German national until February 26 1932. He achieved this by getting appointed as a civil servant in Germany and this job carried automatic German citizenship. This enabled him to run as candidate for the German Presidency a few weeks later. Of course Herr Hitler was never renowned for defending human liberties.
Any other offers out there for this very loosely defined sack of potatoes?
Interesting. Fischer is another example of someone widely respected and trusted who turns out to have a dark past.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite see the connection to Hitler though. Are you drawing attention to the role of chance in determining the fate of a person and/or nation?
Many a respected citizen has been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately for everybody else, Hitler seems to have been in the right place at the right time.