Synopses & Reviews
Cultural Writing. Translation. Translated from the Czech and Slovak by Gerald Turner. Foreword by Vaclav Havel. The letters printed in this volume were written during Milan Simecka's stay in prison (the author's crime: smuggling his texts out of the country to be published abroad.) Not allowed to mention politics, Simecka--one of the most widely translated dissidents opposing the Communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia--wrote instead about people and human relations. The selection presented here contains philosophical reflections as well as practical advice for his wife and sons, bearing witness to both his attitude towards others and to the period in which he lived. Similar to Vaclav Havel's Letters to Olga, Simecka's LETTERS FROM PRISON give us a glimpse into the difficult struggle undertaken by Czechoslovak dissidents in opposition to a Soviet-style regime that was considered the most hard-line in Eastern Europe.
Synopsis
Next to Vaclav Havel, Milan Simečka was the most important, and most widely translated, dissident opposing Czechoslovakia's communist regime. Many of his essays and articles appeared in leading American and British periodicals during the 1970s and 80s, and his book, The Restoration of Order (London: Verso, 1984), is considered a brilliant analysis of real socialism and the neo-Stalinist normalization policy instituted under Gustav Husak.
Simecka was imprisoned from 1981-82 under Paragraph 98 of the Criminal Code ("Subversion of the Republic"). His crime: smuggling his texts out of the country to be published abroad. The letters in this volume were written during his stay in prison. In them he was not allowed to mention politics, so he wrote about people, love, and human relations. The selection of letters presented here bear witness to his attitude to other people, to his imprisonment and the period in which he lived, as well as his personal philosophy. They contain philosophical reflections as well as practical advice to his sons and words of encouragement to his wife. Similar to Havel's Letters to Olga, Simečka's Letters from Prison give us a glimpse into the difficult struggle undertaken by Czechoslovak dissidents in opposition to a Soviet-styled regime that was considered the most hard-line in Eastern Europe.