115 years ago, the famous Czechoslovak journalist Julius Fucik was born - the author of the book "Reporting with a noose around his neck", which was well known at the time in the entire socialist camp, which he wrote while he was in the Pankrats prison in Prague during the Second World War. This was a revelation of the author, who was awaiting his sentence, allegedly mortal. This work is recognized as one of the best examples of socialist realism in the literature of Czechoslovakia and not only.
Julius Fucik: biography
The future journalist and writer was born in 1903 at the very end of winter in the Czech capital, Prague. At that time, this country was still part of Austria-Hungary. The boy was named in honor of his famous uncle-composer - Julius. It was from him that he inherited his love of art. The most popular piece, which belonged to Julius Fucik Sr., is the march “Exit of the Gladiators”. Everyone who has ever been to the circus heard this tune. The boy’s father, although he was a turner by profession, was very interested in theater, along with work, he played in an amateur theater troupe. Then he was noticed and invited as an actor to the Schwand Theater. So the Julius Fucik family was quite creative.
For a while, young Yulek also tried to follow his father’s example and perform on the theater stage in various productions, but he did not feel much attraction to this type of art, so he soon abandoned everything and began to engage in literature and journalism
Patriotism
The parents of young Julius were great patriots, he definitely inherited this gene from them. He studied on the example of Jan Hus and Karel Havlicek. Already at the age of 15 he enrolled in the youth social-democratic organization, and at 18 he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Study and work
After school, Fucik Julius entered the University of Prague, the Faculty of Philosophy, although his father dreamed that his son would become a highly qualified engineer. Already in his first year, he became editor of the newspaper Rude Pravo, a printed publication of the Communist Party. At this work, he happened to meet famous Czech writers and other figures of politics and art. At age 20, Julius was already considered one of the most talented journalists of the Communist Party. In parallel with “Rude Pravo”, he also began working in the magazine “Tvorba” (“Creativity”), and after some time he himself founded the newspaper “Halo Noviny”.
Visit to the USSR
In the early 1930s, Julius Fucik visited the USSR. The main purpose of his trip was to learn more about the first country of socialism and tell the Czech people about it. The young man did not even imagine that this trip would drag on for two years. He was not only in Moscow, but also in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. While traveling in Central Asia, he also became acquainted with Tajik literature.
Some will be surprised why Central Asia was so attracted to the Czech journalist. It turns out that near the city of Frunze, his compatriots founded a cooperative, and Julius was interested in observing their successes. Returning to his homeland, Fucik wrote a book based on his impressions, and called it “A country in which tomorrow is already yesterday”.
One more trip
In 1934, Fucik went to Germany, to the Bavarian lands. Here he first got acquainted with the idea of fascism, was shocked by what he saw and called this mass movement the worst kind of imperialism. He wrote many essays about this, but in the Czech Republic they called the journalist a rebel, a troublemaker, and even wanted to arrest him.
To escape prison and persecution, Julius fled to the USSR. Despite the fact that the Soviet Union of the 30s was in terrible conditions - expropriation, famine and devastation, for some reason the Czech journalist for some reason did not notice or did not want to see it. For him, the Soviets were an example of an ideal state. In addition to the first book about the USSR, he wrote a number of essays on the country of his dreams.
In the mid-1930s, the news of the mass Stalinist repressions opened the eyes of the Czech Communists to the real situation that prevailed in the first country of socialism, however, Julius Fucik remained among the “faithful” and did not doubt the correctness of the Soviet regime. Disappointment only came in 1939, when the Nazis occupied Czech lands.
A family
In 1938, returning from the Soviet Union, Julius decided not to risk it and settled in the village. Here he invited his longtime beloved Augusta Kodechireva and married her. However, the happiness of family life did not last very long: with the outbreak of World War I, he, like other anti-fascists, had to go underground. The family - the wife and parents - remained in the village, he also moved to Prague.
The fight against fascism
The Czech journalist, which is described in this article, was a staunch anti-fascist, so from the beginning of World War II he joined the resistance movement. Julius continued to engage in journalistic activities even when the country was completely in the grip of the German invaders. Of course, he did it underground, risking his own life.
Arrest
In 1942, Fucik arrested the fascist Gestapo and sent him to a prison in Pankrats prison. It was here that he wrote the book Reporting with a noose around his neck.
Julius Fucik concludes his work with the words: “People, I loved you. Be vigilant! ” Subsequently, they were used by the famous French writer Remarque. After the war, this book was translated into more than 70 languages of the world. A literary work has become a symbol of the anti-Nazi movement, belongs to the existential genre, contains discussions about the meaning of life and that each person should be responsible not only for his own, but also for the fate of the whole world. For “Reporting …” in 1950, Fucik was awarded (posthumously) the International Peace Prize.
Execution
While imprisoned, Fucik really hoped for the victory of the Russians and dreamed that he could get out of prison. However, he was transferred from France to the capital of Germany, to the Berlin prison of Plotzensee. It was here that he was given the death sentence, which was adopted by the People’s Court of Justice of Roland Frasler. The word before the execution, spoken by a Czech journalist, shocked everyone present.
The cult of personality
After the end of World War II, the personality of the Czech writer became a cult, a kind of ideological symbol not only in Czechoslovakia, but throughout the Soviet bloc. His famous book was included in the compulsory list of literature in secondary schools. However, his cult weakened after the fall of socialism. Every year, the memory of Julius Fucik is forced out of public consciousness. The metro station in Prague, once named after him, has now been renamed Nadraž Holešovice.
Memory in the USSR
On the territory of the Soviet Union, streets, schools and other facilities were named in honor of Fucik. By the way, the day when the Czech anti-fascist was executed - September 8 - was considered the Day of Journalism Solidarity. In 1951, a postage stamp was issued with his photograph. In Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), a memorial plaque was erected on Youth Avenue, and a monument in Pervouralsk. Plaques were erected in the places that he visited during his visit to the USSR. In Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Yerevan, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Frunze, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Kazan, Kiev and many other cities there are streets named after Fucik. By the way, some of them continue to bear his name today, while others were renamed after the fall of the Socialist bloc. The museum of Julius Fucik was also created in the capital of Uzbekistan, and a recreation park in the western part of the Tajik capital. In the Soviet Danube Shipping Company there was a lighter carrier “Julius Fucik”.
Fuchik's name in modern reality
The velvet revolution made adjustments to the assessment of the personality of Y. Fucik, and from the negative side. Assumptions began to appear that he collaborated with the fascist Gestapo. The credibility of many of his essays has been called into question. Nevertheless, in 1991, in the Czech capital, some ideological leaders, under the leadership of journalist J. Jelinek, created the “Society for the Memory of Julius Fucik”.
Their goal is to preserve historical memory and not to allow the name of the hero who folded his head in the name of ideals to be defiled. Three years later, the opportunity arose to study the Gestapo archives. No documents showing that Fuchik was a traitor were found, and confirmation of the authorship of “Report” was also found. The good name of the anti-fascist journalist has been restored. In 2013, thanks to the activists of the society in memory of Y. Fucik, a monument to a journalist, writer and anti-fascist was erected in Prague, erected in 1970 and dismantled in 1989. However, now the monument is located in another place, namely near the Olshansky cemetery, where the Red Army soldiers who died for the liberation of Prague from the Nazi invaders are buried.
