Czechoslovak journalist Julius Fucik: biography, family, memory

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

115 years ago, the famous Czechoslovak journalist Julius Fucik was born - the author of the book "Report with a noose around his neck", which was famous in his time throughout the socialist camp, which he wrote while in the Pankrac prison in Prague during the Second World War. This was the revelation of the author, who was awaiting his sentence, presumably death. This work is recognized as one of the best examples of socialist realism in the literature of Czechoslovakia and beyond.

Julius Fucik: biography

The future journalist and writer was born in 1903 at the very end of winter in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. At that time, this country was still part of Austria-Hungary. The boy was named after his famous composer uncle - Julius. It was from him that he inherited his love of art. The most popular piece that belonged to Julius Fucik Sr. is the march "Exitgladiators". Everyone who has ever been to the circus heard this melody. The boy's father, although he was a turner by profession, was very fond of the theater, along with work, he played in an amateur theatrical troupe. Then he was noticed and invited as an actor in Schwand Theater So Julius Fucik's family was pretty creative.

For some time, 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 took up literature and journalism

Patriotism

Young Julius's parents were great patriots, he definitely inherited this gene from them. He learned from the example of Jan Hus and Karel Havlicek. Already at the age of 15, he signed up for a youth social democratic organization, and at the age of 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 the editor of the Rude Pravo newspaper, the printed edition of the Communist Party. In this job, he happened to get acquainted with famous Czech writers and other figures of politics and art. At 20, Julius was already considered one of the most talented journalists in the Communist Party. In parallel with Rude Pravo, he also began working in the Tvorba (Creativity) magazine, and after some time he himself founded the newspaper Halonews.

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. Traveling in Central Asia, I also got acquainted with Tajik literature.

Some will be surprised why the Czech journalist was so attracted to Central Asia. It turns out that his compatriots founded a cooperative not far from the city of Frunze, and Julius was interested in watching their progress. 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 ride

In 1934, Fucik went to Germany, to the Bavarian lands. Here he first became 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 the journalist was called a rebel, a troublemaker for this, and they even wanted to arrest him.

To avoid 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 did not notice or did not want to see all this. 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 about the country of his dreams.

BIn the mid-1930s, the news of mass Stalinist repressions opened the eyes of the Czech communists to the real situation that prevailed in the first country of socialism, but Julius Fucik remained among the "orthodox" and did not doubt the correctness of the Soviet government. Disappointment came only in 1939, when the Nazis occupied the Czech lands.

Family

In 1938, returning from the Soviet Union, Julius decided not to risk it and settled in the countryside. He also invited his longtime lover Augusta Kodechireva here and married her. However, the happiness of family life did not last very long: with the outbreak of the First World War, he, like other anti-fascists, had to go underground. The family - wife and parents - remained in the village, he moved to Prague.

Fight against fascism

The Czech journalist described in this article was a staunch anti-fascist, so from the beginning of World War II he joined the ranks of the Resistance Movement. Julius continued to engage in journalistic activities even when the country was completely at the mercy of the German invaders. Of course, he did it underground, risking his own life.

Arrest

In 1942, Fucik was arrested by the fascist Gestapo and sent to prison in the Pankrac prison in Prague. It was here that he wrote the book Reporting with a noose around his neck.

Julius Fucik ends 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 booktranslated into more than 70 languages of the world. The literary work has become a symbol of the anti-Nazi movement, belongs to the existential genre, contains arguments about the meaning of life and the fact 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 hoped very much for the victory of the Russians and dreamed that he would be able to get out of prison. However, he was transferred from France to the capital of Germany, to the Plötzensee prison in Berlin. It was here that the death sentence was read to him, which was adopted by Roland Freisler's People's Court of Justice. The word before the execution, said by a Czech journalist, shocked everyone present.

Cult of Personality

After the end of the Second World War, 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 the public consciousness. The metro station in Prague that was once named after him has now been renamed Nadrazy Holesovice.

Memory in the USSR

Streets, schools and other objects were named after Fuchik on the territory of the Soviet Union. By the way, the day when the Czech anti-fascist was executed - September 8 - began to be considered the Day of Solidarityjournalists. In 1951, a postage stamp was issued with his photograph. In Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), a memorial plaque was erected on Molodezhny Prospekt, and a monument was erected in the city of Pervouralsk. Memorial plaques were placed in the places he visited during his visit to the USSR. In Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Yerevan, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Frunze, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Kazan, Kyiv and many other cities there are streets named after Fuchik. 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 Fuchik was also created in the capital of Uzbekistan, and a recreation park in the western part of the Tajik capital. The Soviet Danube Shipping Company had a lighter carrier "Julius Fucik".

Fuchik's name in modern reality

The Velvet Revolution made adjustments to the assessment of Yu. Fuchik's personality, and from the negative side. Speculation began to appear that he collaborated with the Nazi Gestapo. The credibility of many of his essays has been questioned. Nevertheless, in 1991, in the Czech capital, some ideological persons under the leadership of the journalist J. Jelinek created the "July Fucik Memorial Society".

Their goal is to preserve historical memory and not allow the name of the hero who laid down his head in the name of ideals to be defamed. Three years later, it became possible to study the archives of the Gestapo. No documents showing that Fucik was a traitor were found,confirmation of the authorship of the “Reportage” was also found. The good name of the anti-fascist journalist was restored. In 2013, in Prague, thanks to the activists of the J. Fucik Memorial Society, the monument to the journalist, writer and anti-fascist, erected in 1970 and dismantled in 1989, was returned to the city. However, now the monument is located in a different place, namely near the Olshansky cemetery, where the Red Army soldiers who died for the liberation of Prague from the Nazi invaders are buried.

Films and books

Feature and documentary films were also made about the famous journalist, writer and anti-fascist, and the most significant of them was the film about his childhood - “Julik”, which was shot by the Czech director Ota Koval in 1980. Publicist writers Ladislav Fuks and Nezval Vitezslav dedicated their books to Fucik.