The reason Kundera never returned is because he was ashamed that he snitched to secret police and other intellectuals knew it.<p>Author of the article tries to downplay it with<p><pre><code> > The article didn’t produce any evidence apart from hearsay and a police protocol mentioning that Kundera was the source of the information.
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But the evidence was solid, he ruined a young man's life by putting him for 20 years into prison that was almost gulag-like.<p>I think Kundera always regret it and that's why he withdraw to France and stayed there. Yet he never apologized or even commented on that topic.<p>I grew up with his books and they had great impact on me when I was 18. He's a great writer. I wouldn't even mind that he snitched if he went through some acknowledgment and redemption. But he hasn't and remains a flawed character in my eyes. Almost every Czech author who emigrated helped the dissent that stayed home in some way. He didn't.<p>Havel is a great man, one of our greatest. He's a fine author. Kundera is a great author. Not a fine man.
Wow, who could have guessed an article by Petr Drulák would hit HN frontpage.<p>Please, don't take this guy seriously. Yes, he was an ambassador to France and it's a shame to our country that this person held such job.<p>Moreover, if you read the article, you'll realize it's not about Kundera's reasons for not returning (his real friens said that he was used to living in France), but mostly about Drulák's hatred for Havel. Why Drulák hates Havel so much, I don't know.<p>Probably because Drulák is idiot and Havel isn't.
While reading it it felt like the author of this article had an axe to grind. His bitterness towards Havel felt palpable, and some quick googling shows that he's definitely not a neutral party:<p>As far back as 2014, when he was _First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs_ he was criticizing Havel and his policies from a policy standpoint: <a href="https://www.praguepost.com/czech-news/czech-foreign-policy-abandons-havel" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.praguepost.com/czech-news/czech-foreign-policy-a...</a><p>He pitches the issues between Havel and Kundera as ideological, and representative:<p><i>Their exchange reflected the fault line between democratic-socialist and liberal intellectuals: Kundera argued for a new model of society that would be free and fair, avoiding the vices of both Western capitalism and Eastern European authoritarianism; Havel defended Western capitalism as the only desirable model, needing fine tuning, but no major revision.</i><p>And his position on the ideological battle is quite clear in the book he published titled <i>Budoucnost Levice bez Liberalismu_ (The future of the left without liberalism)</i>.<p>This isn't to say the article isn't accurate or interesting. (I loved both Kundera's <i>The Unbearable Lightness of Being</i>; and Havel's <i>Summer Meditations</i>). But I think it's useful context, and I'm definitely taking its contents with a pinch of salt, and double checking the falsifiable claims therein.
The author hates the post-totalitarian system of the Czech Republic ('89-) and has very pro-Russian views. Just be aware before wasting your time with his article.
Oh crap. I'm quite ashamed this kind of internal CZ infighting makes it to the front page of HN. Please everyone, read this article with a pretty big pinch of salt.<p>The title itself is misleading at best. Kundera "did" visit Prague pretty regularly in the 90s and 2000s. And the text doesn't get any better from there...<p>There already are a few comments about the author, but long story short - Petr Drulak is pretty well known in CZ for his support of weird / fringe political movements and parties. It's a pretty strange / convoluted story, mainly because he's been a high official in CZ diplomacy (foreign affairs ministry, ambassador to France, university professor). His articles are usually fairly complex, use a lot of cultural references, but they are ultimately a cargo cult. In the end no matter through which paths his arguments go, they always invariably end up in the same place. The place is "EU bad, Havel bad, NGOs bad, American domination bad, free market / liberalism good, cooperation with China / Russia good, old times / conservative worldview good".
This apologetic article deliberatley doesn't include name of Miroslav Dvořáček, a man that spend 10 years in prison. He went there because Kundera gave him in. This is half mentioned.
Oh it seems Russians are increasing their active measures. Im seeing a ton of russian biased articles in germany as well. Mostly to fracture european unity and increase far right party mindshare
More on the Havel/Kundera relationship: <a href="https://reason.com/2023/07/14/milan-kunderas-eternal-feud-with-vaclav-havel/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://reason.com/2023/07/14/milan-kunderas-eternal-feud-wi...</a>
For personalities like his, what comes to my mind is some episodes of Star Trek - TNG, where someone walks into the Holodeck and asks the Computer to "create the persona of person X based on their writings, psychological profile, image from photographs, etc." and the Holodeck pulls together an Einstein, (or Hawking on the card playing scene) and then you get to interact with that persona.<p>I expect (wish) that with AI, VR, LLM (and other similar acronyms), in my lifetime we will be able to do the same.<p>I can only imagine having a coffee with some personalities (Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Einstein, Alice Cooper, et al) and being taught about their lives, beliefs, absorbing wisdom, etc.
The exploration of the themes in Kundera's novels, particularly the ideas of nostalgia and loss, and how they reflect his own personal experiences adds a layer of depth to his literary work. It's a testament to the intricate interplay between an author's life and their creations.
><i>I was in the third year of my mission as Czech ambassador to France</i><p>I hate to be <i>that</i> guy, but isn't the Czech Ambassador's job to be dealing with (listening to) the French État (govt), while it's a Czech Consul's job to handle matters for ordinary citizens?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consul_(representative)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consul_(representative)</a><p><i>A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries...Unlike an ambassador, who serves as the singular representative of one government to another, a state may appoint several consuls in a foreign nation, typically in major cities; consuls are usually tasked with providing assistance in bureaucratic issues to both citizens of their own country traveling or living abroad and to the citizens of the country in which the consul resides who wish to travel to or trade with the consul's country.</i>