Jan Šverma (23 March 1901,

Mnichovo Hradiště Mnichovo Hradiště (; german: Münchengrätz) is a town in Mladá Boleslav District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,700 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monume ...

– 10 November 1944, Mt. Chabenec,

Low Tatras The Low Tatras or Low Tatra ( sk, Nízke Tatry; hu, Alacsony-Tátra) is a mountain range of the Inner Western Carpathians in central Slovakia. It is located south of the Tatras proper, from which it is separated by the valleys of the Váh ...

) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

journalist,

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

activist and resistance fighter against the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

-backed

Slovak State Slovak may refer to: * Something from, related to, or belonging to Slovakia (''Slovenská republika'') * Slovaks, a Western Slavic ethnic group * Slovak language, an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages * Slovak, Arka ...

, considered a national hero in the

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

Biography

Jan_Sverma_memorial_Olsany_Cemetery_Prague_CZ_052

Šverma joined the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Cominte ...

(KSČ) in 1921. He contributed to '' Rudé právo'', the official publication of the KSČ and was its editor-in-chief from 1936 to 1938. From 1929 he was a member of the KSČ Central Committee and Politburo. Šverma spent time in exile in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

during the existence of the

-backed

and was close to

Klement Gottwald Klement Gottwald (; 23 November 1896 – 14 March 1953) was a Czech communist politician, who was the leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1929 until his death in 1953–titled as general secretary until 1945 and as chairman from ...

, the Chairman of the KSČ, who later would become the first Communist president of Czechoslovakia. Šverma assumed the political leadership of Czechoslovak military units formed in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during the Nazi invasion of the USSR. He died of exhaustion on the mountain Chabenec in the

mountain range during a snowstorm on 10 November 1944, while leading an insurrection of Slovak communists against the Slovak State.

Legacy

A bridge in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

at the former location of the

Franz Joseph Bridge Franz Joseph Bridge ( cz, Most Františka Josefa), later renamed Štefanik Bridge ( cz, Štefánikův most), was a suspension bridge over the Vltava in Prague, opened in 1868. The bridge was designed by the English engineer Rowland Mason Ordish ...

was named after Šverma in 1951. The village

Telgárt Telgárt ( hu, Garamfő, called ''Švermovo'' in 1948–1990) is a village and municipality in Brezno District, in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. Etymology The name is of German origin: ''Tiergarten'' (initially a hunting area) ...

in Slovakia was called ''Švermovo'' from 1948 to 1990. The metro station in

presently named

Jinonice Jinonice is a district of Prague, mostly part of Prague 5, but a small area is part of Prague 13. It is located on the north edge of Prokopské údolí national park. Jinonice has been a part of Prague city since 1922. Part of Jinonice is also th ...

was formerly called Švermova. Many places named after communist-era heroes were renamed after the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

References

1901 births 1944 deaths People from Mnichovo Hradiště People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1935–1939) Czech communists International Lenin School alumni Heroes of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic {{World-War-II-bio-stub