Jiří Pelikán (7 February 1923 in

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

– 26 June 1999 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

) was a Czechoslovakian journalist and member of parliament, then a member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

for the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

. In 1939 he 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 Comint ...

in exile and took part in the Resistance in Czechoslovakia during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. From 1953 to 1963 he assumed leading functions in the communist-led International Union of Students. Until 1968 he was the director of the

Czechoslovak Television Czech Television ( cs, Česká televize, italics=no ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting seven channels. Established after the Velvet Revolution in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslov ...

and a member of the parliament from 1964 to 1969. He fully supported the Prague Spring and organized the first live debate in common with the Austrian television

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

. When the troops of the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...

entered Prague on 20 August 1968 he organized the resistance among journalists. In 1969 he fled the

Gustáv Husák Gustáv Husák (, , ; 10 January 1913 – 18 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak communist politician of Slovak origin, who served as the long-time First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1969 to 1987 and the president o ...

regime and was given political asylum in

. He was elected to the

for the

in 1979 and again in 1984. 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 ...

of 1989, he became from 1990 to 1991 member of the Consultative Council of the President

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

. He died in Rome in 1999 after a long battle with cancer.

Bibliography

*F. Caccamo, ''Jiří Pelikán a jeho cesta socialismem 20. století'', Praha 2008, *"Inventario del Fondo Jiri Pelikan", in: ''Quaderni dell’Archivio storico'' 8, Roma 2003 *Jiří Pelikán, ''Io, esule indigesto. Il Pci e la lezione del ’68 di Praga'', ed. Antonio Carioti, Milano 1998, *Jiří Pelikán (ed.), ''Feux croisés sur le stalinisme: par des socialistes, les dissidents, des eurocommunistes'', Paris, Revue politique et parlementaire, 1980, *Jiří Pelikán, ''Il fuoco di Praga. Per un socialismo diverso'', Milano, Feltrinelli, 1978 *Jiří Pelikán, ''Socialist Opposition in Eastern Europe: The Czechoslovak Example'', Palgrave Macmillan, 1976, *Jiří Pelikán (ed.), ''Civil and Academic Freedom in the USSR and Eastern Europe'', Nottingham : Spokesman Books, 1975, *Jiří Pelikán, ''S'ils me tuent'', Paris, Grasset, 1975, *Jiří Pelikán (ed.), ''The Czechoslovak Political Trials, 1950-54: Suppressed Report of the Dubcek Government's Commission of Inquiry, 1968'', Macdonald, 1971, (2nd ed. Stanford University Press, 1975, ) *Jiří Pelikán (transl. by G. Theiner and D. Viney), ''The Secret Vysocany Congress: Proceedings and Documents of the Extraordinary Fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, 22 August 1968'', A. Lane, 1971,

External links

Page on the website of the European Parliament
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelikan Jiri 1923 births 1999 deaths Politicians from Olomouc Jewish Czech politicians Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians Members of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia (1948–1954) Members of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia (1964–1968) Members of the Chamber of the People of Czechoslovakia (1969–1971) Prague Spring Czechoslovak democracy activists Czechoslovak exiles Italian Socialist Party MEPs MEPs for Italy 1979–1984 MEPs for Italy 1984–1989 Deaths from cancer in Lazio Czech resistance members Czechoslovak emigrants to Italy