The Manifesto of the Seven ( cs, Manifest sedmi) was a protest by seven artists against the

Bolshevization Bolshevization was the process starting in the mid-1920s by which the pluralistic Communist International (Comintern) and its constituent Communist party, communist parties were increasingly subject to pressure by the Government of the Soviet Unio ...

of 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), after its 5th Congress in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

. The text was written on the initiative of

Ivan Olbracht Ivan Olbracht, born Kamil Zeman (6 January 1882, Semily, Kingdom of Bohemia, Bohemia – 20 December 1952, Prague) was a Czech people, Czech writer, journalist and translator of German language, German prose. Biography The son of writer Antal S ...

Lexicon of Czech Literature 3 / I. Prague: Academia, 2000, pp. 664–671. and was published as a leaflet entitled ''Communist writers to communist workers''. It called for the removal of the new Gottwaldova party leadership, which, in the opinion of the signatories, threatened the mass character and ability to act of the Communist Party.

History

In 1921, the

(KSČ) was founded. In 1925, the party decided to carry out a process of

, it wanted to leave the course that had been relatively libertarian up to that point and to instead adopt the politics of the Comintern. The change of course was sealed by the election of

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 ...

as party leader at the 5th party congress in February 1929. Among other things, the primacy of politics in art was to be enforced in the future. Initiated by Ivan Olbracht, seven artists published the ''Manifesto of the Seven'', first as a leaflet with addressed ''Spisovatelé komunisté komunistickým dělníkům'' (Communist writers to communist workers). In this manifesto they expressed their fear that the planned strict orientation towards

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 ...

would jeopardize the party's mass character to date and, as a result, its ability to act in favor of a “faction hazard”; this is, according to the manifesto, "a suicidal policy" based on the mistakes of one's own comrades. The seven signing authors, poets and literary critics were: *

Helena Malířová Helena Malířová (née Nosková; 31 October 1877 – 17 February 1940) was a Czechs, Czech writer, journalist and translator. Biography Malířová was born in to the family of an accountant and state official. Her sister was the actress Rů ...

(partner of Ivan Olbracht) *

Stanislav Kostka Neumann Stanislav Kostka Neumann (born: Stanislav Jan Konstantin Václav Bohudar; June 5, 1875, in Prague – June 28, 1947, in Prague) was Czech writer, poet, literary critic and journalist. He has undergone many stages of creative: symbolist (''I Am an ...

Josef Hora Josef Hora (8 July 1891 – 21 June 1945) was a Czechoslovak poet, literary critic and journalist. Biography Early life Josef Hora was born in Dobříň, Litoměřice District, Bohemia in a farmstead, which now houses the Museum of Josef Hora. ...

Jaroslav Seifert Jaroslav Seifert (; 23 September 1901 – 10 January 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides ...

Marie Majerová Marie Majerová (1 February 1882 – 16 January 1967) was a Czech writer and translator. Biography The daughter of working-class parents, she was born in Úvaly and grew up in Kladno. When she was sixteen, she began working as a servant in Bu ...

* Vladislav Vancura This declaration was immediately sharply condemned by the party leadership, and the signatories were expelled from the party in March 1929. Furthermore, they were also criticized by other artists who maintained their loyalty to the leadership. ''Zásadní stanovisko k projevu sedmi'' (Basic Declaration on the Manifesto of Seven) was signed by

Karel Teige Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the ''Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the 1 ...

Konstantin Biebl Konstantin Biebl (26 February 1898, Slavětín – 12 November 1951, Prague) was a Czech poet and writer. His first collection of poems was released in 1923, and his last in 1951, the year of his death by suicide. During that time he also travell ...

Vítězslav Nezval Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czechs, Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealism, Surrealist ...

Vilém Závada Vilém Závada (2 May 1905, Hrabová, now part of Ostrava – 30 November 1982, Prague) was a Czech poet, translator and journalist. Biography Závada was born in to the family of a metal worker, his father died during the First World War, an ...

František Halas František Halas (3 October 1901 in Brno – 27 October 1949 in Prague) was one of the most significant Czech lyric poets of the 20th century, an essayist, and a translator. Life Born as the son of textile worker, Halas worked as bookseller. ...

, Karel Konrád,

Jiří Weil Jiří Weil (; 6 August 1900, Praskolesy – 13 December 1959, Prague) was a Czech writer of Jewish origin and Holocaust survivor. His noted works include the two novels ''Life with a Star'' (''Život s hvězdou''), and ''Mendelssohn Is on the Roo ...

, Julius Fučík,

Bedřich Václavek Bedřich Václavek (10 January 1897 – 5 March 1943) was a Czech literary theorist, critic, journalist and Marxist aesthetics, Marxist aesthetician. Biography Václavek was born on 10 January 1897 in Čáslaviceinto a poor rural family. After ...

Vladimír Clementis Vladimír "Vlado" Clementis (20 September 1902 Tisovec – 3 December 1952 Prague) was a Slovak minister, politician, lawyer, publicist, literary critic, author and a prominent member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. He married Lída Pátkov ...

Laco Novomeský Laco Novomeský (full name: Ladislav Novomeský) (27 December 1904, Budapest — 4 September 1976, Bratislava) was a Slovak poet, writer, publicist and communist politician. Novomeský was a member of the DAV group; after The Second World War he ...

and Vojtech Tittelbach. However, Konstantin Biebl and Vilém Závada were signed in this document without their own knowledge, and some of them (like Clementis and Novomeský) fell victim to a

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

purge In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

, after the establishment of the

Fourth Czechoslovak 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 ...

in 1948.

References

{{reflist Czech literature Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Manifestos 1929 documents