Pavel Tigrid (27 October 1917 – 31 August 2003) 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, ...

writer,

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, author and politician. He is considered one of the most important personalities of the Czech exile journalism.

Biography

Pavel Schönfeld was born in Prague on 27 October 1917. He left Czechoslovakia as a young man to evade 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 ...

s. In

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, he adopted the pseudonym Tigrid (after river

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

) when he worked as a broadcaster of anti-fascist propaganda in

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, and kept it for the rest of his life. Returning after the end of

World War II 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 opposin ...

, he continued his publishing career, soon clashing with the ascendant

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 ...

ideology. Fleeing arrest, he emigrated to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, later moved to United States and finally settled in France. During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, Tigrid was a prominent representative of Czech anti-communist exile, authored several books and published numerous publications, for example the magazine '' Svědectví'' ("Testimony"), read both in exile circles and by

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...

s in Czechoslovakia from 1956 to 1992. He returned to

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 ...

for the second time 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 ...

, was active in public life and served as the minister of culture (1994–96), but after an unsuccessful campaign for election to the

Czech Senate The Senate (), literally "Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic", is the upper house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The seat of the Senate is Wallenstein Palace in Prague. Structure The Senate has 81 members, chosen in s ...

, he retired to France where he died in 2003.

Literary works

* ''Why Dubcek fell'', London: MacDonald, 1971. * ''Kapesní průvodce inteligentní ženy po vlastním osudu'', Toronto: Sixty-Eight Publishers, 1988. * ''Dnešek je váš, zítřek je náš : dělnické revolty v komunistických zemích'', Praha: Vokno, 1990. * ''Politická emigrace v atomovém věku'', Praha: Prostor, 1990. * ''Glosy o české politice 1996-1999'', Praha: Radioservis, 1999. * ''Marx na Hradčanech'', Brno: Barrister & Principal, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tigrid, Pavel 1917 births 2003 deaths Czechoslovak emigrants to France Culture ministers of the Czech Republic Czech journalists Writers from Prague Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany KDU-ČSL Government ministers Culture ministers 20th-century journalists