Dušan Slobodník (11 April 1927,

Pezinok Pezinok (; in the local dialect ''Pezinek''; ; ; ) is a town in southwestern Slovakia. It is roughly northeast of Bratislava and, as of December 2023, had a population of 24,443. Pezinok lies near the Little Carpathians and thrives mainly on vi ...

- 13 December 2001,

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

) was a Slovak literary theoretician, translator and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Early life

He attended the elementary school and high school in

Zvolen Zvolen (; ; ) is a city in central Slovakia, situated on the confluence of Hron and Slatina rivers. It is famous for several historical and cultural attractions. It is surrounded by Poľana mountain from the East, by Kremnické vrchy from the ...

. In February and March 1945 (at the time of the

First Slovak Republic First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

), as a member of the semi-obligatory organisation Hlinka Youth, he is said to have participated in a training course led by the German secret service in Sekule. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, before he could pass the

matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

, he was abducted by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

SMERSH SMERSH () was an umbrella organization for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin. The form ...

into a Russian

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

, where he spent the years 1945 - 1954 (he was supposed to spend 15 years there, but was released after

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's death on an amnesty). Back in Slovakia, he passed his

and started to study Slovak language and literature in

. He was excluded by the Communists from the school for being "politically unreliable". He was rehabilitated in 1960 and finished his studies in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. He was an employee of the

Slovak Academy of Sciences The Slovak Academy of Sciences (, or SAV) is the main scientific and research institution in Slovakia fostering basic and strategic basic research. It was founded in 1942, closed after World War II, and then reestablished in 1953. Its primary ...

from 1962 and after the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

(in 1990) became the director of its Institute of World Literature.

Political career

As a member of the HZDS party, which won the elections in 1992, he was Slovakia's Minister of Culture from 1992 to 1994. Afterwards (1994 - 2001), he was deputy to the parliament (

National Council of the Slovak Republic The National Council of the Slovak Republic (, abbreviated to ''NR SR'') is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameralism, unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation ...

) for his party and from 1994 - 1998 the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the parliament. In 1992, he was involved in the legal case Feldek vs. Slobodník (see Ľubomír Feldek for details).

Work

He translated modern Russian, English and French literature (e.g.

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

's Foundation) into Slovak. He described his experience in the Russian gulag in the book ''Paragraf:Polárny kruh'' (Section:Polar Circle; 1991). He specialised in modern world literature. Theoretical problems are dealt with e.g. in the book ''Vedecké a literárne poznanie'' (Scientific and Literary Knowledge; 1988), and in the monographs ''Genéza a poetika science fiction'' (Genesis and Poetics of Science Fiction; 1981) and ''Teória a prax básnického prekladu'' (Theory and Practice of Poetical Translation; 1990).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slobodnik, Dusan 1927 births 2001 deaths People from Pezinok People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia politicians Slovak scientists Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 1994-1998 Members of the National Council (Slovakia) 1998–2002

Early life

Political career

Work

See also

References