Vladimír Bystrov (7 August 1935 – 1 June 2010) 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 *Czech (surnam ...

journalist, film critic, commentator and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

Early life

Bystrov was the son of Nikolay Vladimirovich Bystrov, who fled

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1920, settled 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 ...

, but then was taken back to Russia to a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

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 ...

. This had a great effect upon the young Bystrov's life, as he eventually became the chairman of the “Oni byli prvni”, or, “They Were the First” Committee, an organization founded by the few survivors and the descendants of Czechoslovak citizens abducted to the

Soviet Union 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 ...

who helped document the fates of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants who were taken by force to the said camps. The name “Oni byli prvni” refers to the fact that those victims of Soviet abduction were the first victims of communism on Czechoslovak soil.

Career

After graduating from the

Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague () or FAMU is a film school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It is the fifth oldest film school in ...

, Bystrov was mostly a film critic until 1971, when he was banned from publishing by the occupying Russian communists for twenty years. After the collapse of the communist regime in November 1989, he returned to journalism, writing mainly political commentaries and historical essays. Until 1992 he headed the foreign desk of

Reflex In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs ...

and he was the editor-in-chief of the PRO weekly and daily

Lidové noviny ''Lidové noviny'' (''People's News'', or ''The People's Newspaper'', ) is a daily newspaper published in Prague, the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily still in print, and a newspaper of record. It is a national news daily covering po ...

and later at the Czechoslovak

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. From 1994 he was a co-owner of the Bystrov and sons publishing house and from 2003 an independent publisher. He also translated Russian literature, mainly non-fiction.

Later career and death

In 2007 President

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

decorated him with the state Order of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. In 2008, he was made a Rudolf Medek Award (in

: ''Cena Rudolfa Medka'') laureate. Since 1995, the Office for Documentation and Investigation of Communist Crimes has published studies documenting the communist era. ''The Abductions of Czechoslovak Citizens to the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1955'', written by Bystrov, is available free of charge from that office. Bystrov died in Prague after a long illness at the age of 74.

Partial list of published works

* ''Z Prahy do gulagu aneb překáželi'' (Edice Žaluji) – 1999

References

External links

Interior Ministry’s website

Bystrov’s Cena Rudolfa Medka award
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bystrov, Vladimir 1935 births 2010 deaths Journalists from Prague Czech male journalists Czech people of Ukrainian descent Czech publishers (people) Czech film critics Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni Czech people of Russian descent Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 20th-century Czech translators 20th-century Czech male writers