Jaroslav Krejčí (13 February 1916 – 16 February 2014) was a

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sociologist, historian, economist and former professor of sociology at Lancaster University. Krejčí was born on 13 February 1916 in Polešovice,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(the present-day

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). He studied law. Krejčí's father,

Jaroslav Krejčí Jaroslav Krejčí (27 June 1892, Konice, Margraviate of Moravia – 18 May 1956) was a Czech lawyer and Nazi collaborator. He served as the prime minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 28 September 1941 to 19 January 1945. Aft ...

, held office as the Prime Minister of the German- occupied

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...

from 1942 to 1945. In contrast to his father's collaboration, Jaroslav Krejčí opposed the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and became actively involved in the Czech resistance during

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 opposing ...

. Krejčí joined the Josef Hlavka National Economic Institute after the end of the war. He openly opposed the merger of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party, to which he was a member, into

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 ...

following the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état. In 1954, he was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

for his opposition to the Communist Party. He was released from prison in 1960 as part of an

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

. He and his wife immigrated to the United Kingdom following the

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

in 1968, which had crushed the Prague Spring. Krejčí became a professor of sociology at Lancaster University. He taught in the university's Departments of French Studies, German Studies and Religious Studies from 1969 until 1983. Much of his research focused on history and the formation of civilization from a macrosociological approach. He returned to Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic following the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

to teach at

Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

and Palacký University, Olomouc, as well as the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He founded the Anna and Jaroslav Krejčí Research Endowment Fund in 2006 to support individuals engaged in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

. In 1998, President Václav Havel awarded Krejčí the

Medal of Merit Several countries award a military or civil medal called Medal of Merit: * Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) * Medal of Merit (Denmark) * Medal of Merit of the Dominican Woman * Medal of Merit of the National People's Army (East Germany) * Medal o ...

. Lancaster University also honored him with an honorary doctorate in 2000. Jaroslav Krejčí died in

Lancaster, Lancashire Lancaster (, ) is a city and the county town of Lancashire, England, standing on the River Lune. Its population of 52,234 compares with one of 138,375 in the wider City of Lancaster local government district. The House of Lancaster was a branch ...

, United Kingdom, on 16 February 2014 at the age of 98.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krejci, Jaroslav 1916 births 2014 deaths People from Uherské Hradiště District People from the Margraviate of Moravia Charles University faculty Czech sociologists 20th-century Czech historians Academics of Lancaster University Czech resistance members Czech anti-communists Prisoners and detainees of Czechoslovakia People convicted of treason against Czechoslovakia Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Palacký University Olomouc faculty