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 *Czech (surnam ...

writer,

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

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

Biography

Pavel Schönfeld was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Prague on 27 October 1917. He left Czechoslovakia as a young man to evade the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s. In

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, he adopted the pseudonym Tigrid (after river

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern 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 Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

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

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, 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 (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 ...

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

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

ideology. Fleeing arrest, he emigrated to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

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

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, 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 or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

s in Czechoslovakia from 1956 to 1992. He returned to

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 ...

for the second time 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 ...

, 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 () 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 single-seat constituencies through the two-round system. If no ...

, 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 20th-century journalists