Jiří Stránský (12 August 1931 – 29 May 2019)[2] was a Czech author, playwright, translator, screenwriter, twice a political prisoner of the communist regime, and human rights advocate.
Stránský is the maternal grandson of Jan Malypetr, a once prominent Czech politician; the son of Karel Stránský [cs], a lawyer; and also a relative of his father's cousin and the founder of Czech Scouts, Antonín Benjamin Svojsík, who has roots in the early years and forms of scouting.
Thus, in his life leading up to 1989 and the fall of Communism in Europe,[6][7] he was falsely accused of vague criminal acts against the Communist state of Czechoslovakia[8] (now the Czech Republic), and subsequently imprisoned for various lengths of time.
Even so, following the fall of communism in 1989, Stránský found success and received many notable awards for his work as an artist and for his steadfast resistance to totalitarianism.
Many of his popular works were also duly published widely made into film, television shows, and radio plays.
Since his ancestor was a notable founder of scouting in the Czech region, bringing the popular British form over,[citation needed] and his father played a notable role in their community's sokol as a mayor,[10] Jiří valued his time spent being a part of these groups, citing the training he received in each as important skills in survival.
At the pre-teen age of fourteen, Jiří banded with the May Uprising of 1945 to resist the current communist regime and was awarded the Distinction of Military Merit of the 2nd degree for being the youngest to engage in the coordinated defiance against the government.
[10] Whether attributed to his combatant actions or his family's, or rather their collective blatant refusal to align themselves with the popular ideologies of the government at the time, he was not permitted to finish school.
Fortunately, he also had the privilege of spending time with some prominent catholic writers like, František Křelina [cs], Josef Knap and Jan Zahradníček.
With the help of one of the civilians he worked with in the uranium mine, he managed to compose short pieces that were secretively delivered off-site.
Until 1974 when he will again find himself to be sentenced and imprisoned once more, he spent his time working as a skilled laborer, living in many countries, and starting a family.
[10][11] After 1989, as he became a popular writer, playwright, screenwriter, poet and an artistic figure of merit and admiration, Stránský found himself regularly addressed as “Dr.
In order to share the material, Stránský and the other prisoners of this secret art history course “arranged […] with one of the civilian workers […] to buy […] postcards with reproduced paintings from the National Gallery [National Gallery Prague, Nárdoní Galerie Praha] {pages in each respective language} collection.”[11] „Byl jsem vychováván tak, že jedním z našich hesel bylo: Tu radost jim neuděláme.
Nám stačilo říct: Tu radost jim neuděláme.“ Translated, "I was raised so that one of our slogans was: We will not make them happy.