Vladimír Clementis

Vladimír "Vlado" Clementis (20 September 1902 – 3 December 1952) was a Slovak politician, lawyer, publicist, literary critic, author and a prominent member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.

As editor of Dav, Clementis published works by writers such as Martin Rázus, Milo Urban, Ján Smrek, Gejza Vámoš and T. Gašpar.

He also stirred up a discussion about the bloody events in Košúty in May 1931, where protesters were shot and killed during a strike, by writing letters to Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse and Maxim Gorky.

His public criticism of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 directly contradicted the policies of the KSČ leadership, at this point exiled to Moscow, and triggered an intra-party investigation overseen by Viliam Široký.

[6] In April 1945, Clementis was named State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Zdeněk Fierlinger's government, which was formed in Košice during the retreat of the German forces.

[2] As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was instrumental in organizing Czechoslovakia's part in Operation Balak by providing assistance to the newly founded Israeli Air Force.

He was then arrested and charged for an illegal attempt to cross the state boundaries, later changed to the more serious crime of being a "bourgeois nationalist" and participating in a Trotskyite-Titoite-Zionist conspiracy.

Clementis (second from left) as a member of the editorial of Dav , 1920s
Monument to Vladimír Clementis in his birth town of Tisovec
Conference on the 120th anniversary of Vladimír Clementis and the 100th anniversary of Vladimír Mináč (ASA, Nové Slovo, Slovak Matica, SZPB), October 2022
Conference on the 120th anniversary of Vladimír Clementis and the 100th anniversary of Vladimír Mináč (ASA, Nové Slovo, Slovak Matica, SZPB), October 2022
Past and future Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico in 2023 at the event for the 120th anniversary of Vladimír Clementis ( Matica slovenská ) at the presentation of the book Clementis & Mináč (Lukáš Perný, Marián Gešper).jpg