Zápisníky II. 1965-1969

The second volume of the edition of the originally handwritten notebooks of the legendary figure of Czech cultural life contains the Fourth (April 19, 1965 - January 23, 1968) and the Fifth Notebook (January 30, 1968 - June 13, 1969), supplemented by a separate section of entries on separate sheets probably from the years 1964-1969. Jiří Němec wrote this intellectual diary consistently for more than fifteen years, from August 1961 - at the time invited by Vladimír Holan - until 1978.

It was arranged, prepared for publication, wrote the editorial note, and the editorial apparatus was compiled by Robert Krumphanzl.

(The records from 1961–1964 were published in the volume Notebooks I.) He recorded the activities he participated in and his reading, and then reflected on both in his notebooks. The notebooks are a testament to the author’s inner commitment and the external struggles he participated in, centered on the struggle for a free life in the conditions of the communist-dominated society at the time, and on “opening the windows to Europe.”

The four years from the beginning of spring 1965 to the end of spring 1969 were a period of several significant offensive launches and their reversals in the lives of Jiří Němec and the people with whom he associated his activities.

For example, the notebooks reveal that the editors of the magazine Tvář in 1965, when the ban on the periodical was imminent and was eventually carried out, did not focus on its passive defense and advocacy, but rather focused on developing cooperation, aware of the effectiveness of their actions.

Jiří Němec “since the beginning of the 1960s, purposefully and thoughtfully sought to renew the life and work of the Catholic Church” (Vojtěch Novotný). The present volume provides important testimony about the efforts to implement in the then Czechoslovakia the results of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the related living currents of Western Christianity. It allows us to observe how interconnected the circles in which Jiří Němec moved were and what topics connected them, as well as how the dialogue originally initiated within churches and between Christians of various faiths expanded to include discussions with atheists, in which thinkers who subscribed to various forms of Marxism that were unorthodox from the perspective of communist totalitarian power became suitable partners for Christians.

Notebooks II further captures the period of 1967–1968, which resulted in an attempt to completely restore democratic life in Czechoslovakia, but was forcibly interrupted by the occupation by Soviet troops in August 1968 and gradually suppressed with the help of local traitors. The post-August period is captured in them primarily as an urgent search for a way out of a situation that rightly appears to be hopeless, because the open spiritual struggle, as it had been successfully waged until then and whose goal might have seemed within reach not long before, appeared unrealistic in the presence of the weapons of the occupying power, and it was necessary to move to a defensive position. Last but not least, these Notebooks from the 1960s represent a source for understanding how the strategies of the struggle for a free life in Czechoslovakia, led by Jiří Němec and the people around him, were created and developed, and especially for understanding Němec's positions, as well as the positions of other contemporary philosophers and theologians with whom he debated or whose works he read and critically reflected.