Letters from prison

Next to Vaclav Havel, Milan Šimečka was the most important, and most widely translated, dissident opposing Czechoslovakia's communist regime. Many of his essays and articles appeared in leading American and British periodicals during the 1970s and 80s, and his book, The Restoration of Order ( Verso, 1984), is considered a brilliant analysis of real socialism and the neo-Stalinist normalization policy instituted under Gustav Husak.Simecka was imprisoned from 1981-82 under Paragraph 98 of the Criminal Code ("Subversion of the Republic"). His smuggling his texts out of the country to be published abroad. The letters in this volume were written during his stay in prison. In them he was not allowed to mention politics, so he wrote about people, love, and human relations. The selection of letters presented here bear witness to his attitude to other people, to his imprisonment and the period in which he lived, as well as his personal philosophy. They contain philosophical reflections as well as practical advice to his sons and words of encouragement to his wife. Similar to Havel's Letters to Olga, Šimečka's Letters from Prison give us a glimpse into the difficult struggle undertaken by Czechoslovak dissidents in opposition to a Soviet-styled regime that was considered the most hard-line in Eastern Europe.