Jiri Dienstbier, Czech Dissident, Is Dead at 73
Matthew Kruk
January 8, 2011
Jiri Dienstbier, Czech Dissident, Is Dead at 73
By JUDY DEMPSEY
Jiri Dienstbier, one of Eastern Europe's leading dissidents, who with
Vaclav Havel helped topple Communism in Czechoslovakia, died Saturday in
Prague. He was 73.
His death was announced by Czech state television. The cause was not
specified.
Mr. Dienstbier's death marked the passing of a journalist, raconteur,
strategist and politician whose life encapsulated an era in which hopes
once invested in Communism gave way to disillusionment, outright
dissent, punishment and, finally, the crumbling of Communist rule.
In the case of Mr. Dienstbier, who became foreign minister after the
so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989, that first meant enjoying the
coveted privilege of working abroad as a journalist for official radio
before being expelled from the Communist Party for supporting the
crushed reforms of the 1968 Prague Spring.
Demoted to menial work, he was among the first to sign the human rights
document Charter 77, and from 1979 to 1982 he was jailed with Mr. Havel
for being a group spokesman.
"We experienced so much together," Mr. Havel said in a personal written
statement on his Web site (vaclavhavel.cz). "Jiri Dienstbier played an
important role in the history of Czech modern journalism, politics and
opposition movements. Even in the toughest moments, his good humor was a
great encouragement for us all the time."
Born on April 20, 1937, the son of a doctor in Kladno, west of Prague,
Mr. Dienstbier joined the Communist Party in 1958. Within it, he had a
good career into the late 1960s, with postings in the United States,
Western Europe and Asia.
Travel was highly restricted for most people living behind the Iron
Curtain, and Mr. Dienstbier's postings and work gave him an eye,
experience and fluency in English that later eased his contacts with
foreigners interested in Charter 77.
A perennially cheerful, slightly rumpled presence, Mr. Dienstbier found
his life changed by the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Like
tens of thousands of others, he was expelled from the Communist Party
for criticizing the brutal end to the reforms of Alexander Dubcek.
The crushing of the Prague Spring, which dominated television screens in
Western Europe and the United States, caught the attention of a postwar
generation that sought more openness in every sphere of life.
Western governments eventually ceded to this mood. In Eastern Europe,
Poland and Czechoslovakia were the two countries where young people most
tried to follow suit. In Poland, the government incited an anti-Semitic
campaign to tarnish the opposition, leading to an exodus of thousands of
Jews.
In Czechoslovakia, a generation experienced the deadening of the Prague
Spring. Some artists, like the film director Milos Forman, left. Others
stayed, like the writer Bohumil Hrabal, who immortalized the menial
labor that thousands had to accept in his short novel "Too Loud a
Solitude," in which Hanta, an old man operating a giant compactor for 35
years, rescues rare books, which he reads and hoards at home.
For his part, Mr. Dienstbier shrugged off intimidation and even
imprisonment after signing Charter 77. In the same spirit, after
becoming foreign minister, he tried to shrug off formality, eschewing
neckties wherever possible.
After leaving the ministry, he served as special rapporteur for the
United Nations Human Rights Commission in the former Yugoslavia and
lectured at several universities worldwide. In 2008, he was elected to
the Czech Senate.
He is survived by his wife, Jirina, a son and two daughters.