COURAGE

connecting collections

 Milan Uhde se narodil 28. 7. 1936 v Brně. Po maturitě v roce 1953 vystudoval češtinu a ruštinu na Filozofické fakultě brněnské univerzity, kde také v roce 1971 získal titul PhDr. Své další vzdělání si rozšířil až po sametové revoluci, v roce 1996 se habilitoval na brněnské Janáčkově akademii múzických umění (JAMU).

Po absolvování vysokoškolského studia nastoupil jako redaktor do literárního časopisu Host do domu, v němž setrval až do roku 1970. V letech 1967–1971 rovněž působil jako externí vyučující na JAMU.  K této roli se vrátil o více než dvacet let později, v roce 1990 přednášel současnou českou literaturu na své domovské univerzitě, v letech 2001–2006 pedagogicky působil na Literární akademii v Praze. Většinu období normalizace, od roku 1971 byl spisovatelem z povolání, ale nemohl oficiálně publikovat. Po roce 1989 se aktivně zapojil do politického dění, v letech 1990–1992 se stal ministrem kultury a následujících šest let také usedal do poslaneckého křesla. Působil rovněž jako člen Rady Českého rozhlasu (1999–2006) a člen Rady České televize (2007–2014). Milan Uhde je nositelem řady ocenění, v roce 1986 získal Cenu Egona Hostovského, o rok později cenu Toma Stopparda. Do porevolučních let náleží státní medaile Za zásluhy o stát v oblasti kultury (2000) a Cena Alfréda Radoka (2007).

I přes počáteční Uhdeho nadšení z komunistického převratu v raných padesátých letech je pro něj charakteristický spíše pozdější kritický postoj, odrážející se v jeho tvorbě prvky absurdna a satiry, dilematu mezi jedincem a státní mocí. Dané zaměření mu v době normalizace přineslo zákaz publikování a konec oficiální spolupráce s uměleckými soubory v roce 1972. O pět let později Uhde připojil také svůj podpis k Prohlášení Charty 77, jelikož podle svých slov již neměl co ztratit. Až do roku 1989 umělecky tvořil pro samizdat a exilové časopisy (Svědectví, Listy, Obrys, Proměny atd.). Psal také scénáře k divadelním hrám pod jmény jiných autorů, nejslavnějším dílem je hra Balada pro banditu nastudovaná Divadlem na provázku. 

Antal Uhl (1902–1982) was a Roman Catholic pastor. He was ordained as priest in 1924 in Bakócza. In 1927, he was made chaplain in Hőgyész and then in Pécsvárad. Beginning in 1931, he served as the pastor of the Hungarian workers in France in the city of Lille. After the German occupation (1941), he was sent to Paris, where he became the leader of the Hungarian Catholic Mission. In 1942, he smuggled from Budapest to Paris approximately 500 Hungarian citizenship identification cards to Hungarian-Jewish people to save them from deportation. He wrote hundreds of membership confirmation forms of the Hungarian Catholic Mission to Hungarian Jews in Paris so that they could freely use public transport. He was arrested by the Gestapo in October 1942 and was sentenced to restricted prison for 5 months in January 1943. Before having begun to serve his sentence, he was released, and he escaped to Hungary. He became an administrator and later a pastor in Baranyaszentgyörgy. After the war, he was summoned to the people’s tribunal of Pécs because he opposed the deportation of Hungarian Germans. He became a titular provost in 1971. He died as the pastor of Baranyaszentgyörgy in 1982.

Vytautas Umbrasas is a Lithuanian historian, diplomat and politician. As a pupil at a secondary school in Molėtai, he joined informal organisations and participated in various Lithuanian ethnic festivals that were not officially forbidden, and yet also not recognised and supported by the state. Family members who were persecuted and oppressed by the Soviet regime, including his uncle, the Catholic priest Jonas Žvinys (1901-1994), had a major impact on his education and the formation of his attitudes and his belief system. Because of his activities and views, Umbrasas was not allowed to enter Vilnius University to study history. He only became a history student a few years later, in 1979. During his studies at the university, he was chair of the Student Scientific Society. In 1983, he moved to Rumšiškės Ethnography Museum for family reasons, where he worked as researcher, and later as deputy director. During the Sąjūdis (Lithuanian National Movement) period, Umbrasas participated actively in the political and social life of the Republic of Lithuania. In 1997-2004, he was an adviser to the defence minister, he later took on diplomatic work, and since 2008 he has been vice-minister of defence.
Umbrasas says that the cultural opposition was a cohort or generation of people who did not fit into the system at that time, and sought to live their lives their own way. The aim of the cultural opposition was not to fight against the Soviet system, but to seek high standards and the fulfilment of personal talent.

Jaan Unt was an Estonian Classical philologist, translator and literary scholar. He was the first editor of manuscript magazines in Tartu in the late 1960s. In the days when people gathered in someone's house on certain evenings, he also held a ‘salon’ in his home. Vaino Vahing, Aleksander Müller, Juhan Toming and others also held such salons. In 1968, he was expelled from the University of Tartu for editing manuscript magazines. After his military service in the Soviet army, he studied at Leningrad State University, from which he graduated as a Classical philologist. After returning to Tartu, he could not publish, and for a long time he struggled to find work. Only in 1985 did he obtain a place as a lecturer at the University of Tartu. He has translated works from Ancient Greek, Latin and Russian, and has also published textbooks.