Jaroslav Šabata

Who is Jaroslav Šabata?

Jaroslav Šabata was a Czech political scientist, psychologist, and dissident during Czechoslovakia's Communist era. A leading dissident based in Brno, Šabata was a signatory of Charter 77 in 1977. He served as the spokesman of Charter 77, the organization named for the document, from 1978 to 1981.

Sabata was born in Dolenice, South Moravian Region, Czechoslovakia, on November 2, 1927. He taught psychology at present-day Masaryk University throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Šabata joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of World War II. He became a prominent government supporter of the Prague Spring in 1968. He left the party in 1969, soon after the Prague Spring was crushed by the Soviets, and resigned from his political positions. He founded Communists in Opposition, a dissident group, during the early 1970s. He was twice jailed for his opposition to the government as a political prisoner for a total of seven years: The first from 1971 to 1976, after founding Communists in Opposition, and again from 1978 to 1981, after signing Charter 77.