Záviš Kalandra

Who was Záviš Kalandra?

Záviš Kalandra was a Czechoslovak historian and theorist of literature executed by Communists on charges of conspiracy and treason.

He was born in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm. He studied philosophy at the Charles University in Prague and then in Berlin. In 1923 he entered the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, but he was excommunicated due to his criticism of Stalin's policy. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1939 and he was imprisoned until 1945 in various concentration camps. After the war he was branded as trotskyist and accused of being the member of a supposed plot to overthrow the Communist regime. He was sentenced to death along with his co-defendants Milada Horáková, Jan Buchal and Oldřich Pecl on 8 June 1950, and executed.