The Accused K.

Dominika Rafalska

English version of the article

The article discusses Polish press reaction to the October 2008 Czech weekly “Respekt’s” announcement of Milan Kundera denouncing in the 1950s to the Czech secret police a young man, a counter-intelligence agent working for the Americans. The victim was sentenced to long years of hard prison and barely escaped death. The case was first publicized in the Czech Republic and, as a result of the writer’s famous name, it quickly became a sensation also abroad. “Respekt’s” publication was based on only one note found in secret police archives in which Kundera’s name was mentioned. The goal of this article was not to investigate whether the writer was guilty or not, but to show how Polish press wrote about accusations against Kundera. How was “Respekt’s” publication commented on? Was anything controversial noticed? What reflections did journalists commenting on the “Kundera case” arrive at?

KEYWORDS

Milan Kundera, denunciation, Communist secret police, the Czech Republic, Stalinism