Mgr. Josef Línek

* 1967

The Student activist during the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia
17. 11. - 29. 12. 1989 - The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
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    Personnel changes after 1989

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    ’The first to go were institutions that were no longer needed and only served as leverage for the system, like the Marxism and Leninism institute. And soon after an agreement or after contracts were up people who were the most interconnected with the regime left. There are fields which are more exposed than others. I would prefer not to name any names but this did not concern the Czech or English studies as much as it did history or Russian studies, those fields are quite delicate. Or, rather, were. I wouldn’t call it cleansing, but rather changes.’

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    Without fear

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    ’You keep trying to remember the way you thought about it. We were so very young, twenty-two years old. Obviously now you see everything in a different light. But I don’t believe we were afraid. I wasn’t afraid. It was all clear by then. Many say that it was not a revolution. That what was happening in Hungary, in Poland, was a clear signal that the end was near. We were just waiting for it to rot away completely. And at one moment there was no other way.’

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    FF UP, Olomouc, 30.03.2017

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    duration: 41:03
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Stay calm and follow the rules you cultivated during your life, do not change them haphazardly for anything or anybody

Josef Linek (2017)
Josef Linek (2017)
photo: archiv FF UP
photo: archiv FF UP
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Josef Línek was born on the 6thof September 1967 in Chrudim. His mother was an art teacher and his father worked as a technician for the local branch of Transporta. Since a young age he showed interest in literature and started working on his first translations from English in high school. After graduating from high school he enrolled in a programme at the Department of English Studies and the Department of Czech Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc, later adding a classic philology programme which he did not finish. In 1989 he founded and a was an active member of the student strike committee in Olomouc. Since 1992 he has worked as a senior lecturer at the Department of Czech Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University. In the 1990s he also worked as a literary translator, currently he translates scientific studies. Josef Línek is married and lives in Prostějov with his family.  

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