Don’t care only about yourself, but also about your environment
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PhDr. Jaroslav Šedivý, CSc., was born in 1929 in a family of teachers. His first contacts with Scouting (Catholic Scouts) date back to the time before the war. In 1945, he was already fully engaged in the activities of the Scouts from Písek. His troop made a number of expeditions in self-made boats. In January 1948 – under the influence of his leftist father – he joined the Communist Party. In the autumn of the same year, he moved to Prague and began to study History and the Russian language at the Faculty of Philosophy. After a brief teaching experience at a high school in Jílové u Prahy, he was drafted for the compulsory two-year military service. In the years 1957 – 1970, he was employed at the Institute for International Politics and Economics (ÚMPE). In the 1960s, he published numerous articles on Czechoslovak foreign policy, some of which were even published in foreign periodicals. After the purges following August 1968, he was expelled from the Communist Party and had to leave his job. He shortly worked as a teacher in primary schools in Nusle and Spořilov. In August 1970, he was arrested and charged with subversion. He spent six months in custody in the Ruzyně prison in Prague. After he was pardoned, his original prison sentence was changed to a five-year probation. He then spent seventeen years working as window cleaner and shop-window cleaner. In 1989, he retired to disability pension. After the Velvet Revolution, he became the advisor to the new foreign minister Dienstbier in December 1989. He was significantly involved in the negotiations leading to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia. In June 1990, President Václav Havel appointed him as the Czechoslovak ambassador to France. He later became ambassador of the Czech Republic in Belgium and Switzerland. In November 1997, he was appointed foreign minister. In this position, he was fully devoted to the promotion of the integration of the Czech Republic into the European Communities and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After he retired, he wrote several books and memoirs. Jaroslav Šedivý is married and has two children with his wife Marie. He passed away on January, the 28th, 2023.
