ONE in Europe: Prague Writers’ Festival kicks off with a message…
Prague Writers’ Festival • May 31, 2008
— Geraldine Sweeney
Saturday Night: The 18th annual Prague Writers’ Festival begins in earnest.
Opening ceremony: The mayor’s residence, in the richly appointed 19th century dining hall. The deputy mayor reminded us of a not too distant past when the Soviet Union and its backers from the Warsaw Pact, invaded Czechoslovakia and wiped out Alexander Dubcek’s social reform policies—the beginning of the Prague Spring.
Many of the writers who lived through this period and bravely demonstrated against the Russian occupation were present at the ceremony. Standing in solidarity with them, as she did forty years ago was Natalya Gorbanevskaya, one of the eight people who, in August 1968 turned up with her two month old baby at Red Square in Moscow to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Natalya was subjected to a classic Soviet kangaroo-trial, and sent to a mental prison-hospital for many years where she was forcibly administered experimental psychiatric drugs.
Michael March, PWF founder and president welcomed the gathering of over 200 guests and told the room: “freedom of expression is the basis of psychoanalysis—complex questions demand simple answers—you’ve got to transmit the future”.
The evening was decorated with traditional Czech and Mexican music as the Mexican Ambassador was on hand to remind us of the events that were happening in his country in 1968, which marked a political turning point for Mexico.
Tomorrow, Gary Younge will moderate the Guardian conversation: 1968 with Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Michael McClure and Petr Kral. Natalya Gorbanevskaya will be presented Roots in Time: The Spiros Vergos Prize for Freedom of Expression.
1968: Prague Spring, Martin Luther King, Russian tanks in Wenceslas Square. 2008: a fifty percent chance of a black or woman American president; the Czech Republic recognizes Kosovo as an independent country. Stay tuned…
