One Of First Signatories of “Charter 77” Dies

Jan Vladislav, the founder of the school of high studies of social sciences, dedicated to studying culture behind the Iron Curtain.

The Czech songwriter, writer and translator Jan Vladislav, who was forced into exile because of his political stances during communism, died in Prague on Tuesday aged 86, reported his publisher and CTK agency.

Life in exile

Pursued by the same communist regime, in 1948 Jan Vladislav led a secret publishing house, and in 1977 he was one of the first signatories of the dissident “Charter 77”, a document whose signatories sought the respect of human rights, which was compiled by Vaclav Havel.

He was forced into exile in 1981, and Vladislav took residence in Sevres, near Paris, where he founded the school of higher studies of social sciences, dedicated to studying culture behind the Iron Curtain.

Born on January 15, 1923 in Hlohovec (Slovakia), Vladislav is the author of a number of poetry collections, and he translated a lot from the languages: German, English, Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Romanian and Ukraine.