Karel Havlíček Borovský
October 31, 1821 – July 29, 1856
Also known as: Havel Borovský | Karel Havlíček-Borovský | Hawliczek
Karel Havlíček Borovský, real name Karel Havlíček, was a Czech patriot, journalist, writer, poet and politician. He is considered the founder of Czech journalism, satire and literary criticism. Literarily, he is classified as a realist, and politically he belongs to the second generation of national revivalists. The epithet "Borovský", which he often used to sign his articles, is derived from his place of birth (Borová).
He was born in the village of Borová in the Vysočina region, grew up in Německý Brod, where the family moved in 1830.
From 1833 he studied at a grammar school in Německý Brod. He graduated from grammar school in 1838. From the same year he studied philosophy in Prague. His personal piety and also the desire to be able to influence the education of the Czech people led the 19-year-old Havlíček to enter the Prague seminary. However, he did not like the conditions that prevailed here - the clergy were brought up in conservatism and also in an anti-national spirit. Especially because of his inclination towards Russian, in which a schismatic Eastern orthodoxy was seen, he was expelled from the seminary on September 9, 1841 (he spent less than a year there from October 1840; his epigrams and jokes, as well as his poor grades, certainly did not add to his assessment). He became an uncompromising critic of the Roman Catholic Church until the end of his life. He also spoke out against celibacy, which in his opinion was against nature and human nature.
In 1843-44 he worked as a tutor in the family of a Moscow nobleman, where he studied Russian literature (he translated the work of N. V. Gogol) and wrote 78 epigrams. He published a selection of them in 1845 in five parts (The Church, The King, The Fatherland, The Muses, The World). Borovský critically evaluated Russian social conditions (he described his impressions in Pictures from Russia).
In 1846, Borovský took over the editorial office of the Prague newspaper and the supplement Česká včela (Czech Bee). In his critique of Tyl's novella The Last Czech, Borovský attacked sterile and self-satisfying patriotism, published essays on the unreality of the pan-Slavic idea of Slavs and Czechs and on municipal life What is a Community?
Havlíček Borovský founded Národní noviny, a journalistic platform for Czech liberalism. In 1849 he was investigated by the courts. After the closure of Národní noviny in 1850, he published the weekly Slovan in Kutná Hora. In 1851 he published a collection of articles Duch národní novin (The Spirit of National Newspapers) and Epistles of Kutná Hora.
In 1851-55, Borovský was interned in Brixen for his journalistic activities, where he wrote the satirical compositions Tyrolean Elegies, King Lavra and The Baptism of St. Vladimir. In them, he attacked absolutism and secular and ecclesiastical reaction. Havlíček Borovský is considered the founder of modern Czech journalism, striving to free reality from dogmas, myths and illusions through logical arguments and sharp satire.