The adventures of the good soldier Schweig during World War II are considered one of the jewels of Europe, if not world literature. This satirical anti-war novel was not an immediate success when first published. Some Czech critics even considered it “pulp fiction”. But a century after the author’s death, Schweig is more than just a classical literary figure. he is a phenomenon Professor Pavel Janoušek works at the Institute of Czech Literature at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
“Schweik is a literary type comparable to Cervantes’ Don Quixote or Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. These are characters who in a sense have left the original literary work and have lived their own lives. Even if you don’t read it, you know (or think you know) who you are, and if Hasek hadn’t written The Good Soldier I have no doubt that it never got recognition.”
The writer spent his later years in a small town called Lipnice nad Sazav. His descendants now run a restaurant and guest house, where Jaroslav Hasek spent the last two years of his life, and his most famous work, “The Good Soldier Švejk”, or more precisely ” It is also where he wrote “The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Šveig during World War II”. There he met the author’s great-grandson, Martin Hasek.
“The first time I realized that my ancestors were very important people was when I was four, five or six years old. We always put wreaths on his grave.The festival was always attended by quite a few celebrities.I gradually began to understand the importance of this place.My That my great-grandfather wrote something really important, and that I am part of that legacy.
Yaroslav Hasek wrote the novel based on his own very rich experience in the First World War. The story is a bit complicated, but I think it should be mentioned briefly if you want to understand the irony of his work and Black’s humor. First, he served in the Austro-Hungarian Infantry on the Eastern Front, present-day Ukraine. Soon he was captured by the Russians, and after spending some time in a prison camp, he joined the Czechoslovak Legion. This is an army of Czechs and Slovaks who decided to fight for the independence of a country that did not yet exist on the side of the Allies.
But after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, everything became complicated again. Soviet Russia ceased fighting and signed peace treaties with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Czechoslovak legions embarked on an epic journey, traveling via the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, and from there by boat to Europe. They started fighting the Bolsheviks, but not Yaroslav Hasek. He sympathized with the Red Army and joined its ranks. Thus, he actually deserted the Czechoslovak Legionnaires and remained in Siberia for most of 1920, working as a de facto Communist Party official. There were good reasons not to stay in Prague, as his great-grandson Martin explains:
“The Legion felt it was a grave betrayal and prosecuted him. If they had caught him anywhere in Siberia, they would probably have shot him for treason. Remained in the Red Army, then returned to Prague.An ex-legionary who knew him and met him had crossed the street so as not to have to talk to him.After a few beers, he went to a pub somewhere. If I had met them in person, it is highly likely that there would have been a bitter confrontation.
“That’s probably why his friend thought it would be better to set him up a bit with the help of his painter friend Jaroslav Panushka. We arrived at the nearest train station, about 8 km away, around noon, not a long walk, but around midnight, as we stopped at all the pubs in the village along the way. When Yaroslav woke up the next day, he allegedly said: I am happy!Finally, I live in a pub!
Therefore, Jaroslav Hasek was by no means an ascetic who lived only on bread and water. He drank alcohol, albeit mostly beer, daily, ate hearty meals, and spent much of his life in pubs and bars in Prague and other Czech towns. By the time he reached Lipnice, he had become dangerously obese. He soon joined his second wife, Shura, whom he married in Russia. He was lucky not to be charged with polygamy because he didn’t bother to divorce the first Czech wife he married before the war. Considering his bohemian lifestyle has been well documented, I wonder how he actually found the time and mental energy to sit down and write.
“Naturally, he needed money, so he did what he did best: writing. It was dictated: Kliment took him to the pub, where my great-grandfather liked to receive various vagabonds and stonemasons with beer and chit-chat. and dictated two pages of Schweig, young Szczepanek wrote it down, and then they continued drinking. He also sometimes dictated short stories. “
Although Jaroslav Hasek spent the last two years of his life practically in the pub, he managed to write the first two volumes of The Good Soldier Švejk and at the same time publish short stories in various magazines in Prague. rice field. Martin Hašek says he was able to earn enough money to buy a small house in Lipnice, not far from his favorite pub.
“This is where he spent the last days of his life. As you can see, it is now a small museum. The room, which was mainly used by his Russian wife, in which you can see a large pitcher which he used to send up to three times a day to the pub for beer.”
“We have measured that it can hold 15 to 20 large beers, depending on whether the person sent for the beer is strong enough to carry a full or half full. So even if he was thirsty, he could have easily drank about 30 beers a day.
So it’s perhaps little wonder that The Adventures of Good Soldier Schwejk During World War II remains unfinished. Jaroslav Hasek he intended to write four volumes, but only two were completed. Readers don’t seem to care. To date, the book has been translated into his 58 languages.
