Item #1954 Vokno. Casopis pro drugou i jinou kulturu. [Issue No. 14]. Frantisek Starek.
Czech Samizdat Cultural Magazine

Vokno. Casopis pro drugou i jinou kulturu. [Issue No. 14].

Praha: [Vokno], [1988]. First edition. Samizdat cultural magazine. Typescript with 2 photographic reproductions and 8 graphic illustrations of which 7 is full-page. Illustrated cover. In original wrappers with protective plastic. [220] p. Edges slightly creased. Tanned. Altogether in very good condition.

Scarce Czech Avant-Garde magazine.

Vokno was the main magazine of the cultural underground, founded by František Stárek (1952), a historical researcher, publicist and important figure of the underground in Czechoslovakia. The magazine was published as a samizdat between 1979–1989 and several members of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS) such as Ivan Jirous and Dana Němcová contributed to it.

By 1987 Stárek was considered the most dangerous person by the regime because of the well-developed network he had in order to distribute Vokno in every major city. After him and other collaborators were imprisoned in 1981, the magazine was not published until 1985. They relaunched it in 1986 and from 1989 it was published as an official journal. Issue nr. 16 was the first one to be published legally after the fall of the totalitarian regime.

VONS was a Czechoslovak dissident organization, founded by a group of Charter 77 signatories in 1978. Their aim was to follow the cases and help those, who faced various forms of state persecution. They also passed reports on the cases monitored to entities and persons abroad, from where this information was reported back to Czechoslovakia via the radio stations Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and the BBC. Several members of the organization were persecuted by the police.

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Price: €800.00