Conference BORDERS OF (UN)FREEDOM. Timothy Snyder is coming to Prague

Historian, writer and Yale University professor Timothy Snyder returns to Prague for a major public event after several years. His lecture "Havel, Unpredictability and Freedom" will be the highlight of the conference.

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The program will also include a debate with esteemed Ukrainian journalist Sevhil Musaeva, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda in Kiev. The night will kick off with live recordings of the podcasts Chyba systému (System Error), Na východ! (To the East!) and Přepište dějiny (Rewrite History).

"The borders of (un)freedom are not just a matter of political maps, but above all of history: who controls the present controls the past. And who controls the past controls the future. Today, few have resisted the Kremlin's efforts to colonize the past – and thus the future and space – of Central and Eastern Europe more eruditely than Timothy Snyder. And one of his main inspirations is Václav Havel," says Milan Babík, director of the Václav Havel Library.

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We already sought Timothy Snyder's arrival last year, for the big radio conference Media and Ukraine. This time it worked and we are very happy to be able to present him in Prague in cooperation with the new management of the Václav Havel Library - in the context of Ukraine, the local media and together with our successful podcasts," adds Josef Pazderka, editor-in-chief of Plus.

Tickets on sale at vzlet.cz.

Programme 17:00 to 21:30 (Vzlet Cultural Centre, Holandská 669/1, Prague - Vršovice)

• System Error: The rise of the far right in the elections with guest Petra Guasti
• To the East! + Rewrite History: August 1968 through Russian Eyes
• Timothy Snyder: Havel, Unpredictability and Freedom
• Timothy Snyder + Sevhil Musaieva: A Debate Moderated by Jan Bumba

The first two podcast sections will be held only in Czech. Timothy Snyder’s keynote speech as well as the subsequent debate will be in English and will be simultaneously translated into Czech.

Timothy Snyder

Professor of History at Yale University, USA. His books on the turbulent history of Central and Eastern Europe, such as Bloodlands and Black Earth, have become international bestsellers. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, a call for civic engagement in the face of the crisis of democracy, has also attracted extraordinary attention. He has won many awards, including the VIZE 97 Prize, the Hannah Arendt Prize and the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding.

Czech Radio Plus

Czech Radio’s solely spoken word station focusing on analytical journalism. It was established in 2013, replacing the trio of stations ČRo 6, Rádio Česko and Leonardo. Recently, the station has won several journalism awards, including for analyst Jan Fingerland (Ferdinand Peroutka Award), editor-in-chief Josef Pazderka (Karel Havlíček Borovský Award) and for the successful podcast Na Východ!, which was awarded the OSF Journalism Award for 2023.

Václav Havel Library

Collects and gathers all materials, artifacts and ideas of the playwright, dissident and last Czechoslovak and first Czech president Václav Havel for the purpose of digitization, documentation, research and promotion. The library’s new director since June 2024 is Milan Babík, a university lecturer at the prestigious American Colby College, international relations expert and author of numerous scholarly essays and books.