Czech writer and dissident Jan Trefulka dies

Author and former dissident Jan Trefulka died 22 Nov. at the age of 83 in his native Brno. The writer was known as a member of the underground intellectual community opposing the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

A writer of short stories, prose and literary criticism, Trefulka was also a journalist, and editor-in-chief of  the Moravian literary magazine Host do domu (Guest in the House).

He also signed the Charter 77, a civic initiative drafted following the arrest of members of the psychadelic band Plastic People of the Universe. Many signers of the manifesto later held political positions after the fall of Communism.

During the Communist years Trefulka’s works were published only in samizdat style, in underground hand-to-hand fashion, or in exile publishing houses.

The cause of death was renal failure and pneumonia.