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 and Polish, and finally went to Russia as private tutor where he spent two years (1843 to 1844). A keen observer and analytical critic of the conditions in the land of czars, he soon abandoned his original russophile enthusiasm, but, at the same time, undertook an exhaustive study of the contemporary Russian literature and was deeply impressed by the lucid and vivid realism of Nikolaj Gogol of which he soon became the first herald in the Czech literature: as early as 1849 he translated Gogol’s novel "Dead souls". After his return to Austria Havlíček was appointed editor of two papers “Pražské noviny” (Prague News) and “Česká včela” (Bohemian Bee) which under his able leadership from tame official organs were transformed into a liberal paper which soon became “the conscience of the whole nation” and the best critical and literary review of his time, respectively. Later, having left the editorship of the governmental papers, he became editor and publisher first of Národní Noviny” (National News) which paper, although it was stopped by the Austrian government after several months, was properly considered the most popular mouthpiece of the politically awakened Czech nation, and later of “Slovan” which fearlessly fought against the hydra of reaction. But the Austrian government decided to break the indomitable spirit of Karel Havlíček, and in 1852 deported him to a very unhealthy spot in Tyrol, to a little village of Brixen where he contracted tuberculosis. When after three years, in 1855, he was allowed to come back to Bohemia, he found that in the meantime his beloved wife had died, and he himself was mortally ill. Unable to find any relief in his affiction, he died July 29. 1856 in Prague. His funeral, in spite of the severest reactionary measures of the absolutist regime of Bach, became an eloquent manifestation of love and admiration for the political martyr.

Havlíček was not only a political writer and publicist, he was also an unusually talented poet. His first attemps at poetry did not go beyond the pathetic and elegiac patriotism of his time, but soon, especially