Editing Jaroslav Hašek

{{short description|Czech humorist, satirist, writer and anarchist}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with [[Jaroslav Hájek]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Jaroslav Hašek
| image            = Ярослав Гашек.jpg
| caption          = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=y|1883|4|30}}
| birth_place      = [[Prague]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=y|1923|1|3|1883|4|30}}
| death_place      = [[Lipnice nad Sázavou]], [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]]
| occupation       = Novelist, humorist
| language         = {{hlist|Czech|Russian}}
| nationality      = 
| genre            = [[Historical]] [[satire]]
| movement         = [[Social realism]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/501greatwritersc0000unse/page/287/mode/1up | isbn=9781845433109 | title=501 great writers : A comprehensive guide to the giants of literature | year=2009 | last1=Patrick | first1=Julian | publisher=Apple |page=287}}</ref>
| notableworks     = ''[[The Good Soldier Švejk]]''
| signature        = Jaroslav Hašek - podpis.svg
}}

'''Jaroslav Hašek''' ({{IPA|cs|ˈjaroslaf ˈɦaʃɛk|lang}}; 1883–1923) was a [[Czechs|Czech]] writer, [[Humorism|humorist]], [[Satire|satirist]], journalist, [[Bohemianism|bohemian]], first [[anarchist]] and then [[communist]], and [[commissar]] of the [[Red Army]] against the [[Czechoslovak Legion]]. He is best known for his novel ''[[The Good Soldier Švejk|The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War]]'', an unfinished novel about a soldier in [[World War I]] and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures. The novel has been translated into about 60 languages, making it the most translated novel in Czech literature.

== Life ==
Jaroslav Hašek's paternal ancestors were farmers rooted in Mydlovary in South Bohemia. Hašek's grandfather from his father's side, František Hašek, was a member of the Czech Landtag and later also the so-called [[Imperial Diet (Austria)|Kromeriz convention]]. He was also involved in barricade fights in Prague in 1848. According to some rumors, he worked with [[Mikhail Bakunin]] during his stay in Bohemia in 1849.<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Lidský profil Jaroslava Haška
| journal = Svejkmuseum.cz
| url = http://www.svejkmuseum.cz/menger.htm
| date = 2 August 2017
| access-date = 30 November 2019
| archive-date = 12 November 2019
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191112213844/http://svejkmuseum.cz/menger.htm
| url-status = live
}}</ref>&nbsp;

[[Image:Jaroslav Hasek - pomnik v Lipnici nad Sazavou - detail.jpg|thumb|upright|Monument to Jaroslav Hašek in [[Lipnice nad Sázavou]]]]

[[Image:Hasek-nepras-01.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Statue of Jaroslav Hašek]] in [[Žižkov]], near the pubs where he wrote some of his works]]

The family of his mother, Katherine, née Jarešová, was also from South Bohemia. His grandfather Antonín Jareš and his great-grandfather Matěj Jareš were pond-keepers of the Schwarzenberg princes in Krč village No. 32.<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Matriční záznam o narození Kateřiny Garešowy 3. 11. 1849 na baště v Krči čp. 32: DigiArchiv of SOA Třebon – ver. 18.12.20
| journal = Digi.ceskearchivy.cz
| url = https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/DA?menu=3&id=6706&page=237&x=1261&y=2610&z=56
| access-date = 29 December 2018
| archive-date = 17 June 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200617125807/https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/DA?menu=3&id=6706&page=237&x=1261&y=2610&z=56
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Stopami literátů.
| journal = Jirilouzensky.TXT.cz
| url = http://jirilouzensky.txt.cz/clanky/34460/stopami-literatu/
| access-date = 29 December 2018
| archive-date = 2021-01-20
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210120223024/https://jirilouzensky.txt.cz/clanky/34460/stopami-literatu/
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| journal = Radkopytlik.sweb.cz
| title = Chlapec
| url = http://radkopytlik.sweb.cz/hasek_ke_d.html
| access-date = 29 December 2018
| archive-date = 29 January 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210129042830/http://radkopytlik.sweb.cz/hasek_ke_d.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Kniha Krč vesnice v srdci mém od Ing. Václava Vojíka z roku 2012 v pdf podobě - strana 9.pdf
| journal = SDHKRC.cz
| url = http://www.sdhkrc.cz/wp-content/uploads/Krc-Vesnice-v-srci-mem.pdf
| access-date = 29 December 2018
| archive-date = 24 February 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224213222/http://www.sdhkrc.cz/wp-content/uploads/Krc-Vesnice-v-srci-mem.pdf
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
| last1 = Vojík
| first1 = Václav
| title = Krč vesnice v srdci mém
| type = monograph
| year = 2012
| pages = II to 74
}}</ref>

His father, Josef Hašek,<ref name="matrikaO1">[http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/cs/6710/131 Matriční záznam o sňatku prof. Josefa Haška s Kateřinou Jarešovou] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617125934/https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/DA?menu=3&id=6710&page=131&lang=cs |date=17 June 2020 }} farnosti Protivín</ref> a mathematics teacher and religious fanatic,<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Kdo je Jaroslav Hašek
| journal = Svejkmuseum.cz
| url = http://www.svejkmuseum.cz/ludvik.htm
| access-date = 1 August 2017
| archive-date = 5 April 2016
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160405094616/http://svejkmuseum.cz/ludvik.htm
| url-status = live
}}</ref> died early of alcohol intoxication.<ref name="Panorama">{{Cite book
 | editor1-last = Galík
 | editor1-first = Josef
 | type = anthology
 | title = Panorama české literatury
 | publisher = Rubico 
 | location = Olomouc
 | date = 1994
 | isbn = 80-85839-04-0
}}</ref> He put an end to himself due to pain caused by cancer. Poverty then forced his mother Kateřina with three children to move more than fifteen times.

At the age of four, the doctor diagnosed a heart defect and "stunted thyroid gland" in little Jaroslav. Because of this, he spent a lot of time in the country, with his grandfather from his mother's side, in the so-called Ražice dam-house, especially with his younger brother Bohuslav. In his childhood, Jaroslav was jealous of Bohuslav and even tried several times to hurt him as a baby.<ref name="Lidský profil Jaroslava Haška">{{Cite journal
| title = Lidský profil Jaroslava Haška
| journal = Svejkmuseum.cz
| url = http://www.svejkmuseum.cz/menger.htm
| access-date = 2 August 2017
| archive-date = 12 November 2019
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191112213844/http://svejkmuseum.cz/menger.htm
| url-status = live
}}</ref> Later they had an extremely strong relationship and traveled together a lot on foot. Bohuslav drank himself to death one year after Jaroslav's death.

Hašek's childhood was ordinary, boyish, imbued with adventures with peers and reading [[Karl May]] and [[Jules Verne]]. However, this changed when Hašek was eleven: the retired sailor Němeček moved to Lipová Street, where the Hašeks lived at that time. Němeček wrapped the teenage Hašek around his little finger, pilfered the money that Hašek had stolen at home, and began to lead him into bars, including the infamous Jedová chýše (Poison Hut) on Apolinářská Street, where he taught him to drink alcohol. In addition, he intentionally had sex with his girlfriend in front of the boy. It was a trauma for Hašek. He later remembered these experiences with disgust and remorse. It probably influenced Hašek's relationship with women. In his discussions with his comrades in the Russian legions, it is said that he said: "Can there be anything worse in the world than such a human pig? I didn't know anything about these things, and yet I felt such disgust and revulsion that it was enough to poison my whole life. I could never look at the woman again and I have also been afraid of women since then."
<ref name="Lidský profil Jaroslava Haška"/> Some theories about Hašek's homosexuality, spread mainly by the literary historian Jindřich Chalupecký (the essay "Podivný Hašek" in the book ''Expresionisté''), have also originated here, as well as in the testimony of Hašek's friend Rudolf Šimanovský.<ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = Novák Večerníček
| first1 = Jaroslav
| title = Hašek: Gay, nebo milovník jediné ženy? – Blog iDNES.cz
| journal = Mladá fronta Dnes
| url = http://jaroslavnovak.blog.idnes.cz/blog.aspx?c=29953
| access-date = 2 August 2017
| archive-date = 2 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170802204901/http://jaroslavnovak.blog.idnes.cz/blog.aspx?c=29953
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

Shortly after Hašek began his studies at the grammar school in Ječná Street, his father died. In 1897 he was present at anti-German riots in Prague as a student. He was arrested and the gymnasium teachers forced him to "voluntarily" leave the institution. He then trained as a druggist in Kokoška's drugstore on the corner of Perštýn and Martinská Street, but eventually graduated from the Czech-Slavonic Business Academy in Resslova Street. 
<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Jaroslav Hašek {{!}} Českoslovanská akademie obchodní
| journal = Cao.cz
| url = http://www.cao.cz/cs/o-skole/jaroslav-hasek/
| language = cs
| access-date = 7 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170807192543/http://www.cao.cz/cs/o-skole/jaroslav-hasek/
| archive-date = 7 August 2017
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> At the academy he made friends with Ladislav Hájek, and together they wrote and released a parody of the lyrical love poetry of May Shouts, in which Hašek first laughed at pathos and entered the field of humorous literature.

After graduation, he became an employee of Slavia Bank but soon began to earn his living exclusively in journalism and literature. At that time he also met Czech anarchists. He began to lead a bohemian and vagrant life. Together with his brother Bohuslav, he walked through, among other places, Slovakia and western Galicia (now in Poland). Stories from these trips were published by Jaroslav Hašek in ''Národní listy''.

In 1907, he became editor of the anarchist magazine ''Komuna'' and was briefly imprisoned for his work.

In the same year, he fell in love with Jarmila Mayerová, but, because of his bohemian life, her parents did not consider him a suitable partner for their daughter. When he was arrested for desecrating the Austro-Hungarian flag in Prague, Mayer's parents took her to the countryside in the hope that it would help end their relationship. In response, Hašek tried to back out of his radical politics and get permanent work as a writer. In 1908 he edited the ''Women's Horizon''. In 1909 he had sixty-four published short stories, and the same year he was appointed editor of ''Animal World'' magazine. Hašek's engagement with Svět zvířat, i.e. ''Animal World, w''as only the second time in his life that he was permanently employed, and now he lasted much longer in the job than he did at Banka Slavia, probably around 20 months.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hønsi |first=Jomar |date=2022-02-27 |title=The Good Soldier Švejk > Institutions > Svět zvířat |url=https://honsi.org/svejk/?page=6-2-3&lang=en#Sv%C4%9Bt_zv%C3%AD%C5%99at |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=honsi.org/svejk}}</ref> 

Obtaining permanent employment at  Animal World was instrumental in overcoming Jarmila Mayerová's parent's resistance to her marrying Hašek, and the wedding took place on 23 May 1910.<ref name="matrikaO">[http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=35F9846ABF044C84AFFF3A52F4C2A6F3&scan=259#scan259 Matriční záznam o sňatku Jaroslava Haška s Jarmilou Mayerovou] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225034545/http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=35F9846ABF044C84AFFF3A52F4C2A6F3&scan=259#scan259 |date=25 February 2021 }} farnosti při kostele sv. Ludmily na pražských Královských Vinohradech</ref> However, after a year of marriage, Jarmila returned to her parents after Hašek was detained after trying to feign his own death. According to other sources, however, this was a serious attempt at suicide, motivated by the understanding that he was unable to live a marital life.<ref>{{Cite book
| title = Muž, který zachránil Haška před sebevraždou. Nebýt jeho, nebyl by Švejk.
| date = 15 February 2011
| url = http://promuze.blesk.cz/clanek/pro-muze-novinky/148922/muz-ktery-zachranil-haska-pred-sebevrazdou-nebyt-jeho-nebyl-by-svejk.html
| publisher = Blesk.cz
| type = monograph
| access-date = 30 November 2019
| archive-date = 9 August 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200809072310/https://promuze.blesk.cz/clanek/pro-muze-novinky/148922/muz-ktery-zachranil-haska-pred-sebevrazdou-nebyt-jeho-nebyl-by-svejk.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref> After this attempt, he was briefly hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital.

From 1911, he contributed to the ''Czech Word'', then to the ''Torch'', ''Humorist Letters'', ''Nettle'', ''Cartoons'', and for some time led the Institute of Cynology,<ref name="Panorama" /> which inspired his later book ''My Dog Shop''.

In 1911, he founded [[The Party of Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of the Law]]. He founded it with his friends in the Vinohrady pub called U zlatého litru (The Golden Liter) to parody the political life of that time. He also wrote the satirical work ''Political and Social History of the Party of Mild Progress within the limits of the law'', but it was not published in book form until 1963.

During this period, together with [[František Langer]], [[Emil Artur Longen]] and [[Egon Kisch|Egon Erwin Kisch]] he co-authored a number of cabaret performances, where he was also the main performer.

In the summer of 1912, Hašek spent several weeks in a pub in Chotěboř, where he could not be gotten rid of and the proprietors waited in vain for payment. He described his stay in Chotěboř in the stories "Traitor of the Nation in Chotěboř", the "District Court in Malibor", and "How about the birthplace of Ignát Herrmann or the Consecration in Krivice".

At the outbreak of the First World War, Hašek lived with the cartoonist [[Josef Lada]], who later illustrated the ''Good Soldier Švejk''.<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Hašek Jaroslav – živit a dílo ( Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války ) – Materiály do školy
| journal = Materiály do školy
| date = 6 September 2016
| language = cs-CZ
| url = http://www.materialy-do-skoly.cz/maturitni-otazky/cestina/hasek-jaroslav-zivit-a-dilo-osudy-dobreho-vojaka-svejka-za-svetove-valky/
| access-date = 7 August 2017
| archive-date = 7 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170807152615/http://www.materialy-do-skoly.cz/maturitni-otazky/cestina/hasek-jaroslav-zivit-a-dilo-osudy-dobreho-vojaka-svejka-za-svetove-valky/
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

In February 1915, Hašek was called up to the replacement battalion of the 91st Regiment of the [[Austro-Hungarian Army|Austro-Hungarian army]] in České Budějovice. With the 12th march battalion of the regiment, he was in early July transported to the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern front]] in [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] (now Ukraine). He served on the front until 24 September 1915 when he was captured by the [[Imperial Russian Army|Russians]] and sent to the [[Totskoye]] camp in [[Orenburg Governorate]]. Here he joined the [[Czechoslovak Legion]] in 1916. Then he was drafted into the 1st Regiment, where he worked as a scribe, emissary of the recruitment committee and gunner. Then he was transferred to the connecting section, machine-gun section (in which he participated in the [[Battle of Zborov (1917)|Battle of Zborov]] against the Austrians) and the office of the 1st Regiment. From July 1916 to February 1918 he published in the journal ''Čechoslovan and Cs. soldier'', and was the author of a number of anti-Bolshevik articles.
[[File:Hasek jaroslav1920.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Jaroslav Hašek in 1920.]]
At the end of February 1918, he joined the [[Czech Social Democratic Party|Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers' Party]] (forerunner of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]], 1921–1992). What led Hašek to abandon anarchism and to accept socialist ideals has nowhere been clarified. In March, the Czechoslovak legions embarked on their [[Czechoslovak Legion#Evacuation from Bolshevik Russia|well-known retreat]], with the aim of joining the Western Front via Vladivostok. Hašek disagreed with this and went to Moscow, where he began to cooperate with the [[Bolsheviks]]. In April he transferred from the legions to the [[Red Army]]. He was sent to [[Samara]] and the following year he was director of the army printer in [[Ufa]], chief of the department for work with foreigners, etc.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cs-magazin.com/index.php?a=a2007122069 |title=Jaroslav Hašek – Eduard Stehlík, Míla Sýkora |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802014126/http://www.cs-magazin.com/index.php?a=a2007122069 |url-status=live }}</ref> At the end of 1918 he served as commander of the [[Chuvash people|Chuvash]] troops in the Red Army and as deputy military commander of the [[Bugulminsky District|Bugulma district]]. He then worked in Siberia, where he published several magazines. One of them was also the first magazine in the [[Buryat language]], ''Jur'' (Dawn).<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Jaroslav Hašek – biografia {{!}} TerazTeatr
| journal = Terazteatr.pl
| url = https://www.terazteatr.pl/artysci/jaroslav-hasek,bio,7484
| language = pl
| access-date = 1 August 2017
| archive-date = 1 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170801162314/https://www.terazteatr.pl/artysci/jaroslav-hasek,bio,7484
| url-status = live
}}</ref>
[[File:Czech-writer-Jaroslav-Hasek-in-Prague-1921-391854784892.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1|Jaroslav Hašek in 1921]]
In 1920, he was wounded in an assassination attempt<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.classs.ru/persons/writers/hashek/ |title=Гашек Ярослав |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-date=1 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201205826/http://www.classs.ru/persons/writers/hashek/ |url-status=live }}</ref> in Irkutsk, where he served as a member of the city soviet.<ref name="interesniy" /> In the same year he fell ill with typhoid fever, and in May he married a printing worker named Alexandra Grigorievna Lvova, called Shura, who took care of him after his illness. After his return to Czechoslovakia, he was not tried for polygamy because of the lack of order and recognition of various international treaties in Russia.

In December 1920, Hašek returned to independent Czechoslovakia. He was initially placed in quarantine in [[Pardubice]], and on 19 December he arrived in Prague with Shura. The Soviets had sent him to Czechoslovakia to organize the communist movement. However, he was prevented from doing so by two circumstances: on the one hand, in support of the [[:cs:Prosincová generální stávka 1920|Kladno riots]], he received from the Russian authorities an amount of 1,500 marks, which, however, was completely devalued by [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|German inflation]]. In addition, even before Hašek's arrival in Prague, Jaroslav Handlíř, leader of a clutch of Russian agents whom Hašek was to contact, was arrested in Czechoslovakia. In this way Hašek's interest in communist politics ended and he returned to his bohemian way of life. He visited pubs in Prague and its surroundings, where he wrote his stories. Many stories describing this period were written by Hašek's friend Zdeněk Matěj Kuděj.

On 25 August 1921 Hašek left with his wife Shura and painter [[Jaroslav Panuška]] for Lipnice nad Sázavou. By this time he was seriously ill and dangerously obese. In Lipnice he began writing his masterpiece, ''[[The Good Soldier Švejk|The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War]]''. Eventually he was unable to write, yet he continued to dictate Švejk's chapters in his bedroom. On 3 January 1923, he died of heart disease. The last known photograph was taken in December 1922.
[[File:Jaroslav Hašek.gif|thumb|Hašek in October 1922]]

== Contradictions and points of interest ==
In the Czech and Slovak public imagination Jaroslav Hašek is fixed as a bohemian, perhaps even the prototypical bohemian of the early twentieth century. In fact, this is largely a legend and represents Hašek's self-stylization. An internally disciplined author, Hašek was very productive. From his works it is also apparent that he had an extensive (perhaps a little unsystematic) humanistic education.

It is most instructive to consider Hašek's work in Russia during 1916 to 1920. He has never been and still is not perceived as a mere bohemian or humorist writer in Russia, but, on the contrary, as a very responsible Bolshevik army official and a respected intellectual.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.russofile.ru/articles/article_131.php |title=Заславский Д. Ярослав Гашек - Русофил - Русская филология {{!}} Образовательный ресурс<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-date=24 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224064802/http://www.russofile.ru/articles/article_131.php |url-status=live }}</ref> He was also a relatively skilled soldier. In 1918 he distinguished himself as a courageous commander of the Czechoslovak Red Army troops in the defense of Samara.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Archivovaná kopie |url=http://www.edc.samara.ru/~volga/ch7/gashek/index.htm |access-date=27 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202082455/http://www.edc.samara.ru/~volga/ch7/gashek/index.htm |archive-date=2 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Samara was at that time threatened from the direction of Lipyagi station by the Czechoslovak legions, which were fighting alongside the White troops to restore the imperial regime, although the legionnaires tried to maintain essential neutrality and fight against the Bolsheviks only when inevitable. On 8 June 1918, Samara was conquered by the legions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archivovaná kopie |url=http://www.pamatnik.valka.cz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41%3Adobyti-samary-1918&catid=11&Itemid=11&lang=en |access-date=26 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111092438/http://www.pamatnik.valka.cz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41%3Adobyti-samary-1918&catid=11&Itemid=11&lang=en |archive-date=11 November 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is possible that at this time, Jaroslav Hašek met with Czech "brothers" and may have encouraged them to leave the White-Russian party. After the fall of Samara, he was in hiding in a territory controlled by White troops (and Czechoslovak legions) for several months.<ref name="interesniy">{{Cite web |title= Дуализм Ярослава Гашека: пером и штыком (The dualism of Yaroslav Hasek: pen and bayonet)|url=http://www.interesniy.kiev.ua/old/7137/7140/21197 |access-date=27 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219035604/http://www.interesniy.kiev.ua/old/7137/7140/21197 |archive-date=19 December 2009 |url-status=dead |language = ru }}</ref>

It is possible that in specific revolutionary Russian conditions, Hašek was given the opportunity to assert those aspects of his character that could not manifest themselves in stabilized and essentially small-town Czech conditions. It was also important that Hašek was banned by his Party organization from drinking alcohol.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://it.pedf.cuni.cz/~suchanko/mff/kolman.pdf |title=Kdo nám taky přednášel marxák aneb stručný výtah z pamětí Arnošta Kolmana |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305183007/http://it.pedf.cuni.cz/~suchanko/mff/kolman.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> He was basically sent to Czechoslovakia with the aim of organizing the communist movement, which also supports the thesis that he had to be perceived as a responsible person and a capable organizer in Soviet Russia.

A subject of debate and speculation is how Hašek behaved in the Red Army, especially at a time when he was a Commissioner – and deputy commander – of Bugulma.

Hašek had close contact with a number of revolutionaries including [[Lev Trotsky]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pytlík |first=Radko |chapter-url=http://radkopytlik.sweb.cz/hasek_ke_x.html |chapter=Rudá Evropa |language=cs |title=Toulavé house |author-link=Radko Pytlík |access-date=1 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128080803/http://radkopytlik.sweb.cz/hasek_ke_x.html |archive-date=28 November 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hašek's closest collaborators in Russia – Nikolai Ivanovich Kochkurov ("[[Artyom Vesyoly|Artem Vesely]]") or Vladimir Yakovlevich Zazubrin – later became victims of [[Great Purge|Stalin's repression]].<ref name=desetiletí>{{cite book
| first1 = Oleg
| last1 = Malevič
| title = V perspektivě desetiletí
| date = December 2015
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DXCwAAQBAJ&q=Ha%C5%A1ek+v+Bugulm%C4%9B&pg=PA131
| publisher = Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
| isbn = 9788024628448
| language = cs
| type = monograph
| access-date = 2 October 2020
| archive-date = 14 September 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210914060735/https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DXCwAAQBAJ&q=Ha%C5%A1ek+v+Bugulm%C4%9B&pg=PA131
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

There is also speculation about Hašek's mysterious mission to Mongolia, which he probably undertook in Soviet service. The writer Pavel Gan claims that he was there in conjunction with the Chinese revolutionary Chen Chang-Hai, alias Vanya Chang, and was going to go with him to China, for which reason he probably learned solid Chinese.<ref name=desetiletí/>

A not-well-known aspect of Hašek's biography is that after returning to his homeland he found himself somewhat isolated. He was uncomfortable from left to right. After he left communist politics, for example, [[Stanislav Kostka Neumann]] described him as a "traitor to the proletarian revolution". For the poet [[:cs:Karel Toman|Karel Toman]] he was branded a "traitor of the nation" by his red arm band and refused to shake his hand when he met him in a café after the war.<ref name="Suchomel"/> There were more such hostile reactions. Hašek's departure to Lipnice, where he wrote ''Švejk'', was motivated by the hostile atmosphere he met in Prague.<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Jaroslav Hašek
| journal = Vltava
| url = https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/jaroslav-hasek-5874175
| language = cs
| access-date = 1 August 2017
| archive-date = 1 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170801201405/https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/jaroslav-hasek-5874175
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

== Works ==
Initially Hašek wrote mainly travel stories, features and humoresques, which he published in magazines. He wrote most of his works in Prague pubs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SPŠE Olomouc, Literatura, Jaroslav Hašek |url=http://www.literaturaspse.ic.cz/Hasek.html |access-date=2 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830224954/http://www.literaturaspse.ic.cz/Hasek.html |archive-date=30 August 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.starysmichov.cz/view.php?cisloclanku=2007090009 |title=Klub přátel starého Smíchova, Jaroslav Hašek |access-date=14 September 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205092721/http://www.starysmichov.cz/view.php?cisloclanku=2007090009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

His prose was based on his own real experiences, confusing investigation of his actual life, because it is not always clear what is true and what is only poetic hyperbole.

Hašek hated pretense, sentimentality, settled life, to which he ironically reacted in satiric verse. Another characteristic feature of his work is resistance to moral and literary conventions.

In his life, he wrote about 1,200 short stories. Most of his short prose is scattered throughout various magazines and newspapers. Over the years nearly all the stories have been collected and printed in book's form. Some texts may however have been lost, for example, the story "The History of the Ox."<ref name="Panorama" /> There is also a number of texts of which Hašek's authorship is likely, but not confirmed.

Words flowed easily from his pen, but this does not mean that he was not creative. [[František Langer]] stated that "he was attracted, controlled, absorbed by writing, driven by his almost passionate passion for his writing."<ref name="Suchomel">{{Cite journal
| last1 = Suchomel
| first1 = Milan
| title = Jaroslav Hašek a Josef Švejk, dvě pochybné existence
| journal = Časopis HOST
| language = cs
| url = http://casopis.hostbrno.cz/archiv/2013/4-2013/jaroslav-hasek-a-josef-svejk-dve-pochybne-existence
| access-date = 1 August 2017
| archive-date = 7 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170807205636/http://casopis.hostbrno.cz/archiv/2013/4-2013/jaroslav-hasek-a-josef-svejk-dve-pochybne-existence
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

His most famous text by far, the four-part humorous novel ''[[The Good Soldier Švejk|The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War]]'', has been translated into 58 languages and several times filmed and dramatized. Individual parts of the novel have the names: "In the Background (1921)", "At the Front (1922)", "Famous Spanking (1922)" and "Unfinished Continuation of the Famous Spanking" (1923). Hašek's most important work is associated by many people with congenial illustrations by [[Josef Lada]]. Hašek did not manage to complete the book. The completion of the work by [[:cs:Karel Vaněk|Karel Vaněk]] is far from Hašek's original conception. Vanek's completion was based on the continuation of 1921, but was highly criticized ([[:cs:Viktor Dyk|Viktor Dyk]], [[:cs:Jaroslav Durych|Jaroslav Durych]], [[František Xaver Šalda|F. X. Šalda]] etc.). At first, the work had few followers. [[Ivan Olbracht]] was probably the first to mark it as a major work in the cultural section of ''[[Rudé právo]]''. "It is one of the best books ever written in the Czech Republic, and Svejk is quite a new type in world literature, equivalent to [[Don Quixote]], [[Hamlet]], [[Faust]], [[Oblomov]], [[Karamazov]]," Olbracht wrote.<ref name="Suchomel"/> [[Karel Čapek]], [[Josef Čapek]], [[Julius Fučík (journalist)|Julius Fučík]] and [[Vítězslav Nezval]], who connected Hašek's work with [[Dadaism]], also adopted a positive attitude,<ref>{{Cite journal
| title = Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války II. Na frontě. Čte Oldřich Kaiser
| journal = Vltava
| date = 13 July 2017
| language = cs
| url = https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/jaroslav-hasek-osudy-dobreho-vojaka-svejka-za-svetove-valky-ii-na-fronte-5948709
| access-date = 2 August 2017
| archive-date = 2 August 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170802203933/https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/jaroslav-hasek-osudy-dobreho-vojaka-svejka-za-svetove-valky-ii-na-fronte-5948709
| url-status = live
}}</ref> as did [[Devětsil]] theoretician [[Bedřich Václavek]]. Discussions on the value of the work continued in later years. For example, [[Václav Černý (writer)|Václav Černý]] opposed Švejk, but a wide range of Czech literary theorists, artists, and intellectuals had other views – the philosopher [[Karel Kosík]] saw the novel as "an expression of the absurdity of the alienated world"; he described Švejk as the "tragic bard of European nihilism. The aesthetist [[:cs:Jan Grossman|Jan Grossman]] associated Švejk with existentialism; the literary theorist [[Jindřich Chalupecký]] described Švejk as the "tragic bard of European nihilism,"; and the writer [[Milan Kundera]] described the novel as "the pure irrationality of history.".<ref>{{cite book
| last = Oleg
| first = Malevič
| title = V perspektivě desetiletí
| date = December 2015
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DXCwAAQBAJ&q=Ha%C5%A1ek+v+Bugulm%C4%9B&pg=PA131
| publisher = Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
| at = 399 pages
| isbn = 9788024628448
| language = cs
| access-date = 2 October 2020
| archive-date = 14 September 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210914060735/https://books.google.com/books?id=T4DXCwAAQBAJ&q=Ha%C5%A1ek+v+Bugulm%C4%9B&pg=PA131
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

Švejk has been dramatized several times, Hašek himself performed the first dramatization for the [[:cs:Emil Artur Longen|Emil Artur Longen]] "Revolutionary Scene"; in 1928 Švejk turned into a theater performance of Hašek's friend [[Max Brod]], in 1963 by [[Pavel Kohout]]. The international adaptation was achieved by the adaptation of ''[[Schweik in the Second World War]]'' by the German playwright and director [[Bertold Brecht]].

==Tributes==
On 30 April 2013, Google celebrated Jaroslav Hasek's 130th Birthday with a [[Google Doodle|doodle]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jaroslav Hasek's 130th Birthday (CZ) |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/jaroslav-haseks-130th-birthday-cz/ |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=www.google.com |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Vlastimil Košvanec]]
* [[Josef Lada]]
* [[Cecil Parrott]]
* [[Statue of Jaroslav Hašek]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

{{Refbegin}}

* ''[[The Good Soldier Švejk]] and His Fortunes in the World War'', translated by [[Cecil Parrott]], with original illustrations by [[Josef Lada]]
* ''[http://zenny.com The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228034554/https://zenny.com/ |date=28 February 2021 }}'', translated by Zenny K. Sadlon
* ''The Red Commissar: Including further adventures of the good soldier Švejk and other stories''
* ''Bachura Scandal and Other Stories and Sketches'', translated by Alan Menhenett
* Biography by Cecil Parrott, ''The Bad Bohemian'' ({{ISBN|0-349-12698-4}}).
* {{Cite book |last1=Pytlík |first1=Radko |last2=Laiske |first2=Miroslav |title=Bibliografie Jaroslava Haška; soupis jeho díla a literatury o něm |trans-title=Bibliography of Jaroslav Hašek: a list of his work and literature about him |date=1960 |language=cs |publisher=Státní pedagogické nakl |location=Praha |oclc=4573600 }}

{{Refend}}

==External links==

{{Sister project links |author=Jaroslav Hašek |c=Jaroslav Hašek |n=no |q=Jaroslav Hašek |v=no |wikt=no |b=no}}

* Jomar Hønsi's exhaustive site dedicated to [https://honsi.org/svejk/ Jaroslav Hašek and The Good Soldier Švejk] 
* The first ever website dedicated to Švejk: [https://svejkcentral.com/ Švejk Central] 

* {{Books and Writers |id=hasek |name=Jaroslav Hašek }}
* [http://svejkmuseum.cz Virtuální muzeum Jaroslava Haška a Josefa Švejka (Czech)]
* [http://members.tripod.com/~vojtisek/hasek/ A comprehensive site, mostly in Czech, but also partly in English]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190716054430/http://hasek.org/ Jaroslav Hasek – essays, biographies, memoirs, gallery of images (Russian)] 
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFfjQGqNdlY Radio Pytlik, biographer of Jaroslav Hašek, interview (Czech)]
* [https://talesfromjaroslav.wordpress.com/ Tales from Jaroslav, a site publishing previously untranslated short stories by Jaroslav Hašek (English)]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUb6tnhGOnQ J. Hašek. Švejk Stands Against Italy (audio) (in English)]

{{The Good Soldier Švejk}}
{{Modernism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasek, Jaroslav}}
[[Category:Jaroslav Hašek| ]]
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Prague]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Bohemia]]
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[[Category:Czech humorists]]
[[Category:Czech male novelists]]
[[Category:Czech satirists]]
[[Category:Czech satirical novelists]]
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