Václav Tomek has left

A personal memory of a friend

Sad news came. Václav Tomek died in July. He would be eighty years old in the fall. As a historian passionate about anarchism, he conveyed to the newly born movement after 1989 the history of local anarchism and, subsequently, that of the world. He literally wrote stacks of books about it, which he published most often in his own unmistakable typographical arrangement in his Manibus propriis publishing house. The name of the publishing house means "with your own hands" and for like-minded people from the local academic scene it was a beautiful example of DIY activity. He then donated most of the copies to the movement. Even though he worked in an academic institution, commercial thinking and paid service, which were imposed on local intellectuals with the return of capitalism, remained alien to him. Including a bureaucratic-commercial approach – his colleagues, for example, reproached him for forgetting to list his publications in official reports, according to which the relevant institution is evaluated (and the authors are paid a bonus). He was from a different generation. In short, he was mainly interested in filling the age-old gap when there was silence about anarchism. By the way, it is significant that the book is hopelessly out of stock and unavailable Anarchism: freedom against power, written by Václav Tomek with Ondra Slačálk and published by the Vyšehrad publishing house (which today proudly claims its Flemish past and reputation, so it probably does not intend to repeat and reprint this editorial paradox). And it wasn't just academic books and articles - Václav Tomek spread awareness of anarchism and its ideas through popularization texts or interviews on public radio.

I actually met Václav in person only a few times, it was more like a long-distance friendship. Friendly cooperation and plans, big plans, what else are we going to do. And the certainty that we will meet again... It's been a few years since we sat over a beer and discussed those plans. His enthusiasm was contagious, at that moment nothing seemed impossible. Václav was cheerful, he also joked about his recurring illness and the absurd side effects of the treatment. I admired the ease with which the aching body endured it. At that time, he gave us a book in which he collected the linocut painting that he had been creating for almost fifty years. He chose poems for them from his collections (he devoted his whole life to poetry and art). It wasn't until reading them that I realized that living with a sick body is never easy - the later the verses were, the more melancholy they were.

Lines of wrinkles,
scars of events, the
pain of fresh wounds...

What do we read,
what memory do we recall,
what fresh wounds do we fear...

Václav, thanks for everything! RIP.

July 9, 2022
https://www.afed.cz/text/7698/odesel-vaclav-tomek

A list of books and publications by Tomek:
https://www.afed.cz/text/7699/vydavatel-a-autor-vaclav-tomek

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