Envelope containing Masaryk’s last words to be opened in September
At the presidential summer residence in Lány, an envelope thought to contain the last words of first Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk will be opened on September 19th. Current President Petr Pavel will attend the ceremony, revealing the contents of the never-before-seen letter.
The envelope with the “President liberator’s” message, has been in the hands of the Czech National Archive since 2005. Here, it has been under constant supervision of archivist Jiří Křesťan, who describes the envelope as regular-sized, white, sealed, and stamped. He also explains when and how it most likely came about:
“We assume that it is from the last days of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. His son Jan would have been noting down some thoughts dictated to him by the President, at a time when he was already worried that he would soon leave this world,” Křesťan says.
The statesman died in September 1937. During the war which followed soon after, the letter travelled with his son, Jan Masaryk, who was the Czechoslovak Ambassador to the UK, and later Foreign Minister of the country.
Through London, Scotland, and France, the envelope made its way back to a liberated Czechoslovakia in 1945. Here, as Křesťan recounts, it changed hands once more, following Jan Masaryk’s untimely passing:
“In the spring of 1948, Jan Masaryk died under unclear circumstances, leaving behind in his apartment many documents, including the letter. Dr. Antonín Sum took on the task of safeguarding them. Together with another former personal secretary of Jan Masaryk, Lumír Soukup, they smuggled the archival materials to the West with the help of Western diplomats,” he says.
Whilst the envelope itself remained safely stored, Antonín Sum was arrested and tried for treason in 1950 by the newly installed communist regime in Czechoslovakia. He served 12 years of his 22-year sentence in prison. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Sum regained possession of Masaryk’s archives, which gradually returned to Czechia from abroad.
Antonín Sum passed away in 2006, at the age of 87. The year prior, on September 19th 2005, he donated the envelope with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s last words to the Czech National Archive. Jiří Křesťan received the document at the time, and notes that Sum had only laid out one single condition:
“Dr. Sum, when he handed the letter to me, indicated nothing further about its contents. But, I respected his will that the words of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk would remain sealed for 20 years, as he had written on the envelope himself,” he explains.
The opening of the envelope at Lány Castle will be attended by President Petr Pavel, and likely other public figures. Czech Radio will be livestreaming the momentous occasion, and has, in a special section of its website devoted to the event, compiled stories and archival footage of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’ life.
