Jan Sverma

Born Mar. 23,1901, in Mnichovo Hradiště; died Nov. 10, 1944. Figure in the Czechoslovak and international communist movements. Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1969, posthumously).

The son of a lawyer, Šverma was educated in the law. He became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1921 and the editor of a newspaper of the CPC, Večerni rudé právo, in 1924. From 1926 to 1928 he studied at the Lenin School in Moscow. He became a member of the Central Committee and of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPC in 1929 and a candidate member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1935.

From 1935 to 1938, Šverma served as a Communist deputy to the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia. From 1936 to 1938 he was editor in chief of the central organ of the CPC, the newspaper Rudé právo. After the signing of the Munich Pact of 1938, he was sent by the Central Committee of the CPC to work with its foreign bureau in Paris; he moved to the USSR in 1940. Šverma worked on the Czechoslovak editorial staff of Moscow Radio and in 1942 undertook political work among Czechoslovak military units in the USSR; he also edited the newspaper Československé listy.

Sverma helped develop the Košice program. After the Slovak national uprising began on Aug. 29,1944, he was sent to Slovakia by the leadership of the CPC. He was killed during the uprising. The author of works on the history of Czechoslovakia and the national question, Šverma was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1969.