28 Interesting Facts About Jaroslav Hašek

The world-renowned writer Jaroslav Hašek enjoyed great popularity in the Soviet Union, where his works were widely published and distributed. He wrote an enormous number of satirical works, which brought him fame worldwide, although he also produced serious literature. Hašek held anti-war views throughout his life, a sentiment reflected in his famous novel about the adventures of the good soldier Švejk.

Facts from the Biography of Jaroslav Hašek:

1. Born in Austria-Hungary, Hašek was Czech by nationality, and he is especially famous in the Czech Republic.
2. Jaroslav Hašek did not take literature too seriously and used more than 100 different pseudonyms.
3. Some details of Hašek’s biography are questioned by researchers because even during his lifetime, many myths circulated about him, many of which he spread himself.
4. One of his unique traits was a phenomenal memory; he could hardly forget anything.
5. In his youth, Jaroslav was once arrested by a street patrol and sentenced to execution for having stones in his pockets. The stones were intended for his school’s mineral collection.
6. Hašek traveled extensively across Europe for many years, during which he learned all the major European languages and became a true polyglot.
7. In 1915, Hašek was captured and taken to Russia, where he learned Russian, Tatar, and Bashkir.
8. Hašek wrote around 1,500 works in his lifetime, mostly short notes and feuilletons.
9. After meeting the woman he decided to marry, it took them 13 years to wed because they both lacked sufficient funds.
10. As the editor-in-chief of the Prague magazine The World of Animals, Jaroslav Hašek introduced readers to newly discovered species such as a sixteen-winged fly that fanned itself with its wings, a lizard named idiotosaurus, and domestic vampires. Unsurprisingly, his tenure at this job was short-lived.
11. Due to his wild nature, Hašek was involved in numerous scandals. Various records of his arrests, often due to involvement in fights and disturbances, have survived to this day.
12. He never completed his education, nor did he last long in a pharmacy job arranged by his mother, as he soon left for a walking tour. However, he later enrolled in a Trade Academy and graduated with excellent results.
13. It is known that Jaroslav Hašek assisted Bulgarian and Macedonian insurgents during the Ilinden Uprising.
14. His first published work, a short story, appeared when he was 17 years old.
15. Hašek financed his travels across Europe by earning money from publishing his travel notes. It was during this time that he decided to become a writer.
16. His most famous novel, The Good Soldier Švejk, remains unfinished.
17. Some of his stories from World War I were deemed offensive, leading the Austrian authorities to declare him a traitor.
18. At one point, Hašek served as an agitator for the Red Army in Czechoslovakia. For this, he was declared a traitor in Czechoslovakia and sentenced to death, but he cleverly escaped and returned to his allies.
19. After the Russian Revolution, Hašek published a Bolshevik newspaper titled Our Path.
20. After spending five years in Russia and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), Hašek returned to his homeland, where he was coldly received and accused of treason. Even his closest friends turned away from him.
21. Hašek wrote most of his works in pubs, while eating and drinking. This lifestyle did not contribute to his health.
22. Although not wealthy, Hašek had a casual attitude toward money, and when he had the means, he freely and unhesitatingly helped those around him, including friends and acquaintances. As a result, his own financial situation was never particularly stable.
23. Hašek was almost convicted of bigamy. He was saved by the fact that Czechoslovakia at the time did not recognize marriages performed under RSFSR law. He married for the first time in Czechoslovakia and for the second time in the RSFSR.
24. Hašek acquired his own house just a year before his death.
25. Though a staunch anarchist for much of his life, Hašek eventually embraced communist ideas.
26. In the Czech Republic, he founded a parody political party whose meetings were held exclusively over beer and consisted of performances staged with his friends.
27. Jaroslav Hašek never read his own novel The Good Soldier Švejk.
28. Hašek’s grave is marked by a monument in the form of an open stone book, with the writer’s name inscribed on one page and the name of the soldier Švejk on the other.