Jan Šverma

Jan Šverma (23 March 1901, Mnichovo Hradiště – 10 November 1944, Mt. Chabenec, Low Tatras) was a Czech journalist, communist activist and resistance fighter against the Nazi-backed Slovak State. Šverma was considered a national hero in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

Biography Ŝverma was born in to the family of a lawyer who briefly served as mayor of Mnichovo Hradiště. He studied law at the Charles University but did not finish his studies and dedicated himself to political activism.

Šverma joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) in 1921. He contributed to Rudé právo, the official publication of the KSČ and was its editor-in-chief from 1936 to 1938. From 1929 he was a member of the KSČ Central Committee and Politburo.

Šverma spent time in exile in Paris and Moscow during the existence of the Nazi-backed Slovak State and was close to Klement Gottwald, the Chairman of the KSČ, who later would become the first Communist president of Czechoslovakia.

Legacy A bridge in Prague at the former location of the Franz Joseph Bridge was named after Šverma in 1951. The village Telgárt in Slovakia was called Švermovo from 1948 to 1990. The metro station in Prague presently named Jinonice was formerly called Švermova. Many places named after communist-era heroes were renamed after the Velvet Revolution.