Jan Kavan, the new Czech foreign minister, was the first man I ever met who had me composing his obituary on our first introduction, more than 11 years ago. It was not so much the inherited heart condition as Kavan’s pronounced sense of his own place in history, his connection with sweeping events and lofty goals. But perched on such a pedestal, it was that much easier to fall off.
Kavan-a leading dissident activist in London following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968-became a focus of controversy following the 1989 “velvet revolution,” when he was accused of having been an agent of the StB, the communist secret police. Kavan fought to clear his name in the Czech courts and succeeded two years ago, re-entering politics as a senator for the Social Democrats. Following elections this June the party formed a minority government and he became foreign minister. But with his high profile restored, the attacks have revived, too.
Even without the StB accusations Kavan was always a controversial character with a gift for making enemies. I know about this gift from first hand. He was one of those people who always ended up meaning trouble. When I saw the headlines re-emerge this summer my first thought was: “Not him again!” But when I looked over my old papers and re-read the definitive essay by Lawrence Weschler in his book Calamities of Exile (which finds Kavan not guilty as charged but probably unsuited to public life), the bad memories returned, and they were not about Kavan.
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