Opening Remarks by SVU President Miloslav Rechcigl

Mr. President, Mr. Executive Vice President, Excellencies, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice Premier, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences:

It is a great pleasure, as President of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, or SVU in short, to officially open our anniversary, 20th in number, SVU World Congress. The Congress is being held in Washington, DC, where the Society got its start and where it also held its First World Congress. Since its inception in 1958, the Society has grown into a respected international institution, with chapters in major cities around the world.

The Society was organized at the initiative of Czech and Slovak intellectuals living abroad, at a time when the communist regime of the former Czechoslovakia repudiated the country's historical traditions and suppressed free expressions.  The SVU wanted to provide a forum for free development of Czechoslovak culture in exile and make the world aware of the Czech and Slovak cultural traditions which date back more than a millennium. Its activities, as outlined in the original bylaws, consisted of supporting and coordinating the educational, scholarly, literary and artistic endeavors of the Czechoslovak intelligentsia abroad. However, the Society was subsequently broadened into an organization open to all individuals, regardless of ethnic origin, interested in fostering Slovak and / or Czech culture. Following the end of the communist regime in 1989, the SVU's functions greatly expanded. Now, in addition to its original mission, the Society has become a bridge between Czech and Slovak professionals and those in other countries. It allows scholars abroad to benefit from contact with their Slovak and Czech colleagues, as well as helping to reintegrate the  intellectual life of these two nations into the mainstream of world science, arts and letters, from which they were separated by political barriers for so lon.

To date, the Society has organized nineteen world congresses, six European conferences and   twenty regional conferences, over thirty art exhibits, more than fifty musical and drama productions, and more than twenty book displays. Furthermore, it has published over eighty books and monographs, and four periodicals, besides sponsoring or providing support to some fifty other publications. In addition to the above, each chapter has organized meetings,  lectures, discussions, exhibits and local functions. It should be pointed out that all of this has been accomplished by its own effort and with its own financial resources. The Society is not dependent on anybody, it owes nothing to anybody and it stands on its own feet.

Every two years the Society convenes a world congress. The program includes presentation of scholarly papers, concerts, artistic exhibits and social events. The lectures, seminars and symposia, as well as printed material are generally presented in English. The first fifteen world congresses were held in the U.S. or Canada, usually on university campuses. The following three congresses took place in the Czech Republic, two in Prague and one in Brno.
The last congress was held in Bratislava in 1998. The twentieth SVU World Congress takes place in the year 2000 here in Washington, D.C. where the Society originated.

Present membership of the Society is some 2,000. It is scattered throughout the world, but concentrated in the U.S., Canada and Europe, the majority being associated with academic or research institutions. Throughout its history, the Society has had numerous local chapters worldwide, including such locations as Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Albany, Cleveland, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Central Texas (US); Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Battawa, Edmonton, Vancouver (Canada); Melbourne, Sydney, Perth (Australia); Wellington (New Zealand); Japan (Asia); Pretoria (South Africa); Munich, London, Stuttgart, Basel-Bern-Zurich, Vienna; and more recently in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Kosice and Presov (Europe).

In spite of its nonpolitical nature, SVU has always been in the forefront whenever there was a question of violations of human rights or personal freedom. During the occupation ofCzechoslovakia in 1968 SVU sent out a Memorandum to 2000 universities in the free world, protesting against the occupation and against the decline of public morality in the world, and
pleaded for help for the increasing number of refugees. Similarly, it protested against persecution of Czech and Slovak intellectuals and the Chartists, against imprisonment of Vaclav Havel, as it always did whenever basic human rights or the Helsinki Accords were violated.
 
The present congress is being convened under the aegis of the Czech and Slovak Embassies, in close cooperation with the American University where the academic meetings and other activities are held. As you will find out for yourselves it will be an extraordinary event, featuring speakers from both sides of the Atlantic. with its central theme, "Civil Society and Democracy into the New Millennium." It may well be the pivotal event of the year 2000 for those interested in the thing Czech or Slovak.

I wish to thank American University for hosting this event and the organizers for putting together such aan interesting program, and wish everyone a really good time.

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