In 1948, when the Czech poet Ivan Blatný emigrated from Czechoslovakia, the State Security confiscated his property including belongings, such as family photographs, official documents, correspondence and manuscripts of poems. After the investigation of Blatný’s emigration had been closed, these materials were acquired by an employee of the Pedagogical Faculty of the University in Brno, who was in contact with the State Security. He placed these documents in a cupboard at the Department of the Czech Language and Literature, where they remained, unnoticed, for many years. In 1973, when another employee of the Faculty, Jiří Rambousek, had to leave the University because of political reasons, he decided to hide these document in his own apartment. At that time, the building of the Faculty was renovated and Blatný’s documents risked being destroyed or thrown out. These documents were hidden in Rambousek’s flat for nineteen years. In 1993, Ivan Blatný’s materials which were confiscated by the State Security in 1948 were purchased by the Museum of Czech Literature from Blatný’s cousin Jan Šmarda.
Rambousek, Jiří. 2010. „Tak jdete pomalu po městě dětství…“ Duha [online] 24, No. 2. Accessible at https://duha.mzk.cz/clanky/tak-jdete-pomalu-po-meste-detstvi.