The writings of T. G. Masaryk can be read online

The writings of T. G. Masaryk, a comprehensive critical edition of the works of the first Czechoslovak president comprising 39 volumes, are available online. Those interested can read speeches, studies, articles and lectures. The unique collection of texts has been digitised by researchers from the Masaryk Institute and the Archives of the CAS, who hope that the writings will serve not only specialists.

Man and religion, Russia and Europe, war and revolution – the scope of T. G. Masaryk's work has always been very broad. This is reflected in the chronologically arranged writings that the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS and the T. G. Masaryk Institute jointly published in 1993–2022, symbolically completing the edition by making it available to the general public – as a small gift for the 105th birthday of the Republic.

"The conversion of this monumental work into an electronic form with the possibility of full-text search enables all those interested in Masaryk's work to search it conveniently and quickly," says Rudolf Kučera, Director of the MIA CAS. Masaryk and his seminal work are thus entering the current internet era," the director adds.

Polemic Masaryk in the living room

Anyone with access to the internet can open any of the texts written by T. G. Masaryk (or contributed to, for example, in interviews) between 1876 and 1937, and at the same time search his entire body of work in full text.

"All the foreign-language texts have been translated into Czech and each text is accompanied by a brief annotated bibliography. In total, Masaryk's thought and political work comprises more than 15,000 pages," says Lucie Merhautová from the MIA CAS, who participated in the project to digitise the writings.

Experts point out that Masaryk's complete works convey the real Masaryk, not the myths and legends associated with his person. Czechoslovakia's first president is neither a "daddy" nor a wise philosopher on the throne, but shows himself to be a polemicist who did not recognize outside authority, a scholar and a European.

"TGM's writings online are aimed primarily at a professional audience (scholars, students, learned journalists). In the future, we want to create a platform open to the wider public, where texts, archival documents, pictorial material and bibliographies will be linked," says co-creator of the database Milan Hanyš from the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS.

The database can be accessed via the link https://masaryk.mua.cas.cz.

Text: Press release of the CAS, translated by DeepL