Jiří Lederer's collection was established between 1968 and 1969, when Warsaw Pact troops occupied Czechoslovakia. During this time Jiri Lederer, as a journalist, actively participated in a number of meetings, discussions, protests and demonstrations supporting democracy and protection of freedom of the press and speech. Between 1968 and 1969 Lederer worked at the editorial office of the Czechoslovak Writers' Literary Sheets (Listy), which responded to the relaxing political atmosphere of the "Prague Spring" and themselves contributed to the expansion of the space for free discussion. He also published in Reporter. Jiří Lederer was one of the most prominent journalists of the "Prague Spring". However, he did not agree with the occupation; he considered it to be an improper and detrimental interference with state and society. He advocated small activities that could create and gradually expand the space for the defense of progressive ideas and the realization of original intentions. This conviction was the main reason for his persecution. He spent two months in prison in 1970, and in 1972 he was imprisoned for two years for the article "Poland of these weeks" written in 1968.
In the 1970s he actively participated in the opposition movement, published samizdat, and also sent articles to exile periodicals. In 1977, he was one of the first signatories of Charter 77, signed also by his wife, Elzbieta Ledererová. In January 1977, he was taken into custody and then sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
In 1980, after returning from prison and receiving escalating pressure and threats from state security, he moved to West Germany with his wife and daughter. He moved during the Asanace event, which deprived the State Security of the uncomfortable signatories of Charter 77. In West Germany, he participated in the activities of the exiled Czechoslovak community and continued to devote himself to journalistic work, publishing in exile periodicals and writing for Czechoslovakia Radio Free Europe. Three years after emigrating he died when just 61 years old.
This collection of Jiří Lederer’s works are from his activities during the Prague Spring of 1968 and the period after the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Despite a series of house searches, in which books, manuscripts, correspondence, and personal notes of Jiří Lederer were seized, this collection was protected from the State Security by his wife while he was imprisoned. After Jiří Lederer went into exile, the Lederers took this collection with them when they emigrated. After the death of Jiří Lederer, his wife, Elzbieta Ledererová, donated this collection to Vilém Prečan at the Czechoslovak Documentary Center of Independent Literature (CSDS) exile. In 2003, ČSDS concluded a gift agreement with the National Museum in Prague. The collections of ČSDS, including the collection of Jiří Lederer, were handed over to the National Museum. The collection was institutionalized and partly made available to the scientific public.
