This past September, a sealed letter written by Tomáš Masaryk was opened for the first time and read aloud on Czech national radio. Masaryk was the first president of Czechoslovakia and remains widely celebrated as a liberatory hero in the Czech Republic to this day. However, the remarkable story of this letter reaches beyond the streets of Prague and into the tenement flats of Glasgow. 

The document in question is believed to be over 90 years old and contains Masaryk's political recommendations for his nation following his death. After Masaryk’s death in 1937, the letter fell into the hands of Lumír Soukup—at the time an under-secretary to Masaryk’s son. When Soukup fled the new Communist regime in 1950, he brought the letter with him to Scotland. Soukup settled in Glasgow, where he began to teach Czech studies at UofG. Soukup kept the letter until 2005, when he offered it to the Czech national archives under the condition the letter remained sealed for another 20 years.

Jan Culik, SMLC lecturer and former colleague of Soukup, was recently interviewed by the Scotsman regarding the significance of this letter and the role which Soukup played in its preservation. You can read the full article here.

First published: 14 November 2025

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Lumír Soukup in his younger years, at a Czech ministry.