UNIQUE PROJECT

100 YEARS STORY ⤓

I n every era there are personages who turn out to be those who endeavour to move the society forward. It often happens that they fall into oblivion due to the many disasters and stunts of past eras. And yet, the good deeds of people who performed them not to achieve glory or recognition, but rather on the basis of their personal conviction or perhaps even out of a natural sense of duty, could serve to inspire future generations to further deeds which would move and uplift the society.

And they need not be outstanding deeds. Sometimes it is enough when someone wants to take care of public affairs during times of crisis in a way to make the lives of people easier, to help unburden them a little from the tension of the state, overlords or other destructive forces, to unselfishly help start the expansion of the city after waging of the war in it, or to provide basic human needs for the people suffering from hunger. In times of misery, it is often only a series of fairly simple and inexpensive measures, requiring only that one remain honest and use common sense, to make a difference. Even though it sounds so terribly simple, the traps of love and lure of power and money seem to be more powerful than most individuals.

One of those who resisted the temptation of power was a mayor of Košice, JUDr. Pavol Novák, a forgotten figure for almost a century. He started his mission “of good will” in Košice 99 years ago, right after the end of the First World War and the emergence of Czechoslovakia – and it was interrupted after two decades by a series of suppressive regimes that occurred in Slovakia.

The only memorial of Dr. Novák’s work, which remained in Košice until the birth of this book, is his original residence – a house located on the bank of one of the branches of the Hornád river (today Rumanova 2 Street). And in 2016, it was precisely this building that presented something of a crusade to find out everything possible about its esteemed original owner. The expedition into history turned out a success and such information about Dr. Novák came to light of today’s world, which brings him back to the sunnier side of life.

In the style of this symbology, we would like to use this imaginary beacon, and the real monument located in Košice – the house of Dr. Novák – as a place from which humanitarian activities for society arose – and, even though they were interrupted for several decades by the oppressive regime, they will continue.

The first mayor of Košice, Dr. Pavol Novák, who brought to the city devastated by war a hope and joy of life, worked in this house in the past. And today it is the seat of an organisation that appreciates his life’s work and continues the tradition, by dissemination of the work of another humanitarian of world calibre – L. Ron Hubbard – who contributed, through his life’s work, to the improvement of millions of lives all over the world, whether in the field of human rights, drug prevention and rehabilitation, or through his ground- breaking discoveries regarding the mind and spirit or the broad dissemination of a moral code based on common sense.

In spite of today’s amoral society – where degraded people, who do not really care for the fate of others, are held up as role-models – we endorse the tradition of improving society through any prosocial means. And although today we do not necessarily live in a time of honest human values, I believe that every decent person would welcome the restoration and continuity of humanity’s innate good nature.

Dr. Novák in front (with glasses).

When we began to take an interest in the life and achievements of Dr. Pavol Novák, the former mayor of Košice, we found out that there had been no comprehensive study about him, although he was a very unique person who did a remarkable job in the service of our city in difficult times. To put together a coherent story about this decent politician and lawyer meant a careful investigation of the inter-war media in the city, browsing the city archives, searching for his descendants, visiting his birthplace, contacting people who were somehow connected with his life, and then putting together really small pieces of a mosaic into a complete work. The project was eventually successful and a very unique book is the result of it.

We provide a rather comprehensive overview of the history of Košice in the introduction in a brief and concise way, since Dr. Novák was a mayor of Košice. We have also taken into consideration that we do not write it only for specialists in history, whose knowledge of many political and historical events are taken for granted. We wanted to write it for people who would like to get to know about humanitarians of days of yore who succeeded in creating valuable effects for society. Pavol Novák was exactly such a man. He succeeded in improving his surroundings and became an example of how valuable one can be for his community, in spite of the heated times of the society he lived in.

The primary motive for documenting the story of Pavol Novák was a house, which is still located in the city and it reminds us with its majesty that its creator could have been someone important. We found out that Mr. Novák’s former family estate indeed has some unique features; therefore we are dealing with the tangible heritage of this Košice humanitarian in detail as well.

View ofof the house from Mlynský náhon, 30s of 20 th century and today

BILINGUAL BOOK ⤓

The book was written bilingually, in Slovak and English. The book is written bilingually. It was written in Slovak, and subsequently we put a strong emphasis on its English version to have a quality of the original and so it would not sound only like a translation. We have also included in the glossary various historical terms or names, which are relatively well known for Slovaks, but foreign readers might not be familiar with them. Nevertheless, lacking understanding of them could make the reading of this book unpleasant for non-Slovak readers or even discourage them from reading it.

UNIQUE GLOSSARY ⤓

The glossary of the book is in itself valuable and unique work and it is important part of the book. It not only consists of words usually not understood, but it also contains various personages of history of Czecho-Slovakia and terms and organizations operating in communism regime. Author of the book payed paid attention definitions to be precise and easy to understand in the same time. His intention was to enable it to be understood by readers who are not familiar with history, are not specialists in architecture, and on top of that are not Slovaks, but are yet of an age in which they experienced the era of communism and remember the stories of their grandparents about the Second World War period. Consequently, this book becomes both timeless and easily understandable also for future generations.

For people who are not very familiar with the history of Košice, Slovakia and Czechoslovakia, the glossary itself could serve as a pretty good textbook of history

Due to fact of scope and quality of the treatment paid to this almost “mini-dictionary” this book could serve as serious textbook of history of Slovakia. It’s worthy to note it’s range – respectable 86 pages, while one half is in Slovak and one half in English.

GREAT PERSONAGES ⤓

TThe original owner – Dr. Novák was significant personage of history of Czechoslovakia and the reader will perceive from book how he – and his residence relate to the biggest names of Slovak history – P. O. Hviezdoslav, Ľudovít Štúr, Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Miloslav Hodža, the most renowned Slovak hero Juraj Jánošík, the richest Slovak of his time – Jozef Fábry (successful lawyer and advisor of Tomáš Baťa), the first Czechoslovak president T. G. Masaryk.

The book is penetrated with big names and all of them one way or the other have something to do either with the residence of Dr. Novák, directly with him or the results of his work. The subsequences of work of former mayor of Košice are experienced by city citizens till today. With house of Mr. Novák relate even personages of present day like renowned hockey player Vincent Lukáč or actors Pavol Mikulík and Jozef Vajda.

Even president of Slovak Republic Mr. Rudolf Schuster when he was mayor of Košice dealt with one of the results of Novák’s activity. Mr. president provided for the book very interesting stories and linked the book with another significant people and presidents of other countries. The book begins with prologue of president himself.

The fact the residence is today being used by followers of teachings of American humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard gives it another interesting dimension as it symbolically returned to spreading humanism similarly as Dr. Novák did.

UNIQUE PIECE OF WORK ⤓

TThe book is unique piece of work, processed in the highest professional level and during its life it for sure will receive interesting awards. The fact it is very limited edition owned by basically very narrow group of people (very special people) would in time reflect in continuously increased value.

RARE COPY ⤓

The book was published in two editions: The first – Commemorative edition (from which 200 copies are with special commemorative text) and there is a Special Limited Edition De Luxe version of 100 copies. De Luxe version is leather-bound, gold-platted edges of pages and each piece is numbered 1 – 100. Since this book is not a commercial publication by nature, this Special Limited Edition De Luxe is unpurchaseable. For an inspiration how the life could be lived and how to administrate public matters we donate it also to some representatives of executive or administrating power and to others at the other hand as acknowledgement for their well done work. The precondition for obtaining a limited special edition for people not belonging to the above- mentioned categories is a support of some publicly beneficial activities, whereas we reserve the right to decide on such a donation. The owner of the special limited-edition De Luxe is the civic association, Pre lepšie Slovensko (For Better Slovakia) and anyone who would be interested in receiving this publication can get in touch with this association, agree on a one-time financial contribution and subsequently get their limited-edition copy as an expression of acknowledgment.

DE LUXE EDITION:

  • limited numbered edition, only 100 pcs,
  • every book (every copy) is unique, hand-processed,
  • leather cover,
  • the edge of every page is gold-platted,
  • flyleaf (the intro pages) is cut by laser,
  • this edition is unpurchaseable, i.e. it’s intended only for narrow group of selected people.

 

COMMEMORATIVE EDITION: 

  • The commemorative edition was published also in limited edition, in volume of 200 pcs.