AN OPEN LETTER IN DEFENSE OF THE CZECH SCIENTIST-HISTORIAN DR. JOSEF SKALA. TV.

       We, independent scientists and researchers from Russia, the USA and Europe, employees of the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», «Aruba Wellness Center» (Center for Development, Health and Longevity), the Noosphere Public Academy of Sciences and the Prometheus Research Group, appeal to the authorities of the Czech Republic, directly to the President of the Czech Republic, Peter Pavel, to the deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, to the collectives of scientific state and public organizations, the professional scientific community, as well as to all concerned citizens of the Czech Republic and Moravia with a request to protect the scientist-historian, Dr. Josef Skala for daring to have his point of view on a historical event during a radio debate about the Katyn shooting of Polish prisoners of war near Smolensk during World War II. This tells us that there is a real threat to the existence of democracy in the Czech Republic and the right to have their own private judgment about historical events.

       The scientist's opinion is based on the facts given in numerous documents not only in Russia, but also in the USA, France and Poland. He called on the scientific community to discuss and to further unbiased research. The Czech judicial system denied Dr. Josef Skala the basic rights to present his historical documentary evidence and invite scientists who share the opposite point of view to a scientific discussion. What is the most interesting thing about this question? The persecution of Dr. Josef Skal began exactly three weeks after the Communist Party of the Czech Republic and Moravia nominated him for the post of President of the Czech Republic, which makes one think that this persecution of an independent scientist-historian is based on facts of political pressure and has nothing to do with science. What is this, if not a witch hunt organized against him? Dr. Josef Skala is widely known outside the Czech Republic as an excellent analyst and professional with a capital letter with brilliant scientific works. If the political force of the Czech Republic is engaged in outright pressure on scientific research and instead of entering into a discussion uses the apparatus of violence, then such pressure on science can lead to the sad result of the most famous dystopia of George Orwell's novel «1984». This is unacceptable.

       We are well aware of the results of scientific works that Dr. Josef Skala has openly presented in recent years, and we are one hundred percent sure that all this is related exclusively to fundamental science. The opinion of our colleague has been repeatedly confirmed by historians from all over the world, including Russia itself. The personal opinion of Dr. Josef Skala cannot harm the security of the Czech Republic and is not pressure on democracy, it increases the prestige of Czech science in a world where everyone has the right to have their own private opinion on certain historical events. In this situation, we independent researchers and scientists are not only afraid for the fate of our colleague, we simply do not understand how to carry out research work in the Czech Republic and Moravia in the future, because such court decisions drive science into the Stone Age.

       The most terrible thing in this situation is the influence of the created atmosphere in your country on the Czech youth. After this incident, all decent students with conscience and common sense will leave science. A number of scientific areas that are critically important for creating the fundamental foundation necessary for the history of the future, and if the history of the past is distorted, and people trying to find the truth will be persecuted, then there will be no history of the future for the Czech Republic, because young and honest historians will be afraid to engage in such research. Young specialists understand that this can affect any scientific discipline, which makes working in science unattractive for them. Scientific schools cannot exist without a constant influx of young people. The decline in the level of research associated with the aging of scientists, the destruction of the continuity of generations of specialists, will not manifest itself immediately, but will gradually become irreversible and rapid, which will be disastrous for the Czech Republic.

       Dear colleagues and friends, citizens of the Czech Republic, we ask you for help! We ask you to help us understand the situation when they are persecuted for the right to have their own private opinion. We are confident in the innocence of Dr. Josef Skala. For what they used to be awarded in the field of science, today they begin to prosecute. Mr. President Petr Pavel, are you trying to impose the establishment of a fascist dictatorship on Czech civil society when private opinion is at odds with official opinion? Something similar happened in the period 1933-1945 of nazi Germany. Is this sabotage and terror against Czech science and independent scientists and researchers? The shameful trial of Dr. Josef Skala is a trial of the entire Czech historical science. Moreover, it is a judgment over common sense. It turns out that history is not a place for discussion, and historical scientists cannot have their own point of view, their own position, although all this is guaranteed to them, as scientists and all citizens of the Czech Republic and Moravia, by the Constitution of your state. Moreover, for the fact that scientists defend their own point of view, they, following, according to your logic, should be judged for extremism? If today the position of Czech politicians finds support in government structures or in society, then tomorrow historical science in the Czech Republic and Moravia will be finished once and for all. Any scientific discussion risks turning into an endless litigation, where the historical truth will be clarified with the help of counterclaims and pressure from the security forces, and after that the rest of science will perish. Do you, as the president of the country, want to plunge the advanced scientific thought of the Czech Republic and Moravia into the times of the «dark» Middle Ages, when scientists who entered the annals of history were burned at the stake for their private opinions?

       Turning to the public opinion of the citizens of the free Czech Republic and Moravia, I would like to quote separately the historical quote of the German pastor Martin Nemeller, expressed in 1946. At that time, he tried to explain the inaction of German intellectuals and scientists and their non-resistance to the Nazis:

       «When the Nazis seized communists, I was silent: I was not a communist.

       When they imprisoned the Social Democrats, I was silent: I was not a Social Democrat.

       When they grabbed union members, I was silent: I wasn't a union member.

       When they came for me, there was no one to stand up for me».

       Do you want a repetition of historical events? We believe that the extensive harassment of the scientist-historian Dr. Josef Skal is a blow to Czech science, which takes its own position on a number of scientific issues, which does not suit certain forces in your society. This is also the desire of the same forces to ban a number of historical topics, to intimidate the historical community. The persecution of Dr. Skal is becoming a precedent for a new totalitarian inquisition for «thoughtcrime», similar to the repressions that people who critically comprehend the sacred number «6 million of the Holocaust» are now subjected to. All this creates the danger of a new, «pseudo-democratic» falsification of history and the establishment of a totalitarian regime.

       We, independent scientists and researchers from Russia, the USA and Europe, as well as civil activists, protest against the prosecution of the historian, Dr. Josef Skal, who has been engaged in his scientific research for many years. We see clear signs of provocation, dictatorship and fascization in the actions of the Czech judicial system. We believe that the persecution of the Czech scientist is a political order in order to discredit his good name and stop his scientific activities. We protest against the campaign unleashed in the media to defame Dr. Josef Skal and demand to rehabilitate his honest name, as well as to restore the rights of any person given from Above to have their own opinion. We demand professional independent scientific discussion, and not pressure on the power of thought with the help of the apparatus of repression. We ask public organizations in the Czech Republic who consider themselves part of civil society to support our letter and protest against the persecution of Dr. Josef Skal. Freedom of expression is the main promise of bourgeois democracy, which is constantly under increasing attack in all countries of the world. Arrogant authorities are beginning to persecute even academic research. When censorship is not enough, and there are no counterarguments, dissent is criminalized by suppressing the will of a person by the apparatus of violence.

       We believe that this fact of persecution of a scientist from the Czech Republic is simply a blatant case against historical facts and this is unacceptable in the field of science. The politicization of scientific activity leads to the degradation of science as such. If the facts interfere with the theory, then it is necessary to throw out the theory, and not include repression against the facts. We, independent scientists and researchers from Russia, the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», the «Prometheus» Research Group, the Noospheric Public Academy of Sciences and the «Aruba Wellness Center» (Center for Development, Health and Longevity) from the United States, fully support our colleague, a scientist-historian, independent researcher, public and political Dr. Josef Skala, and we demand that you immediately stop mocking common sense and logic, juggling facts and falsifying historical documents. It is necessary to publicly apologize and rehabilitate Dr. Josef Skal, a prisoner of conscience and honor.

       President of the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», full member of the «Prometheus» research group V. I. Gorbunov.

       Head of the «Aruba Wellness Center» (Center for Development, Health and Longevity), honorary member of the «Prometheus» research Group D. I. Bashkinov.

       Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, academician of the Noospheric Public Academy of Sciences, full member of the «Prometheus» research group L. A. Gorelikov.

       Candidate of Technical Sciences, Professor, «Honored Inventor of Russia», full member of the «Prometheus» research group, representative of the «Aruba Wellness Center» (Center for Development, Health and Longevity) V. S. Kralin.

       Candidate of Geographical Sciences, Associate Professor R. A. Yushkov.

       Associate Professor, full member of the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», member of the «Russian Geographical Society», head of the research group «Prometheus», representative of the «Aruba Wellness Center» (Center for Development, Health and Longevity) V. A. Sivokon.

       Associate Professor, full member of the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», member of the «Russian Geographical Society», full member of the research group «Prometheus» S. V. Lataev.

       Full member of the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», full member of the scientific research group «Prometheus» V. I. Reason.

       Full member of the ANNO «International Academy of Sciences», full member of the research group «Prometheus» K. G. Pomytkin.

       Russian writer and poet, editor of the magazine «Rusich», editor of the newspaper «Moskovskie Vorota - A second wind» I. V. Kulebyakin.

       Russian writer-publicist, historian, philosopher, member of the «Union of Writers of Russia» A. P. Blagin.

       Independent researcher, futurist, historian, Russian writer and publicist M. Y. Kuznetsov.

       Russian writer, four-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, winner of the Nobel Small Gold Medal in literature, veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs A.V. Malyshev.