ABSTRACT
In 1983, Milan Kundera wrote a compelling and highly polemic article titled “L’Occident kidnappe,” translated a year later into English under the title “The Tragedy of Central Europe.” Kundera insisted that Central Europe was a culture or a fate distinct from (Soviet) Russia. He saw Central Europe as the cultural heart of Europe and perceived Russia as an other civilisation. More strongly, he said: “totalitarian Russian civilisation is the radical negation of the modern West” (36). The problem for Kundera, however, was not Russia per se. The problem was that the West did not perceive Central Europe a European culture – and that is what he called the tragedy of Central Europe. To the West, Central Europe was the East because of its political system.
