Nikola the Outlaw

Ivan Olbracht's reputation as one of Czechoslovakia's most important twentieth-century authors stems largely from his works dealing with Ruthenia, a region that after WWI became part of the newly formed nation of Czechoslovakia. His interwar novels and stories deal with the tensions between the two major ethnic groups occupying the region at that time: the Ruthenians and the Jews. The invulnerable Nikola Suhaj lives a Robin Hood-like existence as he and his accomplices rob travelers and Jewish merchants. The authorities, failing in their attempts to capture the outlaw, dispatch a new police captain who puts out a reward on Nikola's head - and does not care if he is brought in dead or alive. The Jewish community responds with a reward ten times as large. The results are immediate: three of Nikola's former cohorts band together and attempt to eliminate him. Weaving myth with realism, Nikola the Outlaw is considered Olbracht's masterpiece.