DENNICE NOVOVEKU - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

DENNICE NOVOVEKU was the successor of Pokrok, a Czech rationalist weekly that was moved to Cleveland from Chicago in 1871. Brought here by its editor, G. B. Zdrubek, Pokrok (Progress) was located on Croton St. Although he had imported VACLAV SNAJDR† and humorist John V. Capek for assistance, Zdrubek abandoned Pokrok ca. 1875 and returned to Chicago to found the daily Svornost. Snajdr remained in Cleveland to establish Dennice Novoveku (New Era Journal) in 1877. An admirer of the American agnostic Robt. Ingersoll, he edited his weekly for the local Czech intelligentsia and arrayed it against the Catholic clergy, whose alleged perfidies were regularly exposed in a "Confessions" column. For a time his paper served as the official paper of the Czech Slavic Benevolent Society and the Union of Czech Women. Like Pokrok, Dennice Novoveku generally supported the Democratic party. Circulation peaked at over 3,000 in the 1890s, but high costs and delinquent accounts made the paper a marginal operation. In 1911 Snajdr apparently merged it into the newly formed Czech daily Svet and retired from active journalism.

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