Milan Kundera was born April 1,1929,in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), the son of Ludvik and Milada Kundera. He studied music with Paul Haas and Vaclav Kapral and attended Charles University in Prague. He studied film at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague, where he later held a position as assistant professor from 1958 to 1969. He was a member of the central committee of the Czechoslovak Writers Union from 1963 to 1969.

In 1962 Kundera began writing his first novel, The Joke. The book caused problems with the national censors, and consequently it was not published until 1967 (the English edition was first published in 1969). Kundera's frustration with the censors climaxed with a speech he gave at the Fourth Czechoslovak Writers Congress. However, Kundera and others who followed his lead were subjected to even more oppression.

For a brief period in 1968 known as the "Prague Spring," the...