"The Disfigurement of the West or The Tragedy of Central Europe" was published in the French magazine Le D é bat in November 1983, and was immediately translated into most European languages, having an impact inversely proportional to its brevity. Twenty pages that sparked a flood of reactions, discussions, and controversies, primarily from Germany and Russia.

While in the West, it contributed, according to a formulation by Jacques Rupnik, "to the reshaping of the intellectual map of Europe" before 1989. At a time when the West viewed Central Europe as part of the Eastern bloc, Kundera fiercely reminded it that Central Europe culturally belonged entirely to the West and that, in the case of these "small nations" that did not have their historical and political existence completely secured (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia), culture was and remained the vital center of their identity.

Today, this historical text is made available to readers, and, in a dramatic coincidence, just a few months after its first publication in book form (Gallimard, November 2021), it becomes tragically relevant and acquires new dimensions in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The edition is prefaced by another historical text, almost unknown, the inaugural speech of the young Kundera at the Conference of Czechoslovak Writers in 1967, a year before the Russian invasion that dismantled the famous Prague Spring and the country's independence.

Milan Kundera was born in the Czech Republic. He has been living in France since 1975.