Abstrakt
Acclaimed Czechoslovak travellers Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund (H + Z) spent a total of nine years on the road during their two long-lasting trips aimed at completing a round-the-world journey across five continents. During both trips they met various Armenians on their way in different countries and wrote about them or drew related sketches in their travelogues.
Meanwhile, between the first and the second trips, the phenomenal travelling couple also visited Armenia for a week in mid-October 1954. For H + Z this was preparation for their USSR tour, to be completed in a few years' time.
However, their 10 month-travels in the Soviet Union alongside many other rich materials were never published as they were silenced for 20 years. Not only most of the rich material from the second trip, but likewise those connected with the trip to Armenia remained in the archives.
This article aims to rectify and cover these gaps. It will introduce H + Z's trip to Armenia and piece together the Armenian stories spread throughout their travelogues, the developments surrounding those stories based on archival materials, all of their books, films, as well as their capacious interviews and letters.
Other related facts beyond just Armenia and Armenians will be introduced as well, to draw a wider picture of the travellers and trigger interest towards their books, which have not stopped being captivating and enthralling amongst the numerous modern travelogues of the current day.