Abstract
The study reflects on the importance of the philosophy of individualism in interwar Czechoslovakia. It returns to Masaryk as a "beautiful" individual who became a model of the connection between individualism and freedom, as well as to the modulations of the relationship to it as discussed by Edvard Beneš.
The "younger philosophical generation" also defined itself against Masaryk and was often criticized for this by the followers of realism. The second half of the text focuses mainly on the rejection of individualism by the communists (Julius Fučík, Zdeněk Nejedlý) and the gradually built-up opinion that individualism is a pejorative term coinciding with selfishness.
This communist reaction became the orthodox definition for a long time, and individualism was understood as an effective defense against the proliferating totalitarianism only by a few later thinkers (for example, Ferdinand Peroutka).