Career
Early years
Born in 1888 in Bohemia, Handlíř was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War. He was captured on the Eastern Front and became a Bolshevik following the October Revolution of 1917 and helped found a Czechoslovak communist group in Russia. Political career
Participating in a strike in December 1920, he was arrested, tried, and convicted to a short prison term in March 1921.
Following his release he helped found and then represented the newly formed Communist Party of Czechoslovakia at the Third Congress of the Communist International in June and July 1921, where he was elected to the secretariat.
He served in multiple organs of the national party and also headed the lumber workers" trade union. Along with Břetislav Hula and Miloš Vaněk he addressed the Executive Committee of the Communist International and further promoted a right-wing viewpoint in 1926.
While remaining a party member, he no longer held any leadership role and was expelled in 1929, following which he joined the Social Democratic Party. Death and legacy
Jaroslav Handlíř died in 1942.