Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was president of the Czechoslovak Republic from 1918 to 1935. General Photographic Agency/Getty Images

Citizens of the Czech Republic are waiting with bated breath for a longstanding mystery to be solved: What were the last words of the country’s revered first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk?

The final thoughts of the statesman, who governed the Czechoslovak Republic from 1918 to 1935, are believed to have been recorded by his son Jan Masaryk just before his death in September 1937 and have been sealed in a letter ever since, according to Czech public radio, which has set up a special section of its website to cover the opening of the envelope on Friday.

Historian Dagmar Hájková, head of the department of modern social and cultural history of the Masaryk Ins

See Full Page