Oldřich Bašta

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Oldřich Bašta was born on September 29, 1958 in Prešov, where his father served as a professional soldier. His mother was initially a housewife. When the family moved to Holešov, she worked manually in the TON Holešov company. In August 1968, his father, who held the rank of major in the garrison there, actively protested against the occupation because he was involved in the refusal to allow Soviet soldiers into the barracks. He was then transferred to Pardubice at the beginning of normalisation. There Oldřich Bašta graduated from primary school, after which he applied to the electrical engineering school, but was not accepted. He trained as a mechanical locksmith with a secondary school diploma and began to study at the Czech Technical University in Prague. From his apprenticeship years, Bašta constantly attracted attention and caused problems because of his long hair. At that time he was already regularly listening to Western and unofficial Czech music, participated in many alternative cultural events in Pardubice and its surroundings, and became a member of the Jazz Section. He left the CTU after a year of study and enlisted in the basic military service. During his enlistment he attempted suicide and after a stay in a psychiatric clinic he was given a deferment to join the army. He studied for two years at the CTU in Brno. After leaving school, he had to re-enlist and ended up in the psychiatric ward again. He was then discharged from the army. He found a job as a labourer. At the beginning of the 1980s, Oldřich Bašta became a member of an amateur theatre group, with which he managed to travel to the West twice, despite his activities in the underground and his first contacts with the Chartists. In September 1983 he took part in an unauthorised concert in Kunětice near Pardubice. During the police intervention he had a conflict with uniformed members of Public Security (VB). Together with five other people he was arrested and interrogated all night in Pardubice. Eventually they were released, but after a few weeks the prosecutor indicted the whole group. Bašta was given a 15-month suspended sentence for rioting and defamation of the nation. He entered prison in September 1984 in Hradec Králové, from where he travelled via Pankrác to the prison in Libkovice near Most, where he served as a co-educator of juvenile delinquents. He was released on May 9, 1985 on the basis of an amnesty granted by the President of the Republic. He found employment as a stagehand in a theatre in Pardubice. Until the end of the 1980s, he lived under constant surveillance by State Security (frequent interrogations, public perlustrations, bans on staying in Prague, revocation of his passport). In November 1989, he actively participated in the work of the Pardubice Civic Forum. From the beginning of the 1990s he worked as a journalist, then as an assistant to a member of parliament, and finally as a social assistant. After the fall of the communist regime, Oldřich Bašta was fully rehabilitated by a court decision. He received an award A participant of the anti-communist resistance.