“On February 24th 1948 students on our high school were not on strike.”
Mr. Miloslav Bulva was born on November 30th, 1932 in Litomyšl as the son of a private farmer. Just like his parents, Mr. Bulva became a member of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. After the end of the WWII he becomes a member of the Scout Movement where he remained until the end of this organization in 1948. Just before the events of February 1948, Bulva, along with his high school classmates, participated in the revolt operation against the general strike which supported the communist ministries. After the communist party revolution he was one of the establishing members of the revolt group. This revolt group’s main task was to produce and publish the leaflets. The other members of this group were namely: Mr. Karel Metyš, Mr. Zdeněk Vašíček (both were his classmates) and Mr. Ota Rozkošný (student of the Engineering high school in Litomyšl). Later, two other men joined this group. They were Mr. Jan Pech (also student of the Engineering high school) and Mr. Bohuslav Chaloupka (a shop assistant). Mr. Bulva didn’t participated in the production process, because he got sick with pneumonia. The leaflets called for the organization of new democratic elections under U.N. supervision. Another leaflet printed was inspired by the ideas of President Edvard Beneš. It was probably during the summer of 1949 that this group was revealed and Mr. Karel Metyš was arrested. Half a year after the arrest of Mr. Karel Metyš, Mr. Bulva arrested as well. Before his trial in the summer of 1950, Mr. Bulva spent one month in custody in Pardubice, followed by another month, this time in Chrudim town jail. The state court trial with the ´ATA group´ - that’s how they referred to the revolt group of which Mr. Bulva was a member - took its place in October of 1950 in Smetana´s House in Litomyšl. The main leader of this completely artificial trial known as ´Stříteský and company´ was announced some Mr. Stříteský, the chancellor of the Apiarist house. According to the court, the ATA group intended to connect with the terrorist group known as ´Budislav town rebels.´ The ATA group was supposed to be collecting weapons in order to arrange a disturbance of the people’s democratic establishment. Mr. Miloslav Bulva was sentenced to one year in the Youth correctional center in Zámrsk, where he probably did agricultural labor. The regime in this center was built on the ideas of Makarenko’s “experiments”, or the re-education of youth with a strict daily regimen that focused on labor and political training along with maintaining order and cleanliness. After his dismissal a year later, Mr. Bulva wasn’t allowed to finish his studies. He could only choose from the two work branches: either the building industry or the mines. Mr. Bulva chose the building industry and started to work at the saw mill as a handyman. Later, after many difficulties, he managed to get a drivers license and became a truck driver for the next eighteen years.