"In Galena, Kofola was not produced as a drink, just a concentrate, a sugar solution that contained other ingredients such as raspberry extract, caffeine and coulour or colouring - caramel - to make it black. That's how it was made. The original recipe was a little bit different than Coca-Cola had, it tasted different, but it was black and it caught on quite well with us. Gradually the recipe was corrected for two reasons. Firstly, the caffeine content started to seem inappropriate because even children were drinking Coca-Cola. So the caffeine was gradually removed. The second reason was the need to make Kofola cheaper as more and more of it was being produced. So various substitutes started to be added and it was no longer the same. A colleague of mine, ten years older than me, once mixed the original and today's recipe to test the difference. There were several experts who worked to develop and modify the recipe. For example, Jan Pelka, who worked in the R&D department, was in charge of these particular beverage ingredients. He recently died. The one who is still alive is Dr Jaroslav Knap, aged ninety-four, who remembers the development of Kofola very well. Another expert is Milan Stuchlík, who is 10 years older than me. He did not work on it directly, but he had a subordinate, Honza Pelka, and was therefore in the department that developed Kofola and knew the subject very well. Of course, he was a pity for Kofola. He worked on the development of real drugs and he knew how to develop them really well."
"In the first year we were supposed to have a course on the History of the International Labor Movement. In the first lecture, the associate professor came in and gave us a ten-minute lecture, saying that history can be interpreted in different ways and that there was a reassessment of the recent history of the International Labor Movement going on and until then the lectures were dropped. After about a fortnight we learned that the associate professor had been fired and was no longer teaching at the school. A new department of the Institute of Marxism and Leninism was being built. They were recruiting new people from practice. In the index where the History of the MDH is written, I have an official erasure and instead we discussed Lessons from the Crisis, which was a document published by Husák. Well, we did. We had three lectures, then we had to write a term paper on this document, which was called 'The Kama Sutra' among the students, because the Kama Sutra is a lesson on pleasure, and this was also a lesson, so we made fun of it. Nobody took it seriously."
"I also remember the forced collectivisation. Our neighbour was a big farmer and had a sick wife. He didn't want to join the cooperative for a long time. Finally they forced him to join by having him deliver such a large supply that he was unable to meet it. Because he didn't meet them, they put him in jail. Because they locked him up just at harvest time, he couldn't meet the deliveries for the next year. And so it was."
Ladislav Cvak was born in Budkov on 3 May 1949 to Ladislav and Milusa Cvak. He spent his childhood in poor circumstances. His father had to join a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) in the 1950s and put his fields and cattle into it. Their neighbour Zelenka was imprisoned for failing to deliver. Ladislav Cvak met Greek children who were temporarily accommodated in the Budkov castle while he was attending school. From a young age, he gravitated towards the study of chemistry. After the Soviet occupation in 1968, he considered emigrating. After graduating from the secondary industrial school, he also succeeded at the University of Chemical Technology in Prague. He experienced pressure for students to join the Socialist Youth Union (SSM) to continue their studies. During the war in Mikulov, he was promoted to the position of chemical chief. He joined the pharmaceutical company Galena in Opava in 1977 and worked there until 2022 in the research department. In addition to ergot alkaloids, which are used for the production of drugs in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, he also remembers the extraction of herbs for the production of Kofola. At the time of filming in 2023, he was still an active chemist in a private laboratory in Opava.
Grandfather leading the cows to pasture. Photographed before he joined the Unified Agricultural Cooperative (JZD), as their cows were confiscated, photographed in the early 1950s
Grandfather leading the cows to pasture. Photographed before he joined the Unified Agricultural Cooperative (JZD), as their cows were confiscated, photographed in the early 1950s
Promotional postcard showing the library of the pharmaceutical company Galena in the 1960s. The library was later adapted into Ladislav Cvak's office, where he worked for 30 years. Standing on the right is Tomáš Elis
Promotional postcard showing the library of the pharmaceutical company Galena in the 1960s. The library was later adapted into Ladislav Cvak's office, where he worked for 30 years. Standing on the right is Tomáš Elis
Photograph of Ladislav Cvak with ergot from the early 1980s, which was used on the front page of the periodical Mladý svět. An article from this journal on ergot alkaloids is in the supplementary materials
Photograph of Ladislav Cvak with ergot from the early 1980s, which was used on the front page of the periodical Mladý svět. An article from this journal on ergot alkaloids is in the supplementary materials
At the 1992 World Conference in Basel. From left: Josef Stuchlík, Ladislav Cvak, Lubomír Markovič, Dr. Protiva and his wife. Dr. Protiva was an important figure in drug research at the Research Institute of Pharmacy and Drugs in Prague and one of the founders of psychopharmaceutical chemistry.
At the 1992 World Conference in Basel. From left: Josef Stuchlík, Ladislav Cvak, Lubomír Markovič, Dr. Protiva and his wife. Dr. Protiva was an important figure in drug research at the Research Institute of Pharmacy and Drugs in Prague and one of the founders of psychopharmaceutical chemistry.
