Comrades wanted their fields to be vast
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elena Divoká, née Tikalská, was born on May 2, 1934 in Hranice near Nové Hrady, about five kilometers from the Czech-Austrian border. Her parents were working on their farm. After the Munich Agreement of 1938, the village had become a part of the newly established Sudetenland, a part of the Nazi Germany. Helena went to an elementary school in Hranice, after that, she had been working at her parents’ farm. After the communist coup of 1948, her father, Václav Tikalský, refused to join the agricultural co-op. In 1954, the witness married Karel Divoký. Her husband came from the nearby village of Hrdlořezy, where she had been working on a family farm. Her husband had been forced to join the coop as well. In 1958, Karel Divoký had been charged with larceny, he had been given a suspended sentence and his possessions had been nationalized. In 1961, the Tikalský family had to hand over their land and cattle to the State Farm National Company. Until her retirement, Helena had been working in dairy farming as a milkmaid. She raised four children with her husband. After the Velvet Revolution, she was given back her family’s fortunes. In 2020, Helena Divoká had been living in her house in Hranice.
