“I would say I had been working as this sort of accelerator while these things had been happening. As we have to admit that being a physician had been considered a prestigious occupation back then. That´s true. So if some factory worker would speak during a protest, they would applaud him. But if a physician would show up, no matter how young he was, the impact had been quite different. And if several physicians showed up, people realised there was this group of decent people they should be following. And that gave me strength, as I knew I was doing the right thing.”
“Acupuncture got the green light in the USSR, and as something would get the green light there, it would also get the green light in our country. In the 60s, several physicians went to the USSR to study acupuncture and they would bring it over here. And several local physicians took fancy in it and started to practice it. In 1976, there was this article in a journal stating that the technique had been officially approved. And as they needed some legal ground for it, the group of people who were doing it stated a course and they would teach each other. And after they completed the course and had the expertise allowing them to educate more people, they started this second officially approved course in the country which I had taken. There were about fifty of us. So today, I am among people with longest record in practicing acupuncture in our country.”
“It got worse after I started working at the hospital, but still I was quite lucky. I joined the surgical department at the Semily hospital in September 1978. Right after that, I befriended this orderly who was the most ardent anti-Communist in the hospital as I found out. And that did the job. No one would try to convince me that I should join the Socialist Union of Youth (SSM) or the Party. They had a clear idea about how things were with me. But after my first postgraduate exam in surgery, the human resources women stated that that was the end of my career. Back then, I was upset, as I was convinced that I would be a surgeon. But later, as I started doing acupuncture, I discovered functional medicine and I started doing rehabilitation. And no one would protest. So I passed the exams in 1986 and after just few more years there was the revolution.”
MD Miroslav Holub was born on May 1st 1953 in Ostroměř. His mother, Jindřiška, taught at a kindergarten, his father, Miroslav, had a degree in philosophy and taught history and geography at the gymnasium type secondary school. In 1950, his father joined the Communist party (KSČ) so he could keep his job, but later ended up in a custody due to political reasons, leaving the Party in 1968. Miroslav graduated from gymnasium and the Faculty of Medicine in Olomouc in 1977. After that, he had been working in Semily, where he had been preparing for postgraduate examinations in surgery. However, he hadn´t been allowed to take the exams due to his opinions on politics. He studied acupuncture and took interest in functional medicine and rehabilitation, passing the examination in 1986. In November 1989, he had been participating on the protests in Semily and was among the founders of the local Civic Forum (Občanské fórum) branch. For two years, he was the OÚNZ Semily director and had been serving as a head of hospital for three years. Since 1990, he has been a member of the Chuchelna village municipal government. In 1992, he started a private clinic specialising in physical therapy and rehabilitation. He has been practicing homeopathy and engaging with other healing systems. He has been giving lectures and also wrote several books on nutrition and holistic medicine.
