"We also rehearsed for the Spartakiad on Sundays. Again, it was good that we got some extra food, salami and such. And vitamins. So that was decent. But it was demanding, very demanding. We rehearsed on the "buzerplatz" in every weather, even in rain, it did not matter. We were more in front and the "bigos" behind us. During the training, one jumped up and landed on the asphalt. He had some very difficult problems afterwards, very difficult."
"We mainly rehearsed for the show in Ruzyně. I've already read which planes are supposed to land. When does Lufthansa fly, what flies then and which arrives there. Our ears were freezing, it was cold albeit April was already ending. Heavy cold wind... so we applied various ointments on to the ears to prevent frostbite. We stayed in tents, the cold was extreme, we felt like dogs."
"I think it was better at the Spartakiad than at the show. I think that in Strahov there really was, when there were two hundred thousand people, every boy practised as much as he could, to the maximum. And it was wonderful. I don't know why the Spartakiad is being criticized. Now there are "Sokol" rallies, it's possible too. It was such a communist holiday, but I think we really did our best. "
"There was also bullying, but I think I was annoyed by the gipsies there. They chased each other with axes. They had knives, they had knives on the bedside table. I was always afraid to enter that room."
Pavel Mahdal was born on February 7, 1964 in Uherské Hradiště. He comes from a peasant Catholic family from the village of Suchá Loz in eastern Slovacko. After the onset of totalitarianism, the Mahdals lost their fields and were persecuted by the communist regime. Pavel Mahdal trained as a metalworker and in 1982 joined “Slovacke strojirny” in Uhersky Brod. While working, he studied attended evening highschool in electrical engineering. A year later, however, he refused to join the Communist Party after consulting with his father, and the company stopped paying for school. He finished it and in 1983 enrolled in the compulsory military service. After graduating from the school for non-commissioned officers in Michalovce, he was sent to the border with West Germany to a combat unit next to Janovice nad Uhlavou. He was a commander of the team in the motorized rifle battalion and in the second year a commander in the reconnaissance unit. In 1985, he took part in a ceremonial military parade on the Letna Plain and soon trained in the soldiers’ division at the last Czechoslovak Spartakiad. He left the war with the rank of sergeant. After the war, he worked as a blacksmith in Slovácké strojírny, got married and had a son and a daughter. In 2020, he lives in Sucha Loz.
The mark on which they practiced the Spartakiad in 1985 was a valuable souvenir and lifelong monument for Pavel Mahdal and other soldiers from Janovice.
The mark on which they practiced the Spartakiad in 1985 was a valuable souvenir and lifelong monument for Pavel Mahdal and other soldiers from Janovice.
Remembrance of the war in Janovice nad Úhlavou - a Spartakiad mark, a military book and a picture from a winter exercise in Dobrá Voda. Pavel Mahdal is first from the left
Remembrance of the war in Janovice nad Úhlavou - a Spartakiad mark, a military book and a picture from a winter exercise in Dobrá Voda. Pavel Mahdal is first from the left
