"There was a training camp in Prague-Ruzyně, the preparation was not easy. Different vaccinations were required and we also had to get familiar with those diplomatic guidelines. So it took a long time. But when the armistice was signed [in 1950s Korea], we were quickly ready to go. Of course, we were also briefed on the origins of the conflict. It was claimed that the Americans started the war; the Americans claimed that the North Koreans started it. So we tended to believe what our people were saying, that it was a clash of world systems, communism and capitalism. And that capitalism is a regime that survives, that it is not just for humanity, and that therefore that's what these people are fighting for. To defend those goals, that freedom. "
"Let's say 80 or 90 percent of the people that after the capitalist First Republic and the fascist protectorate they were looking for a new life. That's what the Communist Party offered, that people would have dignity, that they would have jobs. People understood this and built socialism. And some who had, for example, great wealth or had relatives abroad, looked at it differently and resisted. But for the majority there was no oppression or persecution or punishment because there was nothing to do. They lived contentedly. I'm not in favour of punishment, I'm in favour of persuasion, of winning people over to a good cause, or what was wrong, let's condemn - I don't know, maybe milder methods could have been chosen, but again, would those things have been enforced at all? Let's judge the elements that were not good and look for better ways out of what is offered. That's where I see the way."
"It was only after 1948 that I joined [the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]. At that time the army was being built up. Young people were drafted under Section 38 of the Conscription Act for so-called long-term training. I was then with my family at the school in Kunice. I already had a daughter. So I joined. I also felt some compulsions, verbal or existential. Later I worked in the army in the training of military specialists, where I headed a workplace that was then the most modern in our country and in the world, because we also introduced so-called programmed learning. So it came from America, but it had the idea that the curriculum was divided into subparts and these were checked by feedback. So there was a certain reliability of learning which then allowed the transition to computers. There was the possibility of collaboration and support from the ministry, so I saw it as going in a good direction. In our country at that time, people, especially workers, saw it as a fairer system than what it was when people were doing corvee [robotovat, not in the historically correct sense of the forced unpaid labour]. So people felt a wonderful release and were happy to be seen as dignified individuals and felt freer and more respected. Today it's also interpreted one-sidedly. For example, the socialist labour brigade... back then, the goals and intentions weren't all bad. And I don't know why we've thrown away everything from the past. I feel that's a mistake."
Antonín Malach was born on 10 November 1926 in Kuničky, Blansko, into a very large family. He graduated from a teachers’ institute and after 1948 remained in the army as a conscript soldier and joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He worked at the army training centre, which was instrumental in the development of computer-aided education. He is the author of several publications. In the 1950s, he became a member of a UN commission to ensure the conditions and observance of the armistice on the war-torn Korean peninsula. He saw communism as a more just world order that provided dignity and work for people regardless of their wealth. He did not experience any coercion from the totalitarian regime personally or in his immediate vicinity. In his view, most people were happy in Czechoslovakia before 1989 and the country was prosperous. Today he sees rather a decline in many areas. Antonín Malach passed away on August, the 26th, 2023.
