1989 was a big milestone for me
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Milena Markusová was born on 22 January 1948 in Sezimovo Ústí as the eldest of three children of Mr and Mrs Vlasák. In the first half of the 1950s, the family moved to Horní Slavkov, where her father began working in uranium mine. Milena Markusová started primary school there, where she was instilled with a love for the Soviet Union from the first grade. Especially her mother did not advocate it. At the beginning of the 1960s, the family moved to Tachov, where father got a job as a manager in the uranium mine in Zadni Chodov. Milena Markusová started high school there, listened to music on the radio station Free Europe and enjoyed the relaxation during the Prague Spring. On 21 August 1968, her parents woke her up in the night to the news that the republic was occupied by Warsaw Pact troops. She then encountered tanks in the city, people discussing with the soldiers and mostly not wanting to provide them with water or food. At that time, her father refused to let the occupying soldiers into the uranium mine area, had roadblocks erected and went on strike with his colleagues. For this he was sentenced to five years in prison in the late 1960s. At that time Milena Markusová passed the entrance exams to the Czech Technical University in Prague. After graduating from university, she began working at the Research Institute of Polygraphy, where she met her future husband. After her maternity leave, she started teaching German and later English. During the Velvet Revolution, she and her family took part in a demonstration on Wenceslas Square. In 2023 she lived in Prague.
