"I was a party member, so they used that against me when they expelled me and deprived me of all functions, and I had to leave work immediately. Only thanks to the complete coincidence that Vladimír Mináč came to the chairman of Matica, who supported not only me but also other creative people. And he couldn't figure it out; Although he was a member of the Central Committee, although he was a deputy, he could not oppose the party's Martin district committee, the ideological secretary and others. It took me 3 years before I had to apply for an extension of my employment every month. So I got used to it, that after it stopped, I missed it, which is such a paradox, of course. Thanks to Mináč, I stayed as a researcher at the Institute of Biography, where other people also worked. Initially, we also had a decent workplace in Bratislava, where Dr. Strhan was also punished, but under the auspices of Mináč, Jožo Bžoch, a well-known literary critic, and others. "
"I decided to study Slovak or something similar, and I applied to Comenius University. Unfortunately, the situation in the village was such that there was one communist who did not give us good reviews. And he gave me such an opinion that despite the fact that I had straight As, I was not accepted to university. And I was supposed to go teach, I also had a decree to the village of Oravské Veselé. But one of my classmates, a football player, studied in Bratislava, and he told me that there were additional job interviews for the Pedagogical University. So instead of teaching, I went to Bratislava on September 1 for new exams, where I was examined and accepted by Professor Černušák, a well-known Olympian. So I passed the exams, came home, packed my things and went to Bratislava, where I didn't have accommodation, where I had nothing. "
"There was a bridge that crossed the river, and it was guarded by the Germans. German soldiers lived upstairs in our house - they were young men. But there was also a mountain nearby. Partisans also went there for provisions, food and some clothes at night. So back there, we helped the partisans a bit, the Germans were in the front. Fortunately, it ended well, although our house was shelled by the Germans during the retreat in 1945, but nothing happened. Nothing happened to our family because of the partisans or the Germans, and we had neither problem nor injuries. But I remember the war as a little boy. "
Augustín Maťovčík was born on August 19, 1937 in the village of Breza in the upper Orava as the first-born son in the eleven-member family of the farmer Jozef Maťovčík (1909 - 1973) and mother Emilie, née Kucekova (1912 - 1976). After graduating from the grammar school in Trstená and the Eleven-year high school in Námestovo, he studied at the University of Education in Bratislava in the years 1955 - 1959. From 1959 he worked in the Literary Archive of the Matica slovenská in Martin. From 1967 to 1968 he worked at the Institute of Slovak Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, then again worked at Matica slovenská in the Biographical Department, later as a long-term director of the National Biographical Institute. He lives in Martin.
