Jaroslav Mazura

* 1935

  • „To jsem ještě chodil v Kostelci do školy a to bylo několikrát v týdnu, že u nás vysedávali až do půlnoci. Otec s nimi diskutoval a já také. Protože když říkali, co by se na těch mezičkách ještě vypěstovalo, tak jsem říkal: ‚No já jsem zvědavý, jak budou hospodařit oni‘. Protože ty mezičky tam měly také svůj význam. To se vidí dodnes, že ty velké lány přírodě moc neprospívají. A když se člověk v dnešní době podívá - ještě dones to tak funguje u družstva - že jedou s traktorem a jdou stříkat a nadělají ty brázdy jednu vedle druhé, tak to jim najednou nevadí, že tam zrovna polámali obilí a že tam nevyroste, a že se to znehodnotí. Ale nám vysvětlovali, jak je důležité vstoupit do družstva. A teprve když neuspěli, když už to trvalo dlouho, a nic, tak přijeli s vápnem do obce a v noci čmárali po barákách. Na naší bráně bylo napsáno: ‚Zde bydlí Mazura, kulak‘. Pak třeba na Kubíčkově stodole bylo: ‚Pane Kubíček, vaše místo je v JZD‘, a takové hlody. Bylo jasně vidět, že to vymýšlí lidé, kterých by si člověk neměl ani vážit.“

  • „Otec byl tak velkorysý, že si ani nestěžoval, nikomu si nepostěžoval. Úplně to chápal, že to dělají lidi, protože mnoho lidí takových, kteří sami hospodařit neuměli, tak ale když nám to brali, tak klidně si to rozdělili, jako kdyby to bylo jejich. Takže naše louky obhospodařovali sousedi a pro nás, co nám místo toho nabídli, tak to bylo na takových - jednak vzdálených nebo u lesa. Prostě když to zrovna někdo nechtěl, tak nám to dali jako záhumenku.“

  • “I have been working with dad in the field or my entire life. And when they chased me away from the field, they thought that if I would not be helping him, he would then have no other option than to join the cooperative. And Mr. Trejtnar then probably got quite a scolding from them afterwards, because he kept going there all the time and asking: ‘Comrades, what would you like?’”

  • “One day they even chased me, because I just happened to have the following sign, a rhyme, on the canvas of my truck: ‘It is beyond belief what a beast Brezhnev is.’ An they followed me. I watched them in the rear mirror and I thought: ‘What don’t they overtake me?’ They overtook me when we arrived to that place where there is the cross in the field above Helvíkovice. I think that they dared to chase me because the army was nearby. They did not see what I carried inside the truck, they only saw the sign on the outside. They overtook me, they jumped out of their car and one of them with a gun dived into a ditch. They made me stop. The commander, he was Polish and he probably understood what was written there, because he walked around the truck and he was looking at it. Then he came to me and he asked: ‘What does this mean?’ I replied: ‘What it means? None of us has invited any help here.’”

  • “When the comrades were establishing the Unified Agricultural Cooperative, there was great excitement about it. They tried to make people join (the cooperative - ed.‘s note) even by force. They were thus sitting in our house until midnight most of the time and they kept trying to persuade father to join the Cooperative. Because they thought that if he joined, then the others would sign it as well. He was a chairman of the National Unity and people therefore respected him. And so they kept explaining to us constantly what kinds of crops would grow on those field bulks.”

  • Full recordings
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    Slatina nad Zdobnicí, 06.10.2016

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    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Hradec Králové, 21.08.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 02:09:28
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
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I exchange bound Lenin for tied down Brezhnev

In a miner's uniform
In a miner's uniform
photo: archiv pamětníka

Jaroslav Mazura was born on May 18, 1935 in a farmer’s family who had traditionally worked on their lands in Slatina nad Zdobnicí for several generations. During WWII his father had to provide accommodation for German soldiers, and later for English and Soviet soldiers as well. The family spent the period of collectivization of farms under the pressure of officials who were persuading Jaroslav’s father to join the Unified Agricultural Cooperative. The pressure later intensified. Jaroslav and his brother were prohibited to study and Jaroslav eventually had to go to work in mines. An incident involving bullying conducted by a fellow worker - a member of the Communist Party - was followed by a court trial, which recognized the perpetrator guilty. This man then continued to harrass Jaroslav: he was sending him financial compensation together with threats written on the cheques. Jaroslav Mazura later worked as a keeper of breeding bulls in Kostelec nad Orlicí. He went through his military service in Slovakia, where he received a driver’s licence and where he also met his future wife. He spent most of his life working as a driver. Jaroslav became a widower and he later remarried.