František Novotný

* 1961

  • "How are we going to print it? Tomáš Dvořák put us in touch with the Kaplans, where he used to go to pray, because he was part of the Taizé movement. But I wasn't involved in that. I went there expressly just to pick up information about the church. We already had a fellowship that was formed after I came back from the war. We divided it up, each of us writing maybe three or four pages on a bicycle-style membrane. Then on Friday I collected everything and took it to Tremošnica and there my wife and I and Venca and others reproduced it. We started with twenty pieces, but by the end there were over a hundred texts. It took maybe three weeks, three weekends, to get everything together. So it was quite challenging."

  • "It was also amazing in the sense that there were all kinds of máničkas (long-haired guys), underground ones. On the other hand, there were grandmothers in costumes from Slovakia and Moravia. The meeting was very special in that way, because it was a meeting of really very different people. On the one hand, grandmothers in costumes, and on the other hand, long-haired guys, and we who were not such long-haired guy. Although at that time we were a little bit. The communist Klusák, the then Minister of Culture, came there and started talking about the Cyril and Methodius tradition. That was embarrassing. He said, for example, 'Cyril.' And everybody started whistling and saying, 'Saint Cyril!' And he said, 'And Methodius.' And everybody said, 'Saint Methodius!' That's how he got it. I think he cut the speech very short and I think he was quite anxious when he left."

  • "There was no one there to collectivize everyone. When the order came from above, they said, 'We'd rather make our own arrangements and do it our way than have someone mess things up for us.' They set up a cooperative." - "In what year?" - "Definitely in the early fifties, right away." - "So maybe 1952?" - "1952, 1953. And of course they were also the head of the cooperative. One farmer was the agronomist, one was the zootechnician, one was the chairman, and that's the way it worked."

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    Praha, 24.05.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 02:02:20
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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I believe in human agreement, democracy and God

František Novotný in 1973
František Novotný in 1973
photo: Archive of the witness

František Novotný was born on 29 September 1961 into a family of small farmers, František and Jaroslava Novotný from Závratec. His childhood was greatly influenced by his well-read grandmother Emilka and her political views. The family farm belonged to the JZD (Unified agriculture cooperative), but in the small village of Závratec the cooperative functioned quite naturally and the life of the citizens was relatively much connected with religion. After graduating from the town school, young František entered the secondary school of electrical engineering in Pardubice and later studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In order to study, his father had to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. At university, František began to perceive the political situation more and to strengthen his anti-communist views. He and his friends listened to foreign and underground music, and he also turned more to his faith. In July 1985, he visited the pilgrimage to Velehrad. With friends and his future wife, he published and distributed samizdat Information on the Church. After 1989, he was involved in local politics, among other things, as a member of the ODA and a councillor, and later began working in a programming company. He and his wife Helena raised four children. In 2023 he was still living in Závratec.