He raised his hand in the scout salute. His photo has gone down in history
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Vladimír Svoboda was born in Prague on 15 March 1956. His father Jaroslav came from a family of Prague tradesmen and worked in the Holešovice valuables print shop after 1948. His mother Eva, née Dobiášová, left the family in 1961 and Vladimír and his brother would not see her. Later on, Vladimír grew up with his stepmother. In latter 1960s, he became a member of the 18th Water Scout Troop, going on scouting expeditions and camps. On 25 January 1969, he took part in Jan Palach’s funeral procession. When the procession passed him with the casket and state symbols, he raised his hand in the Scout salute. Photographer Miloň Novotný captured this moment in an image that was printed in many magazines and became a symbol of that distressing moment. The scout troop was disbanded in 1970, but continued to operate under the auspices of TJ Sparta for a while. Vladimír took up canoeing in the Zlatá kotva (Golden Anchor) club under the banner of the Socialist Youth Union (SSM). Completing primary school, he trained as a printer and completed graphic design high school in Hellichova Street after military service. He married in 1978 and had two children (1980 and 1982). He worked in the Holešovice valuables print shop until 1991; 1991 to 2005 he was a self-employed printer, and then worked in a print shop in Vestec. He was no longer involved in scouting after 1989 but his children and then his grandchildren joined scout troops. Members of Junák and the Scout Institute determined the identity of the “boy in the photo” in 2019 with the help of a public appeal.
