They brought us there and said, the less you know, the better
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Blanka Vítková, née Kroneislová, was born on 4 August 1961 in Zlín (which was called Gottwaldov at the time). After successfully graduating from the Faculty of Economics of the Mining University in Ostrava, she found employment as an accountant at Slušovice United Agricultural Cooperative (famous as one of the most successful and prosperous enterprises during the Communist period - trans.). In October 1988 she married Radomír Vítek, who had signed Charter 77 the year before and was in touch with the dissidents around Stanislav Devátý. In May 1987 several dissidents from Zlín established the Society of Friends of the USA (SPUSA in Czech), and the Víteks also became members and joined in the society’s activities. Blanka Vítková took part in several anti-regime demonstrations in Prague and also helped print samizdat literature, especially the SPUSA Magazine. For instance, she secretly procured - otherwise largely unavailable - cyclostyle paper at work, and she also copied out various samizdat texts on a typewriter. After the fall of the Communist regime, she quit her job in Slušovice in 1991 and worked as an accountant at Unispol. In 1999 she gave birth to a son, Tomáš. After maternity leave she worked as a freelance accountant for small firms; for the past few years she has worked in the Department of Finance and Documentation at House Administration Zlín Ltd. In 2013 her marriage collapsed. As of 2017, Blanka Vítková still lives in Zlín.
