Zdeněk Vlk

* 1933

Witnesses of local events connected to WWII, Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu
8. 5. 1945 - End of WWII, 23. 10. 1956 - Hungarian revolution of 1956 and fightings for independence, 5. 1. - 21. 8. 1968 - The Prague Spring
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    Collectivization affected the wife's parents

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    „Because it was necessary to increase production and abolish competition, i.e. private agriculture, exploiters, kulaks, etc., the unfortunate collectivization began, i.e. the subsequent occupation of farms and estates and, for those who did not comply, persecution. My wife and her family were lucky... her grandfather had leg disability, he couldn't walk and was a private greengrocer at the time. He grew and sold fruit. They came to him as one of the first: 'Václav, you will become an entrepreneur!' So they negotiated and negotiated and finally they offered him: 'We have a horticulture business here, you go and become the head of horticulture.' He resisted for a while, not wanting to do it, and offered it to his cousin. So the cousin became the head of horticulture of the unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) and the grandfather was offered a job as an accountant: 'Come here, you can count, you will be an accountant.' That was the command.“

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    On his candidacy for the Communist Party, he said: "No, I will not go."

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    „It was unfortunate because when we were younger in the SSM [Socialist Youth Union], we performed functions. When we got to certain positions from a professional point of view, for example, I was appointed head of the basic resources care department, so the condition was a university education or secondary vocational education with at least ten years of experience. And they asked: 'Member of the party?' When they started the candidacy, I said, 'No.' I was in the VTS [Scientific and Technical Society], so no one wanted that of me yet. When they started the candidacy, I said, 'No, I'm not going, for one simple reason, it's my opinion. I don't have the knowledge and I'm not mature enough to be there. Period.’ ‘If you can’t…’ Accordingly they stopped the procedures. I also had problems with school for my children. They took it as me not agreeing with the teachings of the VUML [Evening University of Marxism-Leninism] or whatever it was called. We endured it and it passed.“

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    One brother with the aviators, the other at the PTP (Technical auxiliary battalions)

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    „I said: 'Why did my brother go to PTP?' And he told me something in that sense that it was more about the qualifications, what they could get from which person, which weapon. My brother was a trained gardener and as a hardworking person, he went to the work units.“

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    The Soviet soldiers who camped at my grandmother's place were decent

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    „...on the contrary, because they were horsemen, when they left us, they left my grandfather a foal named 'Poběda'. They gave my grandmother about two bales of fabric for their stay. It was red-white and blue-white checked fabric, shirts were made from it. As a boy, I got my first ball, it was for volleyball, lighter.“

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    Hradec Králové, 19.05.2019

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They should have stayed home

Zdeněk Vlk in 2019
Zdeněk Vlk in 2019
photo: Post Bellum
photo: Post Bellum
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Zdeněk Vlk was born on June 15, 1933 in the village of Chýšť near Pardubice. He spent his childhood in Zábědov near Nový Bydžov, where he went to general school and where he also experienced the end of the Second World War. He remembers the Soviet soldiers of the cavalry unit who camped in the garden of his grandparents. His father made a living as a civil servant and the family moved often because of his work. After the war, they lived in Poděbrady, where Zdeněk was part of a scout troop. He graduated from secondary technical school in Hradec Králové, where he then started working in the company Zásobování vodou a kanalizace (“Water supply and sewage”), later called Vodovody a kanalizace, where he spent 46 years of his life. In the years 1955–1957, he served in the army with the 2nd Air Fighter Regiment. In 1956, he went through training at the Hungarian border during the anti-communist uprising. He got married in 1960. He refused to join the Communist Party, which limited his professional career. He did not agree with the Soviet occupation during the normalisation inspections. He was involved in the field of civil defence and in the scientific and technical society, otherwise he concentrated more on family life. He welcomed the change of regime in 1989 and is still interested in the political situation. In 2019, he lived with his wife in the village of Lejšovka near Hradec Králové.

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