Milena Markusová

* 1948

  • "Dad, I told you, he ended up working in uranium mine near Tachov. And when the Russians came, he wouldn't let them into the mine. They came there in those cars and they wanted to go in and dad had roadblocks made so they couldn't go in. And he said that he didn't want like, he had some technical reasons too, but he didn't want them there. And then he had big problems with that because those people in the uranium industry went on strike. They weren't sending uranium, because he was sending to the Soviet Union, so they stopped it, it was kind of complicated somehow, but anyway, my dad got arrested in the end, so he was in prison for five years. Unfortunately, my parents got divorced as well, but that ironically helped me in staying in college, otherwise those people, if they had a political prisoner in the family, they would leave those schools, they couldn't study. I know I wanted to work, when I graduated I had an offer at the Archaeological Research Institute and they almost would have accepted me, but then I got a letter saying that I hadn't told everything about myself and that's why they wouldn't accept me, and it was all because my dad was in prison."

  • "Then I took my university exams, and at that time, in the 1960s, the Russians came. And that like was unforgettable because at night my parents woke me up, woke us all up, that the Russians were here, the soldiers, my mom was, at two o'clock at night. And that was very strong, they came to Tachov too. I can see the tanks standing there, and these Russian guys, they had slanted eyes, probably from somewhere in the Caucasus, and people were climbing on the tanks, telling them why they came here and discussing with them. They needed water, nobody wanted to give them anything, somebody brought them water, even something to eat, somebody said why are you giving them this... It was so strong, strong, strong."

  • "I know it was in the spring, I don't know the exact date, and the day the plant blew up, we were on a trip. We were somewhere where Senohraby is, and it was hot, it was kind of weird all over, it was kind of strange hot. So we were just exposed to all that and then slowly we found out and it was like, the power plant blew up somewhere but nothing was happening, it didn't matter. But my husband, he had a sister in Germany, so she called from Munich right away and she told us to buy iodine, not to go to the playground, and she gave us all kinds of advice that nobody here had ever given."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 25.03.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:02:03
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

1989 was a big milestone for me

Milena Markusová's graduation in the Municipal House in Prague, 1973
Milena Markusová's graduation in the Municipal House in Prague, 1973
zdroj: Archive of a witness

Milena Markusová was born on 22 January 1948 in Sezimovo Ústí as the eldest of three children of Mr and Mrs Vlasák. In the first half of the 1950s, the family moved to Horní Slavkov, where her father began working in uranium mine. Milena Markusová started primary school there, where she was instilled with a love for the Soviet Union from the first grade. Especially her mother did not advocate it. At the beginning of the 1960s, the family moved to Tachov, where father got a job as a manager in the uranium mine in Zadni Chodov. Milena Markusová started high school there, listened to music on the radio station Free Europe and enjoyed the relaxation during the Prague Spring. On 21 August 1968, her parents woke her up in the night to the news that the republic was occupied by Warsaw Pact troops. She then encountered tanks in the city, people discussing with the soldiers and mostly not wanting to provide them with water or food. At that time, her father refused to let the occupying soldiers into the uranium mine area, had roadblocks erected and went on strike with his colleagues. For this he was sentenced to five years in prison in the late 1960s. At that time Milena Markusová passed the entrance exams to the Czech Technical University in Prague. After graduating from university, she began working at the Research Institute of Polygraphy, where she met her future husband. After her maternity leave, she started teaching German and later English. During the Velvet Revolution, she and her family took part in a demonstration on Wenceslas Square. In 2023 she lived in Prague.