"I worked, as I said, for the corporate director at Mucha. And now this situation came up, so I took the position that the Russians came here, they occupied us here. And here it was flying, tanks, and I don't know what. So I protested, I called my friends. My friends and I leafleted against it and we made a march to Klet'. Of course, the neighbor in his house, when I was putting these protest leaflets in his mailboxes, saw me from upstairs and turned me in. So I was immediately kicked out of my job at Mucha and went to the woodshed."
"We were convicted, of course, at the court in Krumlov. Of the four of us who were there, who were involved, I got the maximum sentence of six months. And the others got a month each because I didn't recant what I did. Well, six months. Then they kicked me out of my job and I made a living with my hands. I went to the quarry then I left the factory. There I started working as a gunner, then they sent me to Zlín (Otrokovice, ed.) for a month. I shot small stones, maybe two hundred a day. The guys drilled it, I rolled it, I blasted it."
"That's where we used to meet as boys, herding cows. We had tennis, we played football, we learned technique there. So we made bonfires, grazed the cows at that. In the fall, we'd steal potatoes from the fields. Then we'd roast them, warm ourselves by the fire. Well, I had a perfect childhood. There were ten of us kids at home (10 people, 8 kids and two adults, ed. note) and we grew up in one room four by four, two beds, one crib, there was always the smallest one. And we slept two like this and two like that to fit in. Well, we had a perfect childhood."
Vladislav Palkovič was born on 1 January 1939 in the village of Lamač near Bratislava, Slovakia. He grew up in a large family in poor circumstances. From childhood he was involved in sports and eventually began to run competitively and play football. He graduated from secondary school - dairy industry - in Kroměříž, then enlisted in the army in České Budějovice. He then moved to Prachatice, where he met his wife. He joined a paper mill in Větřní and joined the Communist Party. He disagreed with the occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and the following year he joined the preparations for the protest action. However, someone denounced him for distributing leaflets and he was interrogated by State Security and tried in court. The result was a six-month suspended sentence, expulsion from the Communist Party and a demotion in employment. He suffered an industrial accident while working with wood. He then worked in a quarry and, after completing his education, worked there as a gunner. After 1989 he became mayor of the village of Větřní. To this day (2019) he runs recreationally.
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