Emil Doboš

* 1929

  • "I have to say this, because it is probably this that affected my poor colleague to get involved for me, and it went so far that I had to join the party if I wanted to continue my studies. What was I supposed to do? I had a baby, problems started because my wife was employed in education, she also started to have problems, and if I had not done this, I wouldn't have entered(that's like it, joining the party for the sake of joining it) ... So if I weren't a party member, I wouldn't have any "cover". After joining it, I was able to finish my studies. With that, the possibility of career advancement increased."

  • "I was happy to welcome that finally. In fact, I never believed that communism could last forever. But I have seen that it is being weakened by not allowing anyone to stand out. As if they maintained a certain level of the people so that they never surpass one another."

  • "As boys, we didn't even know the country and the world well, and we went home through Uzhhorod. We came to Vojan, we didn't know what to do next, it was cold, January, February, and we didn't know how to get home. We passed through Kucany, today's Oborín, where an uncle came on horseback to take us with cousin home. This is so memorable, it stuck in my memory, that we were returning home with suffering and fear between the occupying Soviet troops. They asked us for a "bumagu" - an ID - and we had nothing. It was a little wild."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Bystré, 29.11.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:02:45
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

He never believed communism could last forever

Emil Doboš during military service
Emil Doboš during military service
zdroj: Archív Emila Doboša

Emil Doboš, born on September 7, 1928, faced political profiling due to the designation of his father as the so-called kulak. The first Viennese arbitration attached Doboš‘s hometown of Ujlak near Trebišov (today‘s Novosad) to Hungary. After high school years in Subcarpathian Ruthenia during World War II and the vicissitudes associated with it, he continued to study mechanical engineering at the University in Bratislava. He was forced to interrupt his studies due to compulsory military service and enlisted in Mimoňa, (to Ostrava), where he worked in the mine as a member of the PTP. After returning to civilian life, he coincidentally acquired a job position at a cement plant in Bystre. As a married man and father, he tried to secure his family by obtaining a university degree and career advancement, in which he eventually succeeded at the cost of joining the Communist Party. Until the regime change, he was forced to hide his past in the PTP for the good of his relatives.