Františka Lysoňková

* 1942

  • „We marched from the village, I was still a child, I was in school at that time. Along with the parade, two tractors with plows drove, reaching the hill, where it was determined that the field would be made into one whole. They then plowed it. There used to be such noodle fields on those hills above us, they belonged to different owners. At that time, however, the borders were plowed so that the large units could be cultivated by tractors. There was a lot of fun around it, music was playing.“

  • „During those checks... They wanted to give me a chance, but I didn't care. Then they called me a second time and everyone looked under the table as they spoke to me. I told them, 'And why don't you look me in the eye?' I have this kind of principle, if I'm right, I look the other in the eye. But their eyes couldn't bear to look. Everyone stared under the table. I gave them the example of my dad and my father-in-law. They believed the Communists, but they no longer trusted them. And they are not teenagers or children, they are old men and they have experience, but they no longer want to be with the communists. And so I ended my relationship with the communists.“

  • „There was definitely propaganda in the 1950s. I got there at a time when this was over. The revival process was beginning slowly. I have been there since the age of 59, you know, it was written about a resolution from the plenary session and so on, but it was much worse there after the age of 69, when the omnipotent ones came there. They didn't know Czech, they couldn't write, the editor-in-chief was a former censor, and he also harassed me. He got punched in the face a few times and that was that. I told him, 'You won't give up, and yet you're my dad's age.' Then I solved it by going on maternity leave. But it ended badly, I didn't have the baby.“

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    Bohuslavice, 23.04.2022

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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During the normalisation period they were throwing the capable ones out and replaced them with people who went to work to get drunk

Františka Lysoňková, 1949
Františka Lysoňková, 1949
zdroj: Witness's archive

Františka Lysoňková, born Svozilová, was born on February 3, 1942 in a Zlín maternity hospital, but spent her whole life in a small village near Zlín, in Bohuslavice. Her parents Františka and Josef Svozil worked working class jobs. Her father was a tanner and her mother was a shoemaker. Františka remembers the liberation of Bohuslavice in 1945 and her childhood spent in a Moravian village. For example, she witnessed the collectivization of agriculture and the plowing of borders in the 1950s. Both parents sincerely believed in communist ideas and in a fairer society under the leadership of the Communist Party. To lead by example, they helped out for free in an agricultural cooperative (JZD). Františka graduated from primary school in 1956 and then started a two-year economic school in Gottwaldov (today‘s Zlín). She found a job in Svit as a label puncher. However, she wanted to do a more interesting job, so when the opportunity arose to work as a scribe in the Naše pravda (“Our Truth”) editorial office, which fell under the Regional Committee of the Communist Party, she did not hesitate. She was in charge of advertising here. However, the condition was entry into the Communist Party, which she acceded to. She did not pass the examinations in 1970, but was not fired because she was a regular worker. She then worked in the editorial office until 1974, despite the unsatisfactory conditions at the workplace, when incompetent superiors joined the editorial office after the purges in 1970. Alcohol and harassment were the order of the day. Františka married Ladislav Lysoňek in 1961 and gave birth to three children; the second, however, died of a developmental defect after giving birth in 1974. This unfortunate event was apparently the trigger for depression, which developed into a severe form in the following years and she lived with it for thirty years. Františka worked in clerical positions in Prior (a department store chain in former Czechoslovakia) and footwear. She has a creative spirit, which is why she has been involved in the association activities of the municipality of Bohuslavice for several years. She planned and curated exhibitions and various cultural events here. Her lifelong hobbies are folk songs and folklore festivals.