The communist regime ruined my chance for a happy family life
Stáhnout obrázek
Dagmar Viestová was born in Bardejov on June 28, 1948. Her father, Dušan Viest, was the nephew of the famous Slovak general Rudolf Viest, commander of the rebel army. After the communist coup, Dana‘s parents were imprisoned, where the unborn Dana also spent some time. In 1950, Dana‘s mother was imprisoned again and her grandmother had to take care of her daughter, because Dušan was also in prison again. Dana‘s mother returned when she was 3 years old and it took some time for Dana to accept her, as she considered her grandmother to be her mother. Since her mother could not find a proper job, they moved often. She started attending elementary school in 1954 in Strážské. At that time, her father returned from prison and her parents divorced. In 1963, she started attending the Secondary General Education School in Humenné. After school, she worked for a year at the magazine Ľud and in 1967 she entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Comenius University, where she studied journalism. On November 17, 1968, she participated in a student strike against the state of the country. In 1969, she participated in a hunger strike in protest for Jan Palach. Later, she had problems with State Security because of this and was advised not to continue her studies. In 1970, her son Boris was born, and in 1976, her son Igor. In 1971, she started working at Slovenka, where she focused on the topic of agriculture. In 1997, she also became editor-in-chief for a year and two months. She left her post due to the political and social conditions in the 1990s. Later, she worked for Ikar, also at Národná obrod and the daily Práca. In 2001, she became the editor-in-chief of the magazine Prekvapenie, later working for the weekly magazine Súvislosti. She retired in 2004, but still worked for a Czech publishing house, where she translated 5 monthly magazines into Slovak and did proofreading and interviews. In 2024, she received the M. R. Štefánik Medal, 3rd degree, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising.