Jaroslav Vinický

* 1963

  • "People who shouldn´t have been there (in the Civic Forum) simply started to appear, to have a strong say and to promote opinions that I could not agree with. I wanted debolshevisation to take place here, like denazification in Germany, and I didn't succeed, even though I discussed it with people at high positions. We failed. It was simple, in the beginning it was just a demand that former or current members of the Socialist Youth Union (SSM), the Communist Party (KSČ) and the People's Militia should not be allowed to participate in any kind of state or city management, that they should not be allowed to run for any office in elections. This seemed too radical to everyone. I said it would be radical if I wanted to start hanging them, not banning them from getting an office for five years."-"For five years?"-"Yes, and it would be clean."

  • "There were so many experiences there. Such weird things, like there was nothing to eat, in the shops there were only frozen fish and bad quality bread. There used to be a market and everything was sold at the market. My father only took me there only once, you weren't allowed to go there much without supervision. It stuck in my mind then that they were selling locks without keys and keys without locks there. That kind of crazy stuff. A huge flea market with all sorts of things."

  • "I remember only one election, my first. At that time I used to go to Karlovy Vary to see a girl, and I didn't want to vote, [but] my mother told me it would be a huge problem, so she got me a voter's card, and it still didn't turn out well. I found a poll room in Karlovy Vary, which was in the Thermal Hotel. I went to vote the way the long-haired young men used to in those days, in my leather sandals and with a sleeping bag over my shoulder. A girl, a Pioneer member, gave me a carnation, I looked around the room, there were such lovely booths, but not 3D, just 2D, only panels leaning against the wall. So I went over, peeked in, went back to the ballot box, tore up the ballot papers and threw them in. I was going down the stairs already accompanied by two gentlemen. They kept me there [in detention] from Friday until Monday, robbed me of all my money, everything I had, and let me out on Monday morning. So that I wouldn´t make it to work in time."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Olomouc, 15.06.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:35:37
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I wanted debolshevisation to be carried out after 1989

Jaroslav Vinický before starting his military service
Jaroslav Vinický before starting his military service
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Jaroslav Vinický was born in Vyškov on 26 June 1963, the only child of his parents Jaroslav Vinický and Jana Vinická, née Bláhová. His father was a test engineer of steam turbines in Brno, he used to go to the USSR for engineering assembly stays, where Jaroslav Vinický also visited him twice. His mother worked as a manager of a factory canteen. His paternal great-grandmother, a German from Sudetenland, was expelled after the war. His grandmother Gizela and her husband were allowed to stay, changing their name from the German Weintritt to the Czech Vinický. His maternal grandfather, Antonín Fila, lost his stationery business due to nationalization in the 1950s. As a child, Jaroslav witnessed the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. He graduated from secondary school, but did not finish the Brno University of Technology. He made his living as a programmer. During his adolescence and university studies he belonged among long-haired young men with anti-communist attitude in Vyškov and later in Brno. With friends he organised secret events and concerts. He was often interrogated by State Security and physically assaulted during interrogations. He had problems at work and during his military service, from which he was eventually exempted due to a stay in a psychiatric hospital. In Brno, he was copying samizdat texts and spreading the petition A Few Sentences. He was one of the founders of the Civic Forum (OF) in Vyškov. After the Velvet Revolution, he started his own business. At the time of filming in 2022, he was living in Olomouc.