Vlasta Bůtová

* 1933

  • "Then, when we joined the agricultural cooperative, we had to hand over the cows and everything. In short, the Communists behaved badly. They did not evict my uncle, but he had to work on the state farm in Bělá pod Bezdězem. And because we joined the cooperative, they thought that we caused them to be affected as well. But that was not true. Because for our small farmer father, who was taking care of three children, it was a liberation. And my father, who de facto had no education, kept a diary from a young age where he wrote down all his expenses, so he was the first accountant in the cooperative. Thus, great hostility arose between my family and my uncle. My uncle, who had had those thirty hectares, was driving once when I was walking with my children from the railway station in Bělá pod Bezdězem, and he stopped behind me and said, 'So what, you puffy wretch?!' As a result, hatred arose between us as ordinary people and my uncle as a former landowner."

  • "I also remember the war times, how it all took place in our village. We had to hand over our milk. Mr Valenta would buy the milk in the former belfry, where the bell rang when someone died. My dad used to cultivate the fields with our cows, we had three cows, and when the cows worked, there was very little milk. During winter, we had more milk because my dad didn't use the cows for work. In short, my mother did not give away all the milk and secretly hid some of it. She collected the cream from the milk and secretly churned butter and curd from it. She would hide it in the pantry. She made a wall out of bricks and would hide the goods behind it from the inspectors who used to come to the village to see if anyone was stashing anything away."

  • “I remember how, in short, the Germans were running away through our village, and the Russian army was following them. They fled to the West, and my father made somewhat of a shelter in the basement because we expected they would bomb us. We had food and everything in the cellar and were hiding there.”

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    Hrádek nad Nisou, 04.04.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 58:12
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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Entering the Agricultural cooperative was a relief, but it drove a wedge between us and my uncle, the landowner

Witness in 1952
Witness in 1952
photo: witness archive

Vlasta Bůtová, née Hamplová, was born on December 28, 1933, in Plužná near Bělá pod Bezdězem into a family of a small farmer. She started attending the local elementary school in 1939 and later attended the town school in Bělá pod Bezdězem. As farmers, her parents had to make compulsory deliveries, but they would secretly hide some farm crops and milk. After the communist coup in February 1948, the family joined a unified agricultural cooperative. As small farmers, they gained many advantages by joining, but they came into conflict with their uncle, who was previously the largest landowner in the village and owned thirty hectares of land. He blamed them for the fact that the Agricultural cooperative confiscated his fields and forced him to work for the state farm. In 1953, the witness married Otakar Bůta, who later worked for Military Forests and Estates in Stráž pod Ralskem. She spent the year 1968 in Mimoň, where she lived in fear of the Soviet troops. After returning from parental leave, she first worked in a garden centre in Mimoň, later in nurseries and several kindergartens. After retirement, she and her husband moved to Plužná, where her husband founded a hunting association and devoted himself to beekeeping. At the time of filming (2022), the witness lived in Hrádek nad Nisou.