We refused to ask Husák for a pardon because we had done nothing
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Jiřina Bystrická was born on 16 July 1936 in Poděbrady into the family of architect Vojtěch Kerhart, who was a legionary in Russia during the First World War. Her mother Marie, née Švadlenková, died shortly after Jiřina was born. After the Second World War, her father married his widowed sister-in-law, whose husband died in a concentration camp. In 1947 Jiřina entered the primary school of the newly founded Jiří of Poděbrady College; however, after the communist reform of education she had to leave the school and return to primary school. In the 1950s she studied philology at Charles University in Prague, majoring in Russian and Bulgarian. In Czechoslovakia, she first made her living as an interpreter and guide, travelling with Czechoslovak tourists to Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. In 1961 she married mathematician and physicist Jiří Bystrický. From 1962-1964 they lived in the scientific town of Dubna near Moscow, where Jiří worked on the development of computers for nuclear research. Their eldest son Pavel was born there. In 1968, Jiří was invited to spend a year at the research centre in Saclay near Paris. They left in the spring of 1969. Czechoslovakia allowed them to extend their stay legally until the end of 1970, after which they decided to emigrate. Initially, Jiřina Bystrická took care of the children at home, then studied library science in Paris and worked as a librarian in an American school in Saint-Cloud. In 1977 she became actively involved in the activities of the local Sokol. These included regular exercises on the Sokol meadow in Gournay-sur-Marne near Paris, Sokol annual balls and lunches, a programme for children and young people of Czech origin, summer camps, etc. In 1982 she became chief of the Paris Sokol and took part in organising Sokol meetings in France and other countries in Western Europe. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jiřina also accompanied her husband on his scientific internships in Montreal and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Together they raised their sons Pavel and Michal and their daughter Eliška. In 2025, they lived in Gif-sur-Yvette, near Paris.
