Several years as a nuclear physicist in the USSR
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Jiří Bystrický was born on 7 April 1938 in Pilsen. His father was a Russian who managed to escape the Soviet Union and settle in Czechoslovakia. He married there and lived with his family in western Bohemia, which was liberated by the American army at the end of the Second World War. Therefore, he was probably not taken back to the Soviet Union like his Russian friends living east of the demarcation line. After primary school and high school, Jiří Bystrický studied mathematics and nuclear physics in Prague. In the 1960s, he spent several years abroad, e.g. for several years in the Soviet town of Dubno, where a scientific town was established where experts from all socialist countries were concentrated. In 1967, thanks to the political relaxation in Czechoslovakia, he got an internship in Cern, Switzerland, where he and his wife were caught in the August 1968 occupation of the Czechoslovakia. The French showed interest in his work and offered him a very good position and working conditions in a research institute south of Paris. However, the Czechoslovak authorities did not agree to the offer, so Jiří Bystrický and his wife decided to emigrate. In Paris, like his wife, he quickly became involved in the local Sokol - regular exercises, organization of balls and Czech lunches, programs for children and youth. For several years he served as mayor of the Sokol community and was in contact with many Czech emigrants. He also worked scientifically in Canada and the United States. He has two sons and a daughter, and settled with his family in the town of Gif-sur-Yvette.
