My parents resisted joining the JZD (Unified Agriculture Cooperative) until 1958.
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Karel Drozda was born on 10 March 1938 in Skalka near Pivín in the Prostějov district. He had a younger brother Miloslav. His father farmed eight hectares of fields, his mother took care of the household. At the end of the war he experienced a fierce battle in the vicinity of the village, where the German army took up defensive positions that were shelled by the advancing Soviet and Romanian armies. The Drozdas lost their house and their father had to build a new one after the war. After February 1948, his father continued to farm privately, and both parents joined the JZD (Unified Agriculture Cooperative) in 1958. Karel Drozda graduated from the municipal and town school and wanted to continue his studies at the industrial school. However, he was not admitted due to a bad personnel report. It was not until 1955 that he was given the opportunity to extend his education in Kojetín in the apprenticeship of a grower-keeper. From 1958 he studied at the secondary agricultural school in Prostějov and worked at the Skalka collective farm. After the war he enrolled at the University of Agriculture in Brno. During his studies he got married and a few days before graduation in July 1965 his son Petr was born. As a graduated agronomist he joined JZD (Unified Agriculture Cooperative) Želeč, in the second half of the 1960s he changed various agricultural cooperatives in the Prostějov region. Throughout his working career, he refused to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which caused him problems with his superiors, who prevented his career growth or blamed him for cooperative failures. During the Prague Spring, Karel Drozda briefly became chairman of the cooperative in 1969. During the period of normalisation he participated in the creation of a large cooperative agricultural unit, which included several cooperatives from the municipalities of Ivaň, Obětkovice, Tvorovice, Klenovice, Pivín, Telčice and Skalka. The unification of cooperatives was inspired by the example of the GDR. It also experienced the establishment of associated production at the JZD following the model of the JZD Slušovice. After 1989, he participated in the transformation of the merged JZD Klenovice into an independent Agropodnik. At the beginning of the 1990s, he also experienced mostly unsuccessful attempts to rebuild former private farms in the Prostějov region. Karel Drozda worked in agriculture until his retirement.
