Bulldozerist-historian at the border
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Marián Kvarda was born as a son of Anděla Kvardová on 24 March 1948 in the village of Božice, near the border zone with Austria. His surname comes from the Czechoslovak legionnaire Stanislav Kvarda, who was Anděla Kvarda’s husband before she conceived him with his real father (whom he never knew). After finishing primary school, he went to work as a bulldozer driver for the state-owned Ingstav Brno. In the borderlands he witnessed the electrification of the Iron Curtain, the expansion of the border zone and the practices of border guards - from checking passengers on buses to hiding in bunkers. He even crossed the border with permission on a daily basis as a bulldozer driver during the Dyje river improvement project. Later, he participated in the construction of other large structures, such as the Nové Mlýny and Dalešice water reservoirs. In 1968 he became friends with several Soviet soldiers. After decades of operating heavy machinery after the Velvet Revolution, he was self-employed and bought three construction machines which he operated himself. In his spare time, he was interested in the history of the region, searching for the graves of Soviet soldiers and going on sightseeing trips abroad, including to the DPRK - where he was featured in the later documentary “Welcome to the DPRK”. In 2020, during a visit to Russia, he contracted Lyme disease, as a result of which he finally stopped working. At the time of the interview, Marián Kvarda was living in Bozice.
