The following text is not a historical study. It is a retelling of the witness’s life story based on the memories recorded in the interview. The story was processed by external collaborators of the Memory of Nations. In some cases, the short biography draws on documents made available by the Security Forces Archives, State District Archives, National Archives, or other institutions. These are used merely to complement the witness’s testimony. The referenced pages of such files are saved in the Documents section.

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Vasil Mohorita (* 1952)

I lived under pressure for twenty years before the revolution and for ten years after it was over. I was down and out mentally

  • +born on September 19th 1952 in Praha to a Czecho-Ruthenian family +his father Vasil Mohorita was born in Carpathian Ruthenia, was imprisoned in the Gulag camp and joined Ludvík Svoboda´s 1st Czechoslovak army corps +in 1968, Vasil had been graduated from the primary school at Strossmayer Square, he began his apprenticeship as a car mechanic +in 1970, he joined the newly established SSM (the Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth) +from 1971 to 1972, he completed the one-year course at the Komsomol University in Moscow +he was the SSM District Committee secretary +in 1977, he began to study at the at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ’ University of Political Sciences +he was the vice-chairman of the deputy chairman of the SSM’ Czechoslovak University Students’ Center +in 1986, he become the Czech SSM Central Committee secretary +since 1987, he was a federal ÚV SSM chairman; In 1988, he become the Party’ Central Committee Secretariat member +in November 1989 he was a member of the member of the Central Committee’ Presidium and the Party secretary +during the November 1989 revolution he led the negotiations with the Občanské fórum (Civic Forum) representatives and with Václav Havel +in December 1989 he was elected the vice-chairman of the Communist Party +in January 1990, he was elected the Federal Assembly member representing the Communist party +after 1991, he co-founded the Democratic Worker’ Party +he was the Federal Assembly member till the 1992 elections +in the 90s, he started a business +in 2000, as the CS Funds scandal broke out, he suffered a nervous breakdown and developed psychotic symptoms +he found mental balance again in Britain while working as a helping hand in a restaurant kitchen +he has been doing part-time blue-collar jobs in Britain and in the Czech Republic; he also lived in Spain and in Israel