Politics ruined our family’s life
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Vlasta Pavlíková, née Mikšovská, was born in Písek on 23 July 1934, the second child of Josef Mikšovský and Anna Mikšovská. Her brother Jiří was two years older. Her father came from a farmer family in Pečky and opened a brush plant after his marriage in Písek at Vinařického 5, employing up to thirty people. He had to close the plant after the German occupation in March 1939. He moved his family to Poříčany and bought a former brickyard farmstead. A Red Army unit took up residence there in May 1945. After the war, the family returned to Písek and the father resumed his business. The Drutěva cooperative took over the brush factory after the February 1948 coup. Brother Jiří was expelled from college after 1948 and the witness was not admitted to any school. In 1949, at age 15, she started working as a waitress at the U Tří korun restaurant in Písek (being the first waitress in Písek at the time). Her father Josef Mikšovský’s was arrested by the State Security in August 1952 and sentenced to six years in prison for treason in November 1953. He had allegedly collaborated with an illegal group linked to the exiled Christian Democratic Party. The family had all their property confiscated and Vlasta Pavlíková had to support herself and her sick mother. She worked at the brewery accounting office, at Jitex and then at a computer station in Tábor. Her father was released from prison after about four years with failing health. He then worked as a tyre repairer in Čížová near Písek, where he suffered a fatal work accident in 1960. Vlasta Mikšovská married Josef Pavlík in 1971 and moved to Lovosice to join him; they moved to Stará Boleslav later on. She retired in 1989. She avoided political parties, organizations and activities after her family’s experience with communist persecution. In 2026, she was living in Stara Boleslav.
