Blanka Vítková

* 1961

  • “Through Radek [Vyoral - ed.] we found our way to SPUSA [Society of Friends of the USA - ed.], and we began transcribing books, printing and helping with the magazine [SPUSA Magazine - ed.]. I was there for the writing. I never authored anything myself, but I helped with the writing. I think I took copy paper from Slušovice [Slušovice United Agricultural Cooperative - ed.]. It wasn’t easy to get cyclostyle paper back then. You couldn’t just buy it in a shop. I wrote on sheets of carbon paper at home, which we then copied out on a cyclostyle at Radek Vyoral’s place. One time, we came to a barn in one village, and there were heaps of paper inside. We went and turned the loose sheets into books. Then someone glued it together. I remember I didn’t even know which village we were in. They brought us there and said, the less you know, the better.”

  • “State Security arrested us in Lány. Then back here in Zlín we were summoned for questioning by State Security. Luckily we had been instructed by Standa Devátý that we should refuse to testify, that we shouldn’t speak with them at all, so they wouldn’t catch us on something. So my husband and I got out clean by not saying anything. Some people thought that Slušovice Co-op was a progressive enterprise, but the management and Čuba [the managing director - trans.] were all in one boat with the stetsecs [State Security officers - trans.]. So the issue bounced back and came to my manager, who called me up and said: ‘Blanka, I don’t want to see this kind of thing again. What were you up to in that there Louny?’ They were ordinary village folk. That manager hadn’t a clue about how things were.”

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    Zlín, 05.09.2017

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    duration: 01:39:25
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They brought us there and said, the less you know, the better

Blanka Kroneislová (Vítková)
Blanka Kroneislová (Vítková)
photo: archiv pamětnice

Blanka Vítková, née Kroneislová, was born on 4 August 1961 in Zlín (which was called Gottwaldov at the time). After successfully graduating from the Faculty of Economics of the Mining University in Ostrava, she found employment as an accountant at Slušovice United Agricultural Cooperative (famous as one of the most successful and prosperous enterprises during the Communist period - trans.). In October 1988 she married Radomír Vítek, who had signed Charter 77 the year before and was in touch with the dissidents around Stanislav Devátý. In May 1987 several dissidents from Zlín established the Society of Friends of the USA (SPUSA in Czech), and the Víteks also became members and joined in the society’s activities. Blanka Vítková took part in several anti-regime demonstrations in Prague and also helped print samizdat literature, especially the SPUSA Magazine. For instance, she secretly procured - otherwise largely unavailable - cyclostyle paper at work, and she also copied out various samizdat texts on a typewriter. After the fall of the Communist regime, she quit her job in Slušovice in 1991 and worked as an accountant at Unispol. In 1999 she gave birth to a son, Tomáš. After maternity leave she worked as a freelance accountant for small firms; for the past few years she has worked in the Department of Finance and Documentation at House Administration Zlín Ltd. In 2013 her marriage collapsed. As of 2017, Blanka Vítková still lives in Zlín.