Marie Vitušková

* 1949

Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu
21. 8. 1968 - Invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, 17. 11. - 29. 12. 1989 - The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
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    August 1968

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    “1968, well, that was a great time. I had just graduated from secondary school. But the 21st August was a complete blow to me. I even wrote a poem about it, about what it meant to wake up into a foggy morning. Basically, nobody knew what was happening. I, as a young woman, felt a great urge to do something about it. I certainly would have, if I had had some options. Maybe I had them; well, maybe I did not know the right persons. I had absolutely no clue what was happening. But I do remember one thing: I felt so split, and I feel so even now because I have always preferred to be on the side of justice rather than to resort to some scheming and finding a way out. And so, I remember this precisely, I wanted to write a letter to the president; Ludvík Svoboda was the president at that time. I was lucky that I had not done it, otherwise I would have probably screwed up my life and the lives of my children. So it was well that I had not been active in this way. But I suffered because of it and for all those years I was waiting for deliverance and I hoped that the situation would change.”

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    November 1989

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    “Then there was 1989, and it took us by surprise, too. Around 17th November, we were in a friend’s home in Prague. On the 17th we were in her flat and we did not know what was happening in the city. But her boyfriend took part in it. On the following day we planned to go to the downtown. We decided to go to see some galleries and so on. As we were passing through Wenceslas Square - that was on the 18th - the whole square was full of people who were gathering there, and there was a protest rally and as we were there walking on the side toward the galleries with my daughter, she was so scared because the people were chanting a rhyme: Those who stand on the side walk betray the country! She asked me: Mom, what are we doing? She was a little girl. It was very intense. Then the ringing of the keys; it was on the Letná Plain and there were tons of people and we rang our keys. I remember that it was – 25° or –20°C, it was freezing terribly, we were frozen like icicles and suddenly we felt enormous strength within us and we could feel the change which then took place. Just to illustrate, there were so many people that I felt my life was in danger when we then got to a metro station and there were so many people riding on the metro and we were squeezed in there like sardines.”

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    Life motto

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    “I would like to call on the people: I have a vision that by their acting, people should always get a bit higher and have a better life. To be happier and more content. Sometimes, people cannot envision the consequences of their actions and their impact on nature and other people, because people harm mostly one another. By the way they treat those around them and their neighbours. It brings nothing good. It does not make sense to discuss bad things in too much detail, but they are here and they are lurking somewhere. What matters is to realize the very core of our being and the reason why we are actually here. In order to advance something somewhere. It is for the future. It is for the others as well. It does not mean that we are born and after us, the deluge. One needs to think about the others, too, and about our posterity. This is what I see as a really big problem nowadays, a global problem. Because people are greedy, selfish and vengeful. Naturally, it is important to see the good qualities as well, and it depends on whether we let the good or bad prevail, and which of the two will remain on top.”

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    Vejprnice, 08.03.2015

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A woman has one chromosome more than men, and that’s why she can endure more, and perhaps that why they give us more to put up with

Vituskova orez.jpg (historic)
Marie Vitušková
photo: sbírka pamětnice
photo: sbírka pamětnice
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Marie Vitušková, née Vilímková, was born July 27, 1949 in Pilsen. She has lived in the vicinity of Pilsen throughout her life, and she lived and worked in towns like Horní Bříza or Vejprnice. When she completed elementary school, she studied the Secondary Technical School of Ceramics in Karlovy Vary, specializing in artistic processing of modelling ceramics. She found a job immediately upon graduation from this school in 1968 and she started working as an operator in the State Ceramic Factory in Horní Bříza. Marie married in 1972 and she gave birth to twins - a son and a daughter. She divorced her first husband Rudolf Lédl six years later. Her daughter Kateřina was born in her second marriage with Alexandr Vituška. But even this marriage resulted in a divorce after six years. Marie stayed as a single mother with three children. Later she worked in the Research and Development Centre and then in the State Ceramic Factory in Horní Bříza in the department of technical normalization. In 1989 she had to leave her job and since that time she has been earning her living as a private entrepreneur. She owned a shop with ceramic products. Recently she works as a financial advisor and real estate broker.

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