I photographed and reproduced a samizdat edition of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago
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Ladislav Vyskočil was born on 13th January 1958 in Strakonice. His parents soon divorced and he lived with his mother for some time, later with his father. His father was imprisoned in the 1950s for distributing anti-State leaflets, and after returning from prison he worked for various construction companies. His experiences and his personal experiences during the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 had a major impact on his son Ladislav’s relationship with the communist regime. In primary school, he refused to join the Pioneer, and at school he had difficulties because of wearing long hair and jeans. In 1973, Ladislav Vyskočil started to work as an electrical fitter at the Škoda factory, and from this position he moved on to secondary industrial school, majoring in communication technology. After graduation, he worked at ČSD, followed by two years of basic military service. During the war he also took part in training exercises in the Soviet Union, in the Kyzylkum desert. After the war he returned to ČSD, then worked in telecommunications. Through listening to Western music, the Prague Jazz Section and thanks to friends, he got into samizdat, which he began to multiply and expand. Since he was interested in photography, he photographed and reproduced, for example, the then samizdat edition of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago as well as other banned literature. Over time, he became acquainted with dissidents and chartists from Prague as well as people from the underground. Vyskočil participated in the production of the magazine Vokno, photographed and disseminated the statements of Charter 77, INFOCH, and continued to be active in samizdat. In 1982, the State Security began to monitor him for this. He was interrogated several times, threatened and physically assaulted, State Security officers followed him to his workplace, and in 1988 he was detained for 48 hours in Bory Prison. In the summer of 1989, he and his wife managed to travel to England. His wife wanted to stay in the West, but eventually they both returned to Czechoslovakia. In November 1989, Ladislav Vyskočil was one of the leading activists of the Civic Forum in Pilsen; he participated in the sounding of the square during the November demonstrations, their organisation and the spreading of information. After his personal disillusionment with the post-Soviet development, he withdrew from public life and became a photographer in a Pilsen brewery. He was awarded as a participant of the anti-communist resistance.
