I was born in a backwards country
František Černý was born April 6, 1932 in Klenovice in the Haná region. He came from a very poor family. His parents had a small farm, and his father became a member of the Communist Party after the war. When he was being forced to join the Unified Agricultural Cooperative in the 1950s, he left the Party, and František was expelled from grammar school as a result of that. František decided to leave the country, and together with his friend they managed to get to Austria, where he underwent training in the CIC. František lived in Austria for five years, but he missed his homeland. Every year - mostly on Christmas - he was therefore illegally crossing the border back to Czechoslovakia. One day he was caught and accused of espionage. He spent a year in detention pending trial and then he was sentenced to sixteen years of imprisonment in the Leopoldov prison. He was released earlier in amnesty. František attempted to escape the country again and he was imprisoned for the second time, this time in the Mírov prison. After his release during the Prague Spring he worked as a labourer. Presently, he lives in Hodonin and has one daughter.