"I spent that on the way to Dačice because I was already married, and we had a cottage there, my wife's parents. So I took a bus from Mariánské Lázně to Dačice, which was rough. On the left, Soviet officers were looking at maps, and they had it perfectly organized, you have to admit, They had guns on the right, like on the road, but the bus drove. Then, in Dačice, the first herds came from somewhere in the east. Uzbeks, Tatars, and those...what were they called...little houses on wheels, horrible smelling trucks and a line - there were many, many of them. I mean, when the tanks were in Brno, in Brno, I saw a tank in front of the Grand come up on a car and smash it up and start spinning the turret like that, and people did nothing - they were waiting for the bus to come on and strangely enough, it came."
"The Institute of Marxism-Leninism was created and kept a stern eye on things. Although there are beautiful stories, but I have already published that in the Discussion Journal. The most feared scientific atheist was Associate Professor Machalík, somewhat black, ugly. He looked like Beelzebub, later, he was a deputy of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia after November. He lectured on scientific atheism as the three components of Marxism-Leninism. And what made him most angry was when a big inscription appeared on the wall around the church on Kopeček: 'Thank you, Virgin Mary, of St. Kopeček, for making my state examinations with Comrade Associate Professor Machalík', and that enraged him. So there were some humorous stories, but it was tightening up, and as it got tighter, at the same time, the underground was being born. And especially, then it turned out, the underground was born from those who were the most affected, who were not allowed to publish, especially not allowed to continue their careers. If someone was an associate professor, he remained an associate professor and never a professor. The non-party probably had it easier, and if they were in the party, they had no time, only meetings. But as I say, I bravely avoided that too, and the functions, so I didn't fall into that."
"It used to work before the housing estates around Olomouc started to develop. In the first wave, they took it away from us. Well, it was already nationalised, but we still considered it our territory, whoever it belonged to. So they overtook the garden and set up ugly prefabs there, which are standing there and will stand there until the end of the world. There's a rather large playground on that part, though, on one half. Then, the architects from Olomouc decided to build a brick house with garages, loggias and other luxuries, and they decided to destroy the house as well. At the beginning of the seventies, they took our house away from us, so we returned to Olomouc from Pardubice to a three-room state-assigned apartment, and my parents got a one-room apartment next door, and we are still living there. It was, of course, bought by us as part of the property adjustments, thankfully in the first wave. And otherwise, we use the cottage in Dačice. It is a different region, a different morality, and a different air."
Prof. PhDr. Jiří Fiala, CSc., was born on 3 April 1944 in Olomouc as the elder of two sons to his parents Božena, née Pavlíčková and František Fiala. His father continued the family horticulture business in Olomouc, which was founded by Jiří‘s grandfather, Oskar Fiala. His mother, a trained hairdresser and pedicurist, later helped his father in the family business. After 1948, the gardening business was nationalised. Jiří graduated from the grammar school in Olomouc-Hejčín (then a twelve-year SVVŠ). From 1962 to 1967, he studied at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University Olomouc, majoring in Czech language and history. In 1966, he got married. The same year, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. From 1968 to 1972, he taught at the Secondary Vocational School of the Ministry of the Interior in Pardubice. From 1972 to 1974, he worked as a researcher and then as an assistant professor at the Department of Bohemistics and Slavonic Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pardubice. In 1974-1976 and 1987, he worked as a lecturer of Czech language in Poland (Warsaw University and Silesian University in Katowice). In 1985, he received the degree of Candidate of Arts, and in 1992, he habilitated with a set of studies devoted to Czech Kramar songs. He was appointed professor of the History of Czech Literature in 2002. His research focuses on the history of Czech literature of the 18th and 19th centuries, folk literature and semi-folk literature. His focus of interest is simultaneously regional history, cultural history of Olomouc and song folklore. He is the author of many professional publications. In 2012, he received the Olomouc City Prize for his contribution to literature. In the same year, he was appointed professor emeritus at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Applied Sciences. In 2022, he was awarded the Olomouc Region Award for Lifetime Contribution to Culture. He and his wife, PhDr. Jarmila Fialová, a high school professor, raised two sons, Hynek and Jiří. In 2023, he lived in Olomouc.
Jiří Fiala (2nd row from the top, third from the right), seventh grade, grammar school Hejčín, Olomouc, 1957, on the photo French language teacher Smýkal
Jiří Fiala (2nd row from the top, third from the right), seventh grade, grammar school Hejčín, Olomouc, 1957, on the photo French language teacher Smýkal
