Věra Nerušilová

* 1935

  • "That history... If you consider that the war with Hitler ended in 1945 and already in 1948 the communists here began to behave like the Russians, imprisoning people and taking away their property; something terrible had happened... And then the Russians allowed themselves to come here in 1968... No one can know what would happen. They always ask some smart people on TV who appaerently understand, but no one can really know."

  • "And you know what it looked like, the currency reform? That people could exchange a certain amount of money. We and our family were in such a way that it worked out just for the number of people in the family, so we didn't lose. Because other money was already exchanged one to fifty. So those who had some money lost it. Then I sang with the guitar in Jihlava and I had a manager there, and he told me that I had to make a living, that I should go to Prague."

  • "That's when I was shocked... We were traveling by train across the entire Soviet Union, we saw a huge field on which women were bent over digging something with a hoe. We didn't understand that. We didn't understand the situation in China either. We went to the market and bought something there and then we wanted to get a rickshaw and suddenly a rickshaw with some Chinese guy from the hotel appeared there. He watched us for three hours. It didn't occur to us at the time. This occurred to me only after I started to think a little more politically. We were always being watched. They didn't let us go anywhere by ourselves."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Praha, 06.06.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:15:02
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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    Praha, 17.10.2022

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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I wasn‘t that famous, so I probably didn‘t mind anyone

Věra Nerušilová in 1980s
Věra Nerušilová in 1980s
zdroj: pamětnice

Chanson player Věra Nerušilová, née Soudková, was born on April 21, 1935 in Zlín, where her father, Vladimír Soudek, worked as a worker at the Baťové závody. Mother Růžena was a secretary, later she sold in a dairy shop. Věra had two sisters, Růžena, four years older and Vlasta, five years younger, and a brother, Vladimír, who was born last. In 1939, the family moved to Třebíč, where they lived in a semi-detached house, and here the father continued his work in the clay plants. In the years 1945–1948, Věra went to the firefly scout troop. In 1949, she entered a two-year business school in Třebíč. From a young age, she showed musical and singing talent, her characteristic being a deep contralto. She started in the sister trio Sestry Soudkova, in high school she founded a singing group of ten girls. In 1951, she started her first job in Jihlava as a secretary, but in addition she performed solo in clubs, accompanying herself on the guitar. In 1954, she went to Prague and was accepted as a member of the Czechoslovak State Song and Dance Ensemble. They mainly sang folk songs, but also songs of the time. Thanks to her natural voice, she sang folk songs. In 1955 they were on a four month tour of China, Mongolia and North Korea. In 1960, she married Zdenek Nerušil, whom she met in the ensemble. In the early 1960s, she founded the vocal quartet Incognito with three friends and left the song and dance group. They had a permanent engagement with Incognito at the Paravan theater on Národní třída. In 1968, she gave birth to a daughter, Bára. At the same time, her friends from Incognito took a trip to Mongolia, from which one did not return - she did not survive a tragic car accident. The incognito quartet broke up and Věra Nerušilová was on the solo track from the 70s. She also acted in several films, as an actress also in the theater Na Fidlovačce and the ABC Theatre. In the 1980s, her brother emigrated to the USA. Her husband died prematurely at the age of 52.