Milan Vaňura

* 1932

  • "We played in Tetčice at a feast. We played, 'When samba is being danced, everyone is feeling ashamed, ashamed.' It was a firemen´s feast and there was the chairman of the national committee who at the same time was the firemen´s chairman. When he saw that we were playing these songs, he walked among the people who were just going to dance: 'Don't dance it, don't dance it!' When he saw that he wasn´t able to catch the people anymore, he came in front of us, stopped us, the music stopped. "The rumba and the samba will not be danced here." That was after the 1950s. "

  • „I got to the company where the biggest son of a bitch from Ostrava was said to be the commander, first lieutenant Sebera. He welcomed us. The whole group from Bílina went by train to Orlová, from there our suitcases were taken by car to Old Kamchatka and we went there on foot. Stars were shining everywhere because the plans were fulfilled. The big, huge star, it was just red, wherever you go, everything is red. The nervousness, it was psychological pressure on all people. We came to Kamchatka and all of us stood there, and captain Sebera, I will not forget: 'You all, as you are standing here, you are the class enemies. And you will be in the military service until you, through your hard work and military demeanour, prove that you are rightful members of human society. Can you imagine that? I believed that I was going to the military music band, then someone welcomed me in the mines like this, and I still didn't know when I would go back. For this I can´t forgive communists. After all, it is the Eastern mentality, Russia, China today. After ‚Dismiss‘ I came to the dormitory, there were eight of us. ‚How long have you been here?‘ ‚For twenty-four months.‘ ‚How long have you? ‘‚ Thirty-six months.‘ ‚And you?‘ Do you understand what a strain it put on my sensitive musician´s mentality? “

  • "In 1952, on New Year's Eve, we played in Neslovice, and there, during the break, I allegedly said about Gottwald: 'He won't hang here for long and then we won´t give a fuck.' For this I was taken in court. These communist musicians used it to destroy the band I had founded, because it had taken away some of their musicians and we stood up on our own feet. They made use of this and began to persecute us, the Vaňura family. Only then did a letter suddenly come from the police that two witnesses had seen me and proved me guilty of saying this and that then and then. And that's when it started to move. Our mother really liked me, she was my music fan, so she did everything to make sure I wouldn´t have any trouble. But no, they just wanted to put me in the shit. So I was called to the AEC and I was charged with the defamation of the President of the Republic. "

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    Brno, 16.06.2020

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Communism is the grave of humanity, remember that

Milan Vaňura at the AEC in Ostrava -Radvanice in 1953
Milan Vaňura at the AEC in Ostrava -Radvanice in 1953
zdroj: witness´ archive

Milan Vaňura was born on March 16, 1932 in Rosice near Brno to a family of musicians. Since childhood he played a range of musical instruments, performed in many musical ensembles and in his free time he studied at the Jaroslav Kvapil Music School in Brno. In 1952, he finished studies at Commercial Academy in Brno and found a job at Královopolská engineering plant in the sales department. A rival band denounced him cursing at Klement Gottwald and a court condemned him to a suspended sentence in 1953 for the defamation of the President of the Republic. The communists sent Milan, as a politically unreliable person, to the basic military service in the Auxiliary Engineering Corps (AEC). In Ostrava-Radvanice, he had to labour in demanding working conditions in hard coal mines. In 1954, somebody denounced Milan again and the court sent him to prison for three months for verbal attacks against communists. He was sent to a punitive company in Leště, Slovakia, where he worked in a quarry. He finally returned to civilian life 27 months later. Milan devoted his life to music, he founded the dance orchestra DELSIG, for which he adapted Czech versions of music compositions from the West. After retiring, he kept on performing. In 2020, he was living in Brno-Vinohrady.