Ing. Miloslav Vítek

* 1939

  • “It began at five pm – a serious injury was reported from the Petr Bezruč mine. I said: ‘Okay, no big deal, serious injuries are common in mines.’ By seven pm, there was a report from the Doubrava mine saying that dust and maybe even smoke was coming from the pit. At first, they didn’t know if there was an explosion or a shock. So, I immediately started calling hospitals, rescuers, investigators, and the police to be on standby based on an emergency plan that I had prepared earlier. I had to put it all together and make it work. Rescuers needed guides – when they get down to the shaft, how do they know where to go? I had to organise all of that as the dispatcher. Of course, subordinated dispatchers at the shafts organised their parts. That was quite difficult work. So, I just got to work… I had to report to the Party’s regional committee and many other authorities. Back then, people didn’t have mobile phones like they do now. There were fixed lines; some stations were manned, some were not, and so who do I call? My head is spinning when I think back about it…”

  • “The General Director was sitting with me in the control room and we were discussing things. I went to his office at one point and looked out the window, and I saw tanks in the street next to the town hall pointing their guns directly at his office. It was a tense, very tense situation. I saw the square from the window, and I saw the crowds of people clashing with the tanks. I saw a Volga car arrive with military officers to the town hall; they were to set up their headquarters there. The crowd rocked the car, nearly toppling it, and… [laughs]” – “Was that a soviet-made Volga?” – “It was. Then a crazy man started doing gymnastics on the barrel of a tank gun. A miner was just showing off, and the soldier sitting there didn’t know if he should shoot him or what to do, and he just watched it. There were many scenes such as this and it was very tense.”

  • “In Příbram, he even went downstairs to have a dance with people. People actually danced with him – he was so down-to-earth. It made an impression on me that there were two different worlds. Then I asked the policemen: ‘What’s wrong with that? I mean, we export our machinery to Brazil, we sell sugar mill equipment there, the Brazilian president’s name is Kubiček (he was of Czech origin). Yet you consider them [...]’ And Hawaiian Islands – I had no idea that Hawaii was part of the USA: ‘I don’t get it; what’s wrong with that?’ So, they enlightened me. That was bad. There were two different worlds, and that was that – the world of freedom and our world. But I knew there was only mining for me; it attracted me and I loved it, and so that’s what I did.”

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    Vizovice, 26.08.2022

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    délka: 02:19:00
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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    Vizovice, 31.08.2022

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    délka: 02:44:53
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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I thought about where my carelessness could get me

During military service, circa 1960
During military service, circa 1960
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Miloslav Vítek was born in Horní Měcholupy on 13 April 1939. He lost his father Bohuslav Vítek early; he died in 1943. Mother Růžena Vítková remarried and her new name was Simonová. Miloslav grew up with the Dušeks, his grandparents, in Horní Měcholupy. After the war, he went to school in the nearby Petrovice, but by third grade he went to school in Prague’s Žižkov. This is also where he was a member of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, and he took part in two youth camps with the congregation members as guides in the Orlické and Jizerské mountain ranges. He went to study at the mining high school in Příbram in the mid-1950s. He revived a Hawaiian-style student band at the local school dormitory and experienced success. Right after his high school graduation in June 1958, he joined the Příbram enterprise known as ÚZO 02 that inspected and shipped ore to the USSR. He completed his military service in Uherské Hradiště. After he got married, he and wife relocated to Ostrava and he got a job at the local mining enterprise, SOKD. Over several years, he completed part-time studies of a mining university. He held multiple positions at various sections of the company’s headquarters, including the Mining Inspection, the newly established computer centre, and the control centre on an ongoing basis. He was on duty at the control centre on 21 August 1968 and managed to distribute a stash of leaflets inciting a strike throughout the mining company’s cloakrooms. He was ‘crossed out’ of the CPC at the beginning of the normalisation period. The witness’s name is written in the StB registration document in the ‘confidant’ category. The surviving torso of his StB file covers the period from 1974 to 1989 when he was under surveillance because he worked as a mining inspector and the head of the control centre, and as such was in charge of addressing disasters and emergencies in OKD mines and filed reports with the SNB (the police). The witness has authored multiple innovations and patents. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was involved in the inception of the Haldex Ostrava international venture. After the Velvet Revolution, he started his own business (Agricola, a private mining firm) and founded OKD’s marketing and PR department. He spent a big part of his life as a hiker and conservationist (as a member of the Tis [Yew] group); was a member of the mining section of the Czechoslovak Scientific and Technical Society and its chair after 1989; co-founded a conservationist group in Havířov; and in retirement, he became a respected personality of the public and cultural life in the Zlín area. He organised a festival of amateur hiking films, is the chronicler of the town of Vizovice, and wrote memoirs focusing on his childhood (Horní Měcholupy Yesterday and Today) as well as on his career with OKD (Mining and OKD – My Love; 2022). The witness was living in Vizovice in 2022.