Until recently, I kept the jacket stained with Danuše Muzikářová‘s blood
Stáhnout obrázek
Tomáš Bochořák was born on 23 February 1948 in Brno. Since childhood he was led to democratic values, which were deepened by his father, the prominent Moravian poet, writer and translator Klement Bochořák. After finishing primary school, he was given two options: to study at a military school or a mining apprenticeship, which he eventually entered. However, he escaped from his apprenticeship and graduated from a twelve-year secondary school in Brno. After graduation he enrolled at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Brno, majoring in ethnography. After the August occupation, he worked in the strike committee of the university. In addition, he also carried out other anti-occupation activities in his native Pisárky. The following year he actively participated in the first anniversary of the August occupation. In close proximity to him, Danuše Muzikářová was shot, whom he tried to save by taking her to the Trauma Hospital. But the doctor there pronounced her dead. Before the national elections in 1971, he and a group of young people distributed anti-regime leaflets pointing out that participation in the elections was voluntary. Together with Václav Šabata, he was caught and sentenced to a suspended sentence. He was subsequently expelled from the university just before his thesis defence. He started supporting his family by manual labour. In the late 1970s, he attempted to complete his education in distance study, but his efforts were thwarted by State Security (StB). State Security never found out about his next attempt, and he successfully completed the university. At the time of the establishment of Charter 77, he became involved in the underground church. He signed Charter 77 in 1978, but Jan Šabata did not hand over the signed sheet. Under pressure from State Security, the family was stripped of their Czechoslovak citizenship and had to move out in 1982. They settled in Vienna, where they obtained political asylum and subsequently Austrian citizenship. He lived through the Velvet Revolution in Austria, but in November 1989 he was still actively putting up posters in Mikulov supporting the fall of the communist regime. At the time of recording (2025), Tomáš Bochořák lived with his wife in Kunštát.
