I‘m actually grateful to the communists because the prison is such a school of life
Stáhnout obrázek
Miroslav Černota was born on 6 January 1958 in Karlovy Vary to Helena and Josef Černota. Both parents came from Moravia and their lives were affected by the war. The day of the arrival of the Warsaw Pact troops on August 21, 1968, he spent it with his parents at his grandmother‘s house in Opava. Everyone was afraid that the war had started. These events greatly influenced his future life. After primary school he apprenticed as an lift operator in Jablonec nad Nisou. In April 1977 he started his compulsory military service. On 26 October 1978, he was arrested for defamation of the Socialist Republic and sedition. During a series of interrogations, he was offered cooperation with State Security in exchange for a lighter sentence. He rejected the offer, however, and on 18 January 1979 the Military Court in Litoměřice sentenced him to sixteen months‘ imprisonment. He found the sentence and the conditions in Bory Prison in Pilsen difficult to bear and often wondered whether he would survive. The solidarity and help among the political prisoners was a great support for him. On 26 February 1980 he finished his sentence and returned to his original profession as a lift mechanic. Later he worked as a waiter in a mountain pub. During the Velvet Revolution, he was active in collecting petition signatures, organized rallies in Ostrov nad Ohří and participated in the founding of the Civic Forum. In 1994, he joined the Confederation of Political Prisoners, where he listened to powerful stories from the uranium camps. After 2000, he received compensation for his years in prison and the sentence of the military court of 19 January 1979 was annulled. He received a certificate from the Ministry of the Interior stating that he was not registered as a State Security collaborator. At the time of recording, in 2025, Miroslav Černota lived in Ostrov nad Ohří.
