Jiřina Mainušová, U Opavice 2, July 24, 2018
“It’s hard to believe that we were so blinded . . .” (about the 1950 political trials of Milada Horáková)
Mrs. Mainušová, originally from Chlebičov, was the first female student of the secondary technical school in Opava, where she also met her husband Oldřich. They got married in 1962 and two years later they were among the first tenants to move to the U Opavice 2 apartment block. Until then they lived in a basement flat in Palacký street. Oldřich worked for the municipal services, later he became the vice superintendent at a local vocational high school, and after 1968 he left for the Branko ironworks in Horní Benešov. Mrs. Mainušová worked all her life until retirement as a quality controller in Minerva, following in her father’s footsteps, also a loyal Minerva employee. In the interview Mrs. Mainušová recounts how she with her husband brought up their daughter and son in their U Opavice flat and what it was like when her husband served as the coop unit head. She also talks about the socialist brigades, voluntary community work, and how people at the time took this work for granted and did not tend to complain about it. She remembers the Children’s Day celebrations organized in the mid 1970s by the U Opavice coop, especially a time when the then young tenants stayed outside at the fire till early morning drinking wine. She also talks about the 1997 flood and remembers her beloved cat Agáta. As well, she discusses the reasons for joining the Communist Party, the political trials of Milada Horáková, and the events of 1968.
