Hromádko, Ota

Autor: Hromádko, Ota
Rok: 1909-1983
Oblast působnosti: novináři, váleční dobrovolníci, vojáci z povolání, důstojníci

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Narozen 30. 8. 1909 v Kněži (dnes součást obce Tis, okr. Havlíčkův Brod), zemřel 14. 4. 1983 v Yverdon (Švýcarsko). Komunistický funkcionář a novinář, dobrovolník ve španělské občanské válce, za druhé světové války účastník francouzského odboje, důstojník ČsLA, politický vězeň. Autor knihy vzpomínek a překladu z francouzštiny.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Otakar Hromádko (30 August 1909, Kněž, district Čáslav, Czechoslovakia - 14 April 1983, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) was a Czechoslovak journalist and army officer. He spent first half of his life fighting for communist ideals and later became a victim of communist purges and a political émigré. At the age of five, he lost his father in World War I and during his studies became a supporter of emerging communist movement in Czechoslovakia. He fought as a volunteer in International Brigades in Spanish Civil War and French anti-Nazi resistance during World War II. After WWII he returned to Czechoslovakia and took part in strengthening the dominance of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the years leading to, and immediately following, the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état. In early 1950s he fell victim to communist purges and was sentenced to 12 years of prison. He served over five years in prisons and labor camps in uranium mines. In 1956, he was released and later fully rehabilitated. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he emigrated to Switzerland. He died in Yverdon-les-Bains in 1983.Although he grew up a strong anti-militarist, he ended up having a significant military career. His anti-militarism can be traced back to loss of his father in WWI and to the influence of his mother and grandfather Kadleček. He avoided conscription to Czechoslovak army and served his first prison term for painting anti-militarist slogans on a church in 1930. But in late 1930's, along with many other left-leaning young activists, he has found himself fighting in Spanish Civil War and French resistance against regimes of Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler. He was awarded military decorations by four countries – France (Croix de guerre), Poland (War Order of Virtuti Militari), Yugoslavia (Order of National Merit) and Czechoslovakia (several decorations including the Czechoslovak War Cross and highest order of Czechoslovakia, Order of the White Lion). His military career culminated in late 1940s when he became the general secretary of all communist organizations in the Czechoslovak army.Hromádko spent almost ten years of his life in prisons, labour camps and detention camps under different regimes and in different countries. He published a book of memoirs focused mostly on his prison experience and disilusionment from revolutions called Jak se kalila voda: výbor z kriminálních příběhů a úvah.