Under a Cruel Star: A Life In Prague, 1941-1968

January 1953 brings new challenges. Heda is forced to move from her apartment to a run-down cottage outside of town. The dwelling has no electricity or water. There are no jobs in the area. She convinces the secretary from the National Committee to visit her at her current apartment, where she plies him with alcohol and persuades him to sign a document stating that the cottage is slated for demolition.

Heda avoids the cottage and is sent to other quarters. She is not allowed to keep many of her possessions, including a radio that Ivan loves. She works in a factory knitting scarves, and while the job does not pay well, it at least provides “shelter from the Labor Office and the charge of parasitism” (156).

Stalin dies, and while the country mourns his death, Heda mourns the fact that if Stalin had died a bit earlier, Rudolf might still be alive. A month later, Gottwald, the head of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party, also dies. The Party receives a new president, Antonin Zapotocky. Heda moves into a single-room apartment with a bare electric bulb. Ivan is now six years old, and he helps with housework when Heda is too sick to leave her bed.