Born on 25 January 1900 in the municipality of Zolotonosha in today’s Ukraine. In 1919 emigrated to Czechoslovakia because of the Russian Civil War.

Pavel Zoc soon acquired a grant to study at University of Agriculture and Forest Engineering in Prague, graduating in 1927. He was engaged professionally in agriculture in the following years. He also became involved in the political and social activities of the Ukrainian exile community in Czechoslovakia. In 1941 he married Czech Marie Soukupová and the pair soon had a son, Ivan. However, on 20 May 1945 he was, like many Russian and Ukrainian émigrés, arrested by Soviet security organs.

He was first imprisoned in a court building at the Prague square Karlově náměstí before being transferred to Lviv, where the main part of his investigation was conducted. He was eventually sentenced to 10 years forced labour.

He served the entire sentence in the Pechorlag camps where he worked in various professions, for the longest period in a joiner’s shop. His family had no news of him for nearly 10 years.

Pavel Zoc was allowed to return to Czechoslovakia for good in April 1955. Until his retirement he held various posts at a collective farm near Prague. He died in 1983.