The charter united us, but now we are all somewhere else
Václav “Bahňous” Blabolil was born on March 7, 1958 in Broumov, but a year later he moved to Trutnov with his family. Although his father was a convinced communist, Václav himself had shown defiance of communist power since his childhood, which was even reinforced by the experience of the August 1968 occupation. He trained to be a car mechanic and moved away from his parents at the age of 17. He fell in love with rock music as a child and soon became close to the underground community in Eastern Bohemia. Due to illnesses and panic attacks, he managed to avoid compulsory military service. He travelled to the underground community in Nová Víska, distributed the samizdat magazine Vokno and met people from the dissent, including Mr and Mrs Havel, whom he visited at a cottage in Hrádeček. In 1985, he signed a declaration of Charter 77. He experienced interrogations and house searches several times. In 1989, he was at the birth of the Civic Forum in Chrudim.