Stanislav Duchek

* 1955

  • “If I can take some credit for this matter being remembered and commemorated, then it is as follows: During my whole career – whether I was an official or the manager for ODA and so on... And sometimes I would come up with some cultural event. So in the course of time I managed to gain some experience. And six years ago when they began to commemorate this dispersion... It wasn´t a dispersion after all. Magor introduced us to his vision there and the event had been organised by Karel Havelka known as Kocour. He was the soul of the whole event and I knew him to some extent from the past but we weren´t that close. Later he emigrated or had been just driven out of the country. And the event was special as there had been some arrests made after it was over, the gathering had not been dispersed as had often been the case. And some interesting and even sad life stories started there. That is what I wanted to remind people of. Some of the stories were sad indeed; but some of the people were not so unhappy as they were called for an interrogation and after fifteen minutes they just walked out and nothing ever happened to them. But we didn´t want to discuss it at the memorial. I know some of these people and they know I do, so they just talk me down behind my back.”

  • “At that time certain Mr. Jiří Ruml served as a castle manager at Lužany castle. He was the older son of late Jiří Ruml, a journalist and a renown figure of the Prague Spring. He was also the brother of Jan Ruml, later Interior Minister. So he was from a dissident family. And Jirka was a castle manager; and since we just met via the Culture Department and the Nature Preservation... We met quite early on, we spoke and I took him to the working group. Thus in the year of 1989 I was maybe one of those who were the first to instigate such a thing in the district and also in the OMV, where I was a fifth column. So the thing developed in such a specific manner. The activity started in earnest in 1989 at the Lužany castle on the basis of the workgroup and nature preservation. Later everyone went his way of course, guys went to their workplaces all around the district, but in fact it all began there. And of course various kinds of printed material were delivered to the castle much sooner than anything would have been known in the countryside. And even a few years before they would deliver samizdat newspaper Lidové noviny to Lužany that I have been distributing.”

  • "Maybe I would share a story about what happened in the brewery where I spent quite...a few months for sure. I was cleaning ashes from the furnace at the power plant which was a job being done almost exclusively by criminals or by recidivists. And during the interview which was conducted by – his name was dr. Ascher I would say – he questioned me in quite a weary manner. And I answered him politely and then he asked me: 'Tell me, do you have any education?' And I said: 'I do.' - 'And did you graduate from secondary school?' - 'Yes, I did.' - 'A what did you... You didn´t finish it? You didn´t go to college, did you?' - 'Well I did.' - 'But you didn´t graduate?' And I said: 'I did graduate.' And he apologised and asked me not to be angry as he was used to the fact that people straight out of the penal institution usually applied for the position. I just wanted to mention that.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Plzeň, 24.06.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 49:42
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

I don’t like to compromise

Stanislav Duchek, photo from the Charles University Credit Book
Stanislav Duchek, photo from the Charles University Credit Book
photo: archiv pamětníka

Stanislav Duchek was born on December 12th of 1955 to the family of a Pilsen District Authority official. He graduated from Gymnasium and the Faculty of Sciences at the Charles University in Prague. Soon, he began to make his own living, working blue-collar jobs. Since 1985 he was active as a Nature Preservation Inspector of the Plzeň-South District. By the second half of the 80s he befriended Jan Ruml and participated in the distribution of samizdat literature. After the Velvet Revolution he led the Department of Environmental Protection at Plzeň-South District. In 1995 he left the office and began working as a river warden. As a member of the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) he was the party´s regional manager and later served as an Assistant to the Senator Jiří Skalický. In 2015 he helped to organise an underground music festival commemorating the so-called Přeštice case. Today he lives in Příchovice.