Petra Francová

“I worked on something economic. It was actually quite interesting. I had a reasonable colleague who was the only one not in the party, which was something you didn’t see every day. There were young, talented people in it who saw as it a necessity for building a career. But it was dreadfully politicized. The survey's questions had been approved by the National Committee of the Communist Party. And so were the results. It was really something dreadful. Later, towards the end, I was reassigned and I already didn’t want to stay there any longer anyway. Everyone was surprised that I would decline such an awesome opportunity. It was a study on national questions and issues and it seemed so totally manipulated to me that it couldn’t have been true.”

“It was tough. I remember that they really were hung up on us joining the SSM (Socialist Youth Union). At school it happened that they signed up the whole class all at once. Nobody asked me if I wanted to join or not. I had to stand up and say that I didn’t want to. Once at home there was a huge fight when my brother told me that I shouldn’t be in the SSM. He was older and more rebellious. My parents told me to stay in the SSM because of school, as it would be bad for me otherwise. In the end I stayed in it, but I always had a bad feeling about it.”