Václav Hybler

“The Soviet army wanted to get into our barracks. They didn’t want to let them inside. One member of the Soviet army knocked at the gate with a cannon muzzle. A Czech officer rode out against them in a tracked armoured vehicle, and it all got messy… they eventually reached some agreement, I don’t know with whom, and we got an order that we had to leave the barracks. They transferred us to Bratislava…”

“A friend of mine and I were playing in a small army band. It was a small band, there were about five of us. Two of us played trumpets, one guy played accordion, and another was a contrabass player. He had the idea that since the Soviets arrived here, we could play the lights-out tune on the trumpets every evening as a sign of protest. When we went to do it for the first time, we were scared, because the Soviets had surrounded the barracks from all sides and aimed searchlights at them… but when we played the second and third day, and a week later, they didn’t care anymore.”