Jan Kozlík

“What we have had before our eyes was a swift retreat from the 1968 standpoints into a fearful environment. We could observe it in our professors. They were oh so courageous in 1968 but soon after changed their tone. They became very introspective, not at all commenting on what was going on. It all culminated in 1971 when on the day of the communist putsch anniversary, for the first time since 1968, the faculty raised the Czechoslovak and the Soviet flag on the building of the theological seminary. All of the students who lived in the seminary said: ‘What demoralization, this really is horrible.’ I then decided to act. I borrowed a stepladder from the janitor and took the flags down. I am still sorry about stories being told about me bringing down the Soviet flag. I brought down both. Not from mere anti-Sovietism. I took down both, claiming that there was no reason to celebrate 25th of February, that it was no holiday of ours. News about the missing flags and about me taking them down had spread instantly. The faculty secretary came to me and started to negotiate the return of the flags. We have had a pseudo-theological debate on whether it was the wall, the building or us who celebrated the anniversary this way. Only in the afternoon when he told me it was a criminal offence of theft, I returned them to him. The secretary asked the janitor to raise them again. She was a simple woman. She told him that she raised them once and that she would not do it again. So the flags were not flying for the whole day. The secret police find out very soon. They initially summoned some other students to testify. Upon return they told me that they were in Bartolomějská street because of the flags. I became really worried because back then one could serve time for a thing like that.”

“In this situation, us a spokespersons of Charter 77 were faced with an obligation to write something on the missiles. We drafted a very mild text on us being against Pershing missiles as well as SS 22. Back then, this meant a lot for the secret police. As soon as they had read it on the Voice of America radio, I was arrested. Mrs. Marvanová and Marie Rút were not, if I remember correctly. They were terribly happy. They told me: ‘Mr. Kozlík, we told you that the glass would spill one day. And now you scored an own goal. Now we can easily sentence you for undermining the defensive capacity of the country. You will not be free again sooner than in five years.’ They undressed me and put me into underground jail in Bartolomějská street. I shared a prison cell with some Yugoslav who went crazy because he had withdrawal symptoms. I have had the whole night to meditate over everything. I realized that this was the best thing that could have happened to me. That I would get locked up as a spokesperson, which would not go without the outside world noticing. But, most importantly, that I would get locked up for missiles, which was the topic of all peace movements.”