Václav Krajník

"Because I was a technical and economic worker, I had to go for background checks." - "What year was that?" - "In 1970, 1971 and 1972, it took maybe three years of those hard background checks. The management, the communists and the trade unions were all seated there." - "The management of the heating plant?" - "Yes. The communists were from the all-plant committee, from the company committee, it wasn't just the communists we knew who would eventually be more lenient. They asked why I had climbed the chimney. I said it was because of youthful carelessness, I was twenty years old then, you know..." - "And who blamed you? From the notes you made available to me before the recording, it was the people who had applauded you." - "They were there, and they were the ones who checked on me afterwards. The chairman of the trade unions, the chairman of the Communist Party, and they reprimanded me. It got to the point where one day I got angry and said, 'Hey, you sent me when I used to go to that school in Prague...' I mentioned that they had offered me a plan for a whistle, that we could blow the whistle and have a high-pressure whistle that could be heard far and wide... Then it was at a time when it wasn't urgent any more. And that's what I said, and from then on this gentleman who was in charge of the power company said, 'Comrades, I think Comrade Krajník has already told us everything,' and he became worried."

"I had climbed that chimney once before, I knew what was waiting for me. It's physically demanding, and it's also demanding because you are afraid and you hold on to the ranks on the ladder, so then your hands hurt the most." - "How high was the chimney?" - "It was the old hundred-metre chimney. When we climbed up and started fixing it, a helicopter came and circled the chimney. And we were really scared because there's nowhere to hide." - "And that was a Soviet helicopter?" - "Yes, Soviet, it was the Russians. When we came down, we were glad to be alive. About twice I had bad dreams about being chased by a helicopter up the chimney. That was the only really nasty thing."