Dušan Lupták

* 1962

  • “It just needs to die out. Not only one, two or three generations, but in minimum five generations must die out, so that completely different people come, probably some extraterrestrials or I don’t know who. No one can root out this red weed, what is still present here. And the people who suffered here? What kind of compensation did they get? Who got it? Many died in uranium mines, worked hard and what pensions do they have? What pensions have the former State Security members - 800 – 900 euro! A man who suffered somewhere in labor camp, has a pension of 300 – 400 euro, but the one who tortured him in Jáchymov has 900 euro. What kind of compensation is that? No one got anything he deserved. That’s why I don’t trust here anyone.”

  • “I got in fight with my superior, who refused to give me new work clothes. What she gave me was old and dirty. The felt boots had spider web all over, everything was dirty and dusty, and I was supposed to wear it? We were about to go working on the field and I didn’t have what to wear! As a working class I had right to be issued a new work clothes. I was a part of the working class. When I was a sign writer, every year we were issued a new work coat, I think it was in Geodézia, the national enterprise in Prešov. However, she refused to give me new clothes and said that since I didn’t want to use the issued used clothes, I didn’t have to come back anymore. I replied: ‘And why is such guff on your billboards that the working class has power in its hands? I am telling you, that the truth is far away from that. I am the working class and what kind of power do I have? Not even being allowed to have work clothes I deserve? Why is all of it written everywhere? It is pure nonsense, what you write there!’ And that’s how it looked like in the whole communist party and the socialism. Everything was twisted; nothing of what they rammed into our heads was true. The reality was completely different.”

  • “I wanted to hold back, I didn’t want to tangle into anything, because I already had a bad experience from times when I had long hair. I am tall and as I only walked across the street, the policemen immediately followed me and started to bully me. They asked why I had long hair, where I worked… But I had my ID with a stamp of where I worked with me. It was just because my hair was long. Once happened, that I went for a beer to Letná and it was around ten o’clock in the morning. Of course, the policemen where there to inspect that. It was quite common that the builders used to have a shot around ten. They couldn’t drink before ten not to get drunk. They asked me: ‘Where do you work? How come, you are having a beer?! It’s only ten o’clock, it’s work time!’ I gave them my ID and said I was off duty. That’s when I made them mad! They didn’t believe me. Back then they used to go and check people in cinemas, because some were watching movies at ten in the morning. They said: ‘Show us your ID, where do you work?’ ‘At the post office.’ ‘What do you do that you are able to be here at ten?’ ‘I deliver newspaper.’ ‘Yes, and you are done already?’ ‘Yes, I am done. I finished my duty at eight in the morning.’ ‘We will check that, for sure.’ They took me to the bar, where the phone was. They called the post office and inquired if I worked there. ‘Does Dušan Lupták work at this post office?’ They had a stamp in my ID, but they didn’t believe me. They had to check it. ‘Yes, he does.’ ‘And is he off duty at this time?’ ‘Yes, he is.’ Thus, they became really mad not to have a reason to punish me. However, they didn’t let me finish my beer, as they told me to rather go away. Just because I had long hair, I wasn’t even able to drink my beer. That’s how they bullied people. It was ridiculous. Today if we told young people such things, their minds would boggle there were really times like that. But that was socialism. Who had hair, was the enemy of the socialist state. All were supposed to have the same haircut!”

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    Košice, Praha , 01.05.2018

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Who had hair, was the enemy of the socialist state. All were supposed to look alike!

Dusan Lupták na vojne
Dusan Lupták na vojne
photo: archív pamätníka

Dušan Lupták was born in 1962 in Košice into catholic family of teachers. During the socialism, his father was criticizing failings of his superiors at schools, what had its impact on his and his son’s later career. He was having problems in searching appropriate employment and young Dušan had to also pay for his father’s persecution. As a teenager he wasn’t accepted to secondary art school, thus he studied within the closest possible sphere to art - sign writing. During the normalization he was a marginal worker in different jobs and he had problems with the former State Security members also due to his look, since he wore long hair. He had negative attitude towards the socialist regime during its whole era and therefore he welcomed the Velvet Revolution, even without being actively engaged in politics. He has been married and has two children. Today he works as an educator in Košice.