Štěpán Machart

“An unlucky political training of the ranks took place there when they played us an edited film from 1967. As students, we looked for weekend jobs. My parents did not have much money, so I had to e.g., unload wagons during my studies so that I made some money. There was something like youth´s construction and 28. října street was under reconstruction between Můstek in Wenceslas Square and Národní třída. We pulled out pavement there and it was replaced by asphalt. And we as part-time workers threw the stones, the cobblestones on the lorries. And it was recorded either by Krátký film Praha (Short film Prague) or by Vojenský film (Military film), I do not know anymore. And imagine that they showed us this film in which I am in a lot during military service in Prešov, eastern Slovakia calling it: 'Prague hooligans are building a barricade against Soviet soldiers who came to help us.' And I shouted: 'No, no, no, please, play it again' and I showed them it was me on the screen. And that it had taken place a year before and was just a reconstruction of the street. They did not take it very well. They dismissed the political training and made us go to the barracks. And I kept trying to explain it. I said: 'Guys, it happened differently, I will prove it somehow, the film must exist somewhere in an archive!' Unfortunately, I got into a dispute with those Slovaks who were already candidates of the party at that time, which I did not know at the time. And they said: 'You are the Prague hooligan; you participated in the counter-revolution! And I told them: 'Dude, there was no counter-revolution, you guys are complete idiots! You do not know anything, what do you know about what was happening in Prague?' And that is how it started. They turned me in."

“It was in August or September 1968 when we got into (the tanks) and tried to tell the soldiers they were here by mistake. We found out it was not possible very soon. And later groups of youths were organized. The students from Charles University organized them. I still attended Secondary School at that time, but I was in the group until the end of 1968 before I left school. In the spring of 1969, we had addresses of the Russian officers who settled down here. It was a year after the occupation. And we were still courageously trying to convince them it had been a mistake; nothing was going on here and no counter-revolution had taken place. We were trying. I was active in it because I could speak Russian. However, I should not have done it. Because they caught us, they had kept an eye on us for a while, then arrested and imprisoned us. In Prague, the Headquarters of the Occupation Troops was in Halštatská square, at the Hotel U Haštala. They locked us somewhere in the cellar and acted out a nasty play with us – they told us they would execute us. They then drove us into the yard and fired blanks at us. Well, what should I say, we shitted ourselves However, it was where I stopped being active in any political activities because I thought: 'Enough, your heroism ends here. Do something, find employment, and hide or just behave like a normal person.' That is why I went to work for the Military Constructions.”