František Mikloško

“The year 1989 was quite tiring. At least I perceived it as a tiring time. We were constantly being interrogated. The State Security entered into the events really sharply, you know, I was constantly monitored. There were many trials with people arrested in the Candle Manifestation, during which we had to be in the remand centre called Februárka. We were interrogated there for seven, eight hours. And they took turns, it was very tiring. Whenever I left my house, they suddenly appeared, the car with the investigator stopped by me quite demonstratively and he said, ‘So what, Mr Mikloško, where are you going?’ And I knew I would go nowhere, so I went back home.”

“It’s the twentieth anniversary of the fall of communism and I can say that a very interesting youth is growing up here. The youth, that has no complexes, no frustrations, it is the European youth. They naturally speak foreign languages, travel abroad to strengthen and improve their knowledge, they study or work there. I ask whether there is a sort of generation feeling, generation appeal, not only in a horizontal level in the sense of desire for a better life, which is perfectly fine, but rather in a vertical level, in the sense of certain desires, certain troubles, controversies, which exist in this society or which generally exist all over Europe and maybe all over the civilised world. Anything similar hasn’t been here yet and it is so strange to ask whether something similar to this generation will ever be here. Twenty years after the fall of communism it is necessary to say that certain question mark hangs over Slovakia. It is a question whether we will be able to fight for our way to inner confidence, inner self-knowledge or whether we will become a bit plebeian. It means that though we will be going on well, we will need somebody to show us the way, to govern us and to uncover the horizons for us. This is the time of great challenges. Now, the generation born after the fall of communism has grown up. They are twenty years old now and should somehow express their basic intention of what they want to do in this country, but it shouldn’t be just the desire for a higher standard of life, consumerism, because we can see that this philosophy precipitated the entire world into the huge crisis and nobody knows how it’s going to end.”

“One evening an absolute twist occurred. Then, we met Vlado Jukl in my flat in Dúbravka, I remember I had a radio made in the era of the Slovak State or in the era of the first republic at home, it was from my granddad, so that evening we listened to the Vatican Radio. And when it was said in the Vatican Radio broadcasting that we had a new pope, it was in October 1978, and when his name was uttered and we realised it was Karol Wojtyla, Vlado Jukl started hugging us and said, ‘You can’t imagine what it will mean for us.’ Silvo Krčméry used to visit Cardinal Wojtyla in Krakow and they really clicked, so the new Holy Father took a fancy to him. Later, I was at a private dinner. Ján Čarnogurský with his wife, Silvo Krčméry and I were with the Holy Father at the private dinner. It was in 1992, I think in autumn, and there I witnessed the Holy Father’s relationship with Silvo. When we came there, it was endearing that we didn’t understand each other very well, even though our languages are very similar. Then, Jano Čarnogurský switched to a local dialect of Zamagurie region and all the language barriers were suddenly gone. Silvo was like in ecstasy during the dinner. He was always telling something to the Holy Father about the drug addicts and his activities with them, when in one moment Jano Čarnogurský touched his hand and said, ‘Don’t heckle,’ he meant that he shouldn’t have interrupted Holy Father’s speech. ‘Well, let the Holy Father say something again,’ but I understood him, we all did. Silvo spoke Slovak with Polish suffixes and I noticed the Holy Father taking a long look at Silvo, then he smiled and said, ‘Silvo, Silvo.’ Simply said, Silvo who spent fourteen years in prison and who sacrificed his life for the apparitions at Fatima, which was the Pope also devoted to, was his matter of heart.”

“The first big moment of November was the gathering at Wenceslas Square, where so many people came that the square was overcrowded. Something similar happened in Bratislava on the Hviezdoslav Square, where Kňažko and Budaj gave speeches, and mainly Kňažko was in the lead due to his strong voice, imposing personality of a really notable man and excellent rhetorician. He was a really manful and strong person. Later, the first huge gathering took place on the SNP Square. It was the first time when Bratislava was full of people, there were about one or two hundred thousand people, a huge mass of them. There people requested Čarnogurský’s release from prison and there people agreed to move to the Palace of Justice after the end of the demonstration. Then, somebody said, as I came to know later, that if such a huge mass of people had started to move to those narrow streets, it would have been risky and they really didn’t want to make any mistake; however, people came to tell us that the SNP Square was crowded. Those days I visited the flat of Ján Langoš, which was a place where something was still going on. On December 10, 1980, for the first time in my life I met Václav Havel in that flat, who was spending some time in Slovakia at that time. We were sitting there, it was before November 1989, and he was preparing for some announcement. I know Boris Zala was there too, at that time he was a left-wing social democrat, then Janko Langoš, but I can’t remember the others. Obviously, also Janko Čarnogurský was there. We were there on those days of November and it really was one of the key gatherings. I think Boris Zala and Janko Langoš were present there; Fedor Gál came for a moment as he was in his typical motion, and I am sorry, but I can’t recall the other people, but I know that we discussed the request from the Czech side to call our group the Civic Forum. Košice and dissidents from Košice or activists also requested us to join the Czech part and have the same name, to transform it all to one Czechoslovak Civic Forum, to create one huge force fighting against communism and I know that then, at the gathering in Langoš’s flat we decided to disagree and create a parallel structure, and thus we established the movement and gave it the name Public against Violence. So there was the base of what was later transferred, there the basic coordinating committee or the future coordinating committee decided that we would not have the name of Civic Forum, but rather the Public against Violence.”

“We used to meet on Sundays but every time in someone else’s flat. We met to pray; there weren’t holy masses. We had evening prayers and we used to sing at the end of them. Usually we sang such nice orthodox songs in Russian language. And also we gave reports. At first we referred on what had happened in Church at home as well as in the world, and everyone came with some news, let’s call them rumours, and then with the news from the domestic and foreign political stage. I can say that in 1989, when I entered the politics, we weren’t absolute laymen, we had already been experienced and we had known the political events and work with people. Thus we weren’t laics when I entered politics along with Ján Čarnogurský, and it was only thanks to the Fatima movement.”

“It is necessary to say that the first person who came to the podium and who was a member of the Public against Violence from its very beginning was Ľubo Feldek. As a member of the party he announced at the podium that he surrendered his identity. I remember that actually he was the first person doing that, a famous poet, a translator, an author of fairytales for children. Then, in a sort of poetic spontaneity and intuition he said there wouldn’t be peace in Czechoslovakia until the fourth article of constitution would be in force, because the leadership of the communist party was confirmed there. I know that the Czech side responded to it, asking us not to hurry the events because it was a motion that could be so fast and dangerous to handle it. In my opinion, Czech people had some complex from 1968 somewhere in their subconscious mind, so this happened many times. We received messages from the Czechs, ‘Don’t push it so hard.’ I don’t remember the occasion, but I know my friend Peter Zajac once told me, that in one moment Václav Klaus said, ‘Gentlemen, now we have to defuse our action, moderate the situation.’ However, the Slovaks went to it and used it as one of the conditions in the general strike. And then one thing happened. It was like some kind of a fairytale event because on November 27, at night, it was Monday, the general strike of the Civic Forum and Public against Violence was declared in the whole Czechoslovakia. And on Sunday, November 26, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia held meeting in Bratislava. It meant that huge authority wasn’t only some politburo. Early in the morning, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia passed a resolution which resounded in the whole Czechoslovakia in the morning. It was the request of the Communist Party of Slovakia for repealing the fourth article of constitution on the leadership of the communist party. And I think it was a detonator because only after that, everything started and the Slovak communists suddenly resolved to do such a thing.”

“I consider the mass with the cardinal Casaroli to be the high point of the events then, it has already been described, I think it was the minister Válek who characterised it for the first time and said, ‘We have underestimated the situation and in Velehrad we got a hit below the belt.’ The state power representatives even didn’t move. Simply, as soon as they said no, what actually was their means of manipulation, whistling and shouting resounded and they didn’t move. The last thing I remember was that they stepped back and said, ‘Enjoy the feast,’ and went down of the podium. A lot of people were there and simply, the state power was suddenly motionless. It was a psychological twist of the situation. The second turning point before November 1989 was the Candle Manifestation. There were not as many people as in Velehrad, but we managed to resist, or actually, I didn’t because I was in prison then, but people endured everything there. They were being drenched, beaten, but finally they became the moral victors. It means that it was the second time that something changed in people’s minds. Everything was broadcasted on the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. These were special experiences from Velehrad and Candle Manifestation, the experiences from throughout the Czechoslovakia. It was possible to come to the square, withstand the physical attack and become the moral victors. I think these were the psychological struggles leading to November 1989, when the squares in the entire Czechoslovakia were spontaneously crowded with people.”

“In November 1989 there were five hundred and eighty-three thousand members of the communist party in Slovakia. And let’s assume that each of them had a wife and some children. Along with the family members, there were about one and a half million people, I would say, anchored in that structure, people who held key offices in judiciary, police, prosecutor’s office, army or in the management of enterprises. I remember the time after 1990, when our government had already taken power. One of the ministers from the Christian Democratic Movement was under an immense pressure to substitute the director of a huge enterprise for somebody else. And he responded, ‘Gentlemen, as soon as you show me a person who was not a communist and who knows how to manage the factory with twenty thousand employees, I will do it in a minute.’ Once I was present at a meeting in Nitra, when suddenly there was something not right. The thing was that a director of one enterprise had to be dismissed, but I have to admit that suddenly I saw people who hungered for power there, who actually weren’t communists, but something about their behaviour really bothered me. Then, I came on the Public against Violence’s meeting and I said, ‘Excuse me; I know there is nothing bad about removing communists from the managerial posts in enterprises and the like, but do we really know who wants to get there? Do we know whether those people, whom we consider to be right for those posts, are not the same careerists and unscrupulous people who just didn’t have chance or didn’t want to be members of the communist party, but whose nature makes them usurp the power and do everything to reach their aim?’ The experiences like these came from all over Slovakia, so we in the Public against Violence movement issued an instruction: ‘Stop any changes. The elections are about to come, so let everything go the normal way.’”

Ja som to osobne vnímal, to obdobie mečiarizmu, ako jedno z najťažších v mojom živote. Ja som za komunizmu sa cítil byť ohrozený, vždy nado mnou visela nejak tá hrozba väzenia, chodil som na výsluchy, ale ja som nemal pocit, že mi môže ísť prípadne až o život. Ale tie roky až po 98. to boli drámy. Jednak tam začalo sa dostávať to podsvetie. To bol asi prirodzený úkaz vo všetkých krajinách, že začali hľadať spôsoby a oni – potom sa až ukázalo – že to bolo nejak prepojené aj na tajné služby, ale v podstate sa vtedy medzi sebou strieľali. Veď to boli dosť dramatické vraždy, ktoré sa tam diali. A teraz únos Michala Kováča, veď to bol celý svet zdesený, že prezidentovho syna unesú a od prvej chvíle ten major Šimunič povedal: „Dôkazy mi padajú samy do rúk.“ A potom odvolali Vačka, čo bolo jasné, že tá Slovenská informačná služba je v tom. Tak tajná služba unesie prezidentovho syna do cudzej krajiny. To bol šok. No a potom došla vražda Remiáša, medzitým boli tie dramatické mítingy. Veď Petrovi Tóthovi, ktorý v tom čase bol novinár a písal proti Mečiarovi, zhorelo auto pred domom. Ale to je možné, že oni len strašili, pretože volali ho dolu, on nešiel dolu, vedel, že je niečo nedobre, tak mu proste podpálili auto. Mňa – to bolo tak, že my sme, keď uniesli Michala Kováča mladšieho, tak potom sme mali míting, ktorý na námestí SNP moderoval Vladimír Palko a Ján Čarnogurský vtedy tam povedal ako predseda KDH, že nie my sa budeme báť Mečiara, ale Mečiar sa bude báť nás. No a o týždeň ma zbili na ulici pred domom. Oni vedeli, že ja chodím v utorok hrávať futbal, tak si ma vyčkali a ma tam vymastili. Je treba povedať, že možno keby boli chceli, mohli mi ja viac ublížiť. Tak ma len nejak ťahali po zemi a kopali do hlavy.

To bolo tak, že v októbri 87. zavraždili na fare v Borovciach kňaza Štefana Poláka. To bola brutálna vražda, ktorá, samozrejme, sa do dnešného dňa, žiaľ, nevyšetrila. A oni ho tam našli uviazaného pri radiátore so zaviazanými ústami a zrejme sa on zadusil. Medzitým došlo v Svetovom kongrese Slovákov, kde bola tá stará garnitúra ľudí, ktorí ešte nejako súviseli aj so slovenským štátom alebo s tými rokmi ďalšími - došla nová generácia, oni to omladili a podpredsedom sa stal Marián Šťastný, ktorý vtedy pôsobil ako tréner vo Švajčiarsku. A tam bol druhý taký búrlivák, to bol Paľo Arnold. On teraz žije tu ako podnikateľ. Oni na toto došli k tomu, že niečo musíme ísť robiť, lebo tu vraždia kňazov. Tak oni vymysleli, že v tých krajinách, kde žije viac Slovákov, že bude proste demonštrácia 25. marca. Vymysleli oni dátum. A jednoducho že tam bude transparent, on nám aj poslal ten transparent – mapa Slovenska a nad tým taká ruská čižma červená šliape. A nepamätám si už, či už vymyslel nejaký prejav alebo niečo. A Jano Čarnogurský mňa o tomto informoval, že to dostal od Mariána Šťastného, teda cez jeho svokru. Najprv aj pre mňa to bolo niečo úplne nové, tak som sa nevedel s tým celkom vyrovnať, čo to znamená. A potom sme boli na lyžovačke zimnej tam v Ždiari, on bol v tom Jesenskom, oni boli z druhej strany. A tak sme sa tam stretli a ja som povedal, že poďme do toho, to je zaujímavé. No tak tam bolo treba prekročiť dve bariéry. Prvá teda, že aby sa do toho pustila tajná cirkev. Čiže prvá, aby to zobrala tá Fatima, to hnutie, kde bol Vlado Jukl, Silvo Krčméry, vtedy Rudo Fibi, ktorý bol predstavený tej Fatimy, lebo my sme mali najlepšie vybudované štruktúry. Tak tam ja som to predniesol, my sme sa pravidelne každú nedeľu stretávali a do toho ticha, lebo pre každého to bola novinka, Rudolf Fibi povedal zrazu ako predstavený, že aj sviečku, aj chuť mám. Tak to bolo rozhodnuté. Vladovi Juklovi to imponovalo, aj Silvovi. Ale bolo jasné, že Korec, keď to nepodporí, tak nebude z toho nič. Tak to som bol vyslaný ja. Ja som vedel, že Korec on nebol veľmi na takéto veci, pretože on videl základ v budovaní malých spoločenstiev. On hovoril vždy, že pokiaľ nám zoberú samizdaty, pokiaľ nám zoberú možnosť vysielať do Hlasu Ameriky a nesmú nám zobrať malé spoločenstvá, že to je kľúčová vec. Keď som mu toto predostrel, tak on zostal ticho. Tak sme tak ticho sa na seba pozerali a potom sa ma pýta, že čo chceš odo mňa počuť. Ja hovorím, no aby ste neboli proti. A on, tak to nie som.

Ťažko mi teraz povedať, že či to bolo len také preventívne, aby oni dávali najavo, že ma sledujú a to znamená, aby som si dával pozor, resp. aby som moc nevyskakoval. Lebo oni sa odo mňa nedozvedeli nič. Pamätám si, my sme v 87. dali to ospravedlňujúce vyhlásenie k židovským deportáciám, tak oni vedeli, že to organizujem ja spolu s Jánom Čarnogurským. No a tak ma zavolali, ale skôr som mal pocit, že to je formálne. Niečo také sa bežne pýtali a na záver povedali, že to židovské ospravedlnenie, že to čo má byť? Tak neviem ani čo som povedal, to bolo všetko. Potom povedzme vtedy, keď som sa vrátil z toho Poľska, keď sa ma pýtali, či som bol v Poľsku, tak viem, že sa ma pýtali, tak čo si myslíte, pápež sem nakoniec príde? Tak ja som povedal, verím, že príde. Čiže to boli, ja si nepamätám, že by oni išli nejak cielene a že by mali nejakú informáciu a chceli ma na nej dostať. Po Sviečkovej manifestácii som bol u dvoch levov a ten stále ma tlačil ten vyšetrovateľ a bol s ním ešte jeden, ale to boli už policajti, to bola verejná bezpečnosť. Vedel som, že on ma chce dotlačiť, aby som hovoril, jak som to zorganizoval a na to chceli oni zrejme nahodiť, že som priznal ja to, že som to organizoval a že to teda boli výtržnosti a že som podnecoval výtržnosti. Ale tam som ja odmietol úplne vypovedať, čiže oni nedostali zo mňa nič. A po takej hodine, hodine a pol on keď videl, že a ja som povedal, že nebudem odpovedať na žiadnu otázku, tak zrazu len tak sa na mňa pozrel a hovorí: „Pán Mikloško, Boh Vás ochraňuj!“ A poslal ma domov. Čiže tam som možno videl, že tam by ma možno chceli nejak načapať, ale ináč som nemal pocit žiadnej nejakej pasce. Keď ma zatkli na Sviečkovej manifestácii, tak tam sa zopakovalo, by som povedal, čo mi dali už v utorok predtým. V piatok bola manifestácia, v utorok ma zobrali na mestskú prokuratúru, kde ten mestský prokurátor Sucháň mi dal výstrahu, že ak neprestanem, tak ma zatknú. A oni teda, ako mi dali otázku, tak ja som povedal, že na základe takých a takých, ústavného práva som požiadal o zhromaždenie. Ja mám na to právo a nič viac som nehovoril. A to isté som hovoril aj v tú noc, keď ma zatkli. Ja si myslím, že to všetko boli rozhodnutia politické. Ja si myslím, že bolo politicky rozhodnuté, že oni ma po tej Sviečkovej nezavrú.