“We came to the auditorium, it was locked, so we crammed in the lobby in the Faculty of Law building on Safarik Square, and the five who wrote the challenge jumped on the sub-window, each reading only one sentence. They were terribly afraid, having to distribute the burden. If only one read it, they would arrest him and the revolution would be over. They already knew that masses were supposed to join, so that they could not fight the revolution by putting a few protagonists in custody. Most of us agreed with that. Then Valér Mikula jumped up, saying „the teachers are with you. „And for that came the instruction to open the assembly hall. Apparently the Dean was afraid that the students would gather outside and start to manifest, protest like in Prague.
They as school representatives sat behind the podium, we sat down as plebs - students and they sat up there as dignitaries of the university, they turned on the sound system. At that time we were extremely that there were a few prepared people there: Milan Novotny, Boris Strecansky, Sveťo Bombík, Tomáš Hrivňanský, Rasťo Rigo, Adriana Hosťovecká. Suddenly people were approaching the microphone and expressing themselves in terms of how the state apparatus could take such agressive measures against students who were telling the truth. In the speeches, we reguested the representative’s response. At that time we were not revolutionaries yet, we just asked: this is not right, say something. We expressed solidarity with Prague. We wanted to join them. Even then, we asked the authorities for opinion.But they dug their own grave by being so stuck in their positions. ”
“At that moment, the revolution was established, on November 20, 1989 at the Comenius University Philosophical Faculty in the auditorium, from that moment it began to organize, then it was writing calls, putting up posters, engaging other universities. We connected with VSVU, where the professors were much more welcoming, so the hedquarters of the revolution moved there. Nearby, the centre of VPN was established- there were experienced people, politically they knew what to do. We went to the squares, put up posters and banners, we went to the factories and wherever it was needed until the squares were full. Almost every day there was a rally, numbers of participants increased, until general strike was declared and the abolition of the 4th article of the constitution on the leading role of communism party was requested.“
„I felt my respect for the authorities, deans, vice-deans, sinking. They were puppets without opinion. I was again listening as Sveto Gombik, to somoone’s great speach, followed by empty phrases. I was angry. I stood in the line for the microphone, I had prepared what I’d say- it was short, concise and persuasive. I said something like: when I listen to your excuses as you are unable to say something for yourself in this situation, when fact came to the light, you have lost credit for me and I feel ashamed of you. After these words, there was silence in the auditorium, and I wondered if they were going to take me to prison. Apparently I managed to express the emotion in the auditorium, the emotion of "we no longer value you", other speakers got on: you do not represent someone who can speak for us, you are not our representatives, we want to choose our own representatives."
"When I was 16 years old, I started to go to nature within the Trnava Climbing Section Slávia Trnava. There I suddenly met people, often they were workers or engineers, they had technical professions, they were 20-30 years older than me. And suddenly in the evening by the fire, Karel Kryl's songs were heard. I didn't know what was going on, how someone could sing something like that. It sounded authenticand at the same time, it was against the doctrine my father and school taught me. I recalled my mother, she didn’t believe what we were living. At the fire, I’ve experienced a rupture, as if a bube, in which I was living safe from the reality of the dictatorship, in which we were living, broke. Until 16 I had been a child, I was obedient at school, only guilty of some childrens‘ mischief. Collecting chestnuts or paper was percieved positively. Communism presented itself as moral, beautiful- what was served to children sounded good. In fact, some things which corresponded to the doctrine were good- harvesting chestnuts, caring for nature, helping the elderly. The political proclamations in Pravda seemed unrelated to me, reports from congresses and their conclusions, it was full of mere phrases for me.
Jana Plulíková, nee Benková, was born on 9 February 1966 in Trnava. She studied English and Slovak at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. Since high school, she has been in the environment of tourists and climbers who opposed the regime. As a student in November 1989, she actively participated in the revolution at Comenius University. Since her youth she has devoted herself to literature, published a bilingual collection of poems Jantar/ Amber and a book of interviews with climbers - Everest ‘98 - Testimonies, which also criticizes the efforts of HZDS to misuse the Slovak climbing expedition to Everest for its propaganda purposes. Since 2004 she has been working as a translator for the European Parliament in Brussels.
