Václav Vašák

The biggest shock was when I and Ondra (Vetchý) went, he led me to that Činoherní klub [theatre] for the first time and we were making our way through the crowds of demonstrants on the St. Wenceslas Square and suddenly, I heard Havel talking and he said things one would be afraid to even think about. And he said it loudly and in front of a hundred thousands of people. At that time, I thought that it’s not possible for the events to take a turn back. That it [the revolution] has to succeed. Luckily, it did work out fine. Ondra wanted to introduce me to him [Václav Havel], even. He showed me such photos at the [theatre] bar and told me to move one away. I removed it and there was Václav Havel’s signature, under that photograph. Had the communists seen it, they’d go crazy. So, yes, Václav Havel was a familial figure. I couldn’t imagine that the old communists who had stayed there could vote him a president. That he’d become a president. But as I’ve found out later, at that time, everything seemed to be possible.”

"After the 1968 occupation, the Russians became unacceptable for me and they will remain so until my death. When I saw what nonsense we copy from them, what dunces rule us with the Russian help, I hard hard time bearing it. The relaxation, that deep breath of the nation was really motivating. Later, when I saw the tanks and at that moment when I left the building of the main train station and waited for a tram and saw that truck which some students rode and they held a bloodied Czechoslovak flag, now that’s a scene I will never forget. At that moment, It became clear that this was no fun. That day, public transport stopped working so I walked from Karlin to the Smichov train station because I wouldn’t get there by other means. I remember, for example, how I walked across the Legions’ Bridge, back then, it was called First of May Bridge then, and someone started shooting at those Russians with a pneumatic gun. They fired back. I and a plenty of other people had to crawl across the bridge. That another such a moment. It was on the 21th of August and at the beginning of September, I had to go and serve my term. My mom was utterly devastated. I told her: ‘See, you should have gotten me the blue book [the certificate of being unable to serve for health reason was in the form of a blue booklet] and I wouldn’t need to leave.’”

"I was ecstatic that out of sudden, we could talk about this or that, that, suddenly, as if censorship started to exist, thta people started to be nice to each other and I really enjoyed that I could learn something about the personality cult, stalinism, executions and so on."

“I arrived as a graduate of a military academy but I had no officer rank, I was just a fresh-out-of-school corporal. I had those two yellow stripes, they called it rail track. So, I was a squad leader, which was terrible. The experience was similar to 1968, when I saw those tanks and bloody flags. And now I went through 1969 and it was horrible when guys from my squad volunteered that they want to accompany the policemen on their beats. I had thought until then that those were normal guys and they turned out to be total arseholes. They volunteered only because – and they told me in my face – to be allowed to beat the crap out of the hippies, those hairy guys, with the batons, and with impunity. Now that was something, this experience, and I became aware that it’s not all for one. In every group, there are people who are, in fact, swine.”