Vladislav Vencko

"People came to terms with it somehow, some more and some less, some used it, for some it was an attractive affair. Well, I'll tell you one more such experience from the 69th, when the first anniversary was like the occupation, so the militiamen ... Do you know who the militiamen were, kids? These were members of the Communist Party in the races who were armed. So they brought militiamen to Prague because they knew there would be demonstrations. They were throwing tear gas from the helicopters, we had eyes like this, we were screaming. And we are in Palacký ... Jesus, as he is called, in Spálený Street was a cordon of these militiamen. We threw cobblestones at them and shouted at them: 'Husák's Gestapo!'“

"I walked across the bridge between the tanks and the Russian soldiers and kept smoking. Now there was a Russian soldier there, a submachine gun in his left hand, and he was still smoking from the barrel, and he wanted me to burn his ´papyrosa´, as the Russians called the cigarette. And I did the following: I took my unsmoked cigarette, threw it on the ground, stepped on it, and went on. At that moment, I felt the biggest fear in my life because I expected they start shooting at me."