Mirko Veselý

“The second summer camp was bizarre. The communists were already completely confident then, and we camped near Říčany, in a valley of a small creek. Twelve children in ordinary, borrowed tents. My mum was already fired from school back then because of one Bolshevik family which accused her of mingling with the scouts. She wasn’t a party member so they fired her from her teaching job. She then went to teach at a village school. We were young, enthusiastic, and wanted to carry on scouting. She said: ‘This won’t end up well. Take something to cover the notice board at least.’ Back then there was a Russian magazine called Ogoniok, and in one issue they published a large colored map of the Soviet Union. We brought it with us to our mini-camp. There was me, my brother, one other chief, and twelve boys. We were having a blast. Suddenly a shiny black Tatra car drove in and parked at the meadow. A woman from a communist family walked out along with some regional officials. They went to check upon those orgies of ours. I only had time to shout: ‘Go to the notice board and put the map on!’ The weekly program was quickly covered by that map. The delegation went for inspection through the camp. There was just a fireplace and a couple tents. On the notice board there was a piece of paper under visible under the map: ‘Dinner – Seton’s pot.’ The woman asked what it meant. I replied: ‘Comrade, it’s the same as the Gipsy pot.’ So they drove off.”

“The problem is that as we lived in it continuously, being a Party member was not such an excess. Today it would be different. But everyone knew who was who back then; who was an adept communist; who couldn’t be trusted. They then came to see me, telling me to join the Communist Party. I told them I had no intention to. The head of the party organization called me up, and even invited me to his place. By chance, his wife was a Pionýr chief who joined our camp as a supervisor. He told me I could work as a chief. I told him I had no interest in it and that I didn’t want to join the party. He replied that there had to be a reasoning. I told him that it was easy for me – being a scout. That’s where it ended.”