Zdenek Zukal

"My mother didn't want to let me go anywhere, but of course I ran out onto the square with my friends. Armored vehicles came down Riegrova Street. People, students and everyone else surrounded them. They [the Russians] got scared and shot several times in the air. We all kind of scattered away. I have quite a strong memory of the fact that when the Russians arrived, they were scared, too. Of course, we were scared too when they started shooting."

“Every night we had to watch the communist news. It was also possible to get German television. We watched German adds for about two minutes. There was some foam and half-naked women bathing. Two tents full of horny blokes roared with excitement. But they turned it into group watching of western television. The kontráši [members of the military counter-intelligence service] arrived and interrogated us one by one. They threatened that we would be expelled from school and that we would have to do two years of military service instead of one.”

“It was a part of everyday life. Russian cars were still all around town. You kept an eye on them. You didn't know what the person in the GAZ car would do, because they were considered special. It was said that they drove like animals. Some people made business them. And they also had two 'department stores', where you went to buy their goods. They created a kind of Russian Tuzex. You would see their bosses covered with medals at all events. When you saw them on the street, you would cross to the other side of the road. No one wanted to confront them. It was known that they had some missiles in Libavá. You could feel their presence like danger in the air.”

"I came to give an explanation at court. But the police told me that I was under arrest. I couldn’t understand it at all. They handcuffed me, took away my shoelaces, my necklace, probably so I wouldn't hang myself. And they took me to court to decide if I should be taken into custody. Fortunately, I managed to give a sign to some acquaintances. Journalists arrived. Pavel Dostál was there, who was then already a member of parliament. And it all started to get media coverage. Železný from the TV-channel Nova also stood up for me. But it was a terrible feeling. They were telling me that they wanted to send me to Mírov Prison, because it had a pre-trial detention centre and the conditions were worse there. I didn't know what was going to happen. I felt like crying. I was mentally broken. During communist times nothing had happened to me, and now they were leading me like a sheep to be slaughtered.”