Přemysl Fialka

"I actually didn't want to go at all because it was organized by the SSM, so I thought, you know... But the Videojournal eventually sent me there and I filmed the speeches at Albertov. Then we went to Vyšehrad, and Dubček even walked with us from Vyšehrad. From there we went to Národní třída. In the meantime, the police blocked it off somewhere near the municipal court, but somehow we managed to get around that. Or maybe Zivčák took over, I don't know exactly. We got to Národní třída and it was fierce. And my batteries died on Národní. They just died and I couldn't shoot anything there, so I went to a nearby cinema, I don't know what it's called now. Maybe it's still there. There was a dance class going on in the hall. I plugged my charger in and had it charge for a while, but the dance master came and kicked me out. I went back upstairs and it was like this brilliant cinematic cut: people being beaten in the street while others dance jive downstairs. It was quite interesting. When I came out, I made like two shots and it died again. I don't have any of the important stuff at all. I was unfortunate."

"I was under surveillance all day. I led them around Prague; I even tried to escape from the subway ala The French Connection, making two fatsos run, trotting after me from the Staroměstská station. I crossed the bridge, and then across the park, I tricked them into running away, but they caught up with me. Then I went to my former job at the CTU, because I had a job there, and I watched them from the window. They stopped and it was raining a little bit, so they were hiding in the building entrances. Two of them followed me upstairs. We had CCTV there at that time, so I watched them. We were supposed to film somebody - I don't recall who - the next day, so I called Aleš Havlíček's girlfriend at the time (he married her later). I said I couldn't come because I was being followed. They had tapped the phone at the exchange - I saw somebody run out of the house and go to the car where presumably their boss was. They said something and went inside, so I hid everything - my diary and all. It's a classic situation: I'm walking down the corridor, and there's three gentlemen opposite me, and they stop me and say, 'Are you Mr. Fialka?' I said, 'I am, and who are you?' They took out badges and took me to Bartolomějská (office) where I was interrogated for about six hours."

"When I started dating Markéta, before we got married, I got out of the house one day and tires squealed. Two men grabbed me and took me to Bartolomějská. I protested; I had to go to work and they said they would take care of it. They tried to talk me into collaboration. But by then, I was already making fun of them. First, an older gentleman, in his sixties, was acting kind of fatherly at first. When they found out I was making fun of him, he got tough and said: What about a military drill in the winter? I told him I was all in; I loved it. Then they let me go and I had to sign a promise not to talk about it anywhere. I went straight to Ječná, to my mother-in-law's house, and retold everything in their wiretapped apartment. They never offered it to me again because they knew I wasn't the right agent."

"The thing was, if you had a bit longer hair... I always had to go to the toilet first, wet my hair and tuck it back when I was an apprentice, because otherwise they'd send me to the barber. For example, the TV ran this campaign: "If you have long hair, don't come among us." Longhairs were dirty and evil. That came not only from those political circles - ordinary citizens loathed us too. Those who had long hair were more or less discriminated against."