František Janačík

* 1969

  • “All of a sudden, these two GAZ cars showed up. And maybe a half of our command got out, followed by our political officer. Unfortunately, I don´t remember his name, as he was transferred to our unit from somewhere. The word was that they did it as a punishment, as he was a heavy drinker, and he was drunk even on the day they came to our unit. In fact, they came to explain us that the political conditions began to take concrete shape, so we should be able to deal with it, as we were especially vulnerable as soldiers and could be influenced by spies sent by Western powers. So we should be vigilant and we have to watch out for everybody, especially for all those dissidents. And if we had ever heard about this Havel, he was the one we should be wary of in the first place. 'If you would spot him lurking somewhere behind a fence, for example, you must report him immediately!' So it was quite absurd as we were standing in our quarters, just four of us, surrounded by those six or seven men. And they would be telling us those absurd ideas of theirs to our faces, standing just about two meters away. We were trying not to laugh and we were telling them: 'Sure, we will keep an eye on Havel and all those dissidents and of course we will report them immediately.' And the drunken political officer would tell us: 'But you need also to know how to defend yourself, boys!' - 'What do you mean?' - 'Well, you need to know some basic judo moves, or karate.' - 'We don´t know anything like that.' - 'So let me teach you!' And as he was drunk, he would choose one of our colleagues. And he told him: 'Try to attack me with a knife.' So he tried and the officer missed and fell over. And as he was getting up, he told us: 'That´s the way you have to protect yourself in every situation. Let me show you one more wrestling move I know,' and for maybe an hour, he would do this sketch, falling over and over again as we were trying not to laugh.'

  • “There was this incident, as the boys who had to stay in the barracks on the New Year´s Eve, invigorated by drinking and the whole atmosphere of changes, wanted to go outside to sing the national anthem. And this man – captain Andrejčo – would in fact stop them as they were walking out. We were on the first floor. And if you wanted to go outside, you had to go downstairs. So he would stop them in the mezzanine, pointing a loaded gun at them. He told them that they wouldn´t be singing the anthem or praise this Havel. He insisted, that the Communists would remain in power and that he would take care of anyone who would think otherwise. And that he would have no problem shooting someone right there on those stairs if they would be willing to go out and sing. And the boys who were there believed him. As he was indeed an evil man. Every soldier including me had a problem with captain Andrejčo as he liked to create problems. He was the commanding officer. What a bastard, as people would say, so in the end, they wouldn´t sing. They would bow before a loaded gun and came back upstairs. But of course they knew what to think about that.”

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    Hradec Králové, 30.01.2020

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They told us we have to watch out for the opposition and especially for Havel

František Janačík was born on June 1st 1969 in Albury, New South Wales, Australia. His parents emigrated to Australia after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. A year after František was born, his mother gave birth to his sister. In 1973, the family came back to Czechoslovakia. After three years, his parents divorced. His father, František, started to work at the uranium mine in Dolní Rožínka. His mother, Eva, began to work at a glass factory in Nový Bor. The witness and his sister had been living with their mother and her parents in Nový Bor. František had to learn speak Czech and mastered the language as a seven-years-old. After finishing elementary school he began to study at a gymnasium type secondary school in Teplice. As the son of emigrants he had been struggling to finish the school, taking his leaving exams as late as in 1988, however, he wasn´t admitted to university. For some time, he was an office worker at the district cultural centre, then he did a blue-collar job at a porcelain factory in Bohosudov. In October 1988, he started his compulsory military service, spending most of it at an airfield in Hradec Králové. There he witnessed the Velvet Revolution as well as the complicated transformation of the army under the new, free conditions. After 1990, he has been working as an editor at the Czech Radio in Ústí nad Labem. In 2019, he has been living in Teplice.