Miroslav Klička

* 1945

  • "For example I remember the Janovice barracks, where it looked so strange, because the whole driveway to the entrance was packed with Russian army tanks. The entrance gate was closed, and after the pounding, when an officer, who had a tricolour stretched over a brigadier, opened for me, I saw that the tanks in those barracks were ready to go out again. There would be a terrible massacre if someone lost the nerves. So I explained to him that I was carrying some newspapers from Pilsen, he grabbed them and said: 'Are you coming tomorrow too?' So I drove them there for a while, but I didn't always manage to get there, I said it elsewhere again, because they kept messing up and closing it more and more."

  • "Everyone always got an offer to cooperate straight away, because they always knew something about everyone and said that they could turn it out, bring it out and cause them problems. There was a boy of the railroads, an electrician who made some radios at home, so he took some spare parts to the house, some wires and so on. So they had this information about him, he had no idea - no one ever caught him doing it, but the cops just had it noted down in his file. So the poor man had a bit of a weak nerve and went to explain to them. He came to the club and said, 'Boys, I agreed with them, so I won't be here anymore.' Some people preferred to leave the groups so that they would not have to say what they heard. And some didn't leave and reported on others."

  • "The meeting was at the final in Bory, the army was to intervene, but it did not even get out of the barracks, so they were still there. They probably didn't even get out of the barracks against those who set the tribune on fire. There it collapsed, they pulled out the banners and Klatovská, then Májovka, they went down to the city. I was in the parade because my mother was there. We reached Masaryk Square and it stopped there and someone started shouting out, what the people have done there in the morning and looking down from tribune. So the voice from the crowd said, it's always the voices that start it, they have it figured out in advance - so he shouted: 'Let's get rid of him, lets take Masaryk down!' and so on. Suddenly, huge big long ropes appeared in the procession, everything was prepared in advance. Some amateurs climbed on Masaryk, tied a rope around his neck and they started pulling and tore him down from the monument. Then someone started shouting, 'Take down the others!' My mother shouted, 'Leave them there, they're people like us!' So someone started getting at her, the emotions were just weird there."

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    Plzeň , 31.07.2018

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Live and let live

Miroslav Klička in 2018
Miroslav Klička in 2018
zdroj: Pamět národa - Archiv

Miroslav Klička was born on August 20, 1945 in Pilsen. His father was a carpenter, he only went home on weekends. The mother was a manual labourer. She has a 10 years’ older sister. In 1953, when he was eight years old, he experienced monetary reform. His mother took him to the procession, which then tore down Masaryk‘s statue in Pilsen. After primary school, he went to Škoda to learn to be a painter and immediately after his apprenticeship, at the age of 17, in 1957 he had to join the army in Týniště. There he managed to establish Dukla and competed with other soldiers on barges, thus avoiding the duties of ordinary soldiers. Two weeks before the end of the war, he received a blue book due to stomach ulcers. After the war, he started working as a driver, then joined the Military Buildings, where his father also worked, and started doing crafts. In August 1968 he worked on a military farm in Kněževes. On August 20, when his birthday took place, he got on a motorcycle and went to Pilsen to celebrate. On August 21, he wanted to return to work, but did not get out of Pilsen, all roads were closed by soldiers. When he learned of what was happening on the radio, he went to the place, and there he later received information that the soldiers were patrolling Pravda and that it was necessary to distribute a newspaper among the people. Through a hole in the wall, where the soldiers did not guard, newspapers got out, several people always disassembled them and distributed them all over the region. After 1968, the Russian buildings were occupied by the Russians, Miroslav lost his job and became a driver in Pravda. He later got interested in photography, but because he was not in the party, he had to leave. He eventually worked in the West Bohemian Gallery. He refused to cooperate with the state security. Today, he is retired and says that at the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he was annoyed that many people had just changed their coats. And that after the expulsion of Russian troops, the Russians did not leave here, only the army left, and the people in charge of our country sing the old Russian songs.