Pavol Kossey

"We knew that this was essentially an illegal activity, and such rings were severely cracked down on everywhere. My parents also gently dissuaded me: ``Paľko, you have books, you shouldn't overdo it so much,'' but for me it was important - simply the communication with peers and the opportunity to solve and talk about things. Because it was a free environment and it was very rare at that time that a person didn't have to pretend there, didn't have to play something. We were simply looking for the truth there, and we tried to shape our lives in such a way that it was worth something. So that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and thus be good people for society in the most general and best sense of the word, who do not want to live only for themselves, but also for others. Just really in that Christian love."

"As for that match, when we won over the USSR, it was actually the Nedomanský, Golonka team, just these guys, so we spontaneously took to the streets at that time. I was then, but it was in the sixties, about nine, so I was about 12 years old. I mean the same with my sisters and my father, I don't know my mother, maybe she wasn't there, maybe she stayed with her younger siblings. We went - it was like the market on Miletičová Street now, there was a building where, I think, even the Russian army had some sort of headquarters; where the financial report is now. So it was a spontaneous manifestation, we were just happy, traffic was stopped. It was a big demonstration, there were thousands of people who came out spontaneously, and we were just happy to beat the Russians. So it was generally said that we charged the Russians. So it was such small manifestations that we felt beaten, and when we had the upper hand in something, it was a huge joy."