“I remember exactly joining the Pioneer. It was at a school event, probably the Spartan celebrations. They drove us by bus to Prague. I swore the pioneer oath in the museum of V. I. Lenin in Hybernská street. They tied our scarves and swore an oath. We considered it a formality, which I probably perceived as an opportunity to escape to Prague back then with neither negative nor positive connotation. When we got back to Boleslav and got out of the bus, we tied the new scarves around our heads or diagonally over an eye and played pirate and cowboys in the park. Someone spotted us there and called the director. We got a major talking to for profaning the symbol of pioneering organisation and we were not worthy the scarves. That was the first time I realised that all that was not just a game and things are not functioning all that spontaneously. Apart from having such a funny story it made not deeper marks on me. Even today I have the red scarf in my wardrobe.“
“We went past the river bank and met the first cordon of policemen, which was actually directing us to the river and did not let us go to the Old town. Suddenly the tram riding past stopped and people were getting out and joining the march. We gradually figured it was not just a game or a happening, but something bigger. When we walked past the National theatre, Mr. Rösner and others were waving at us, probably had a break in between their performances. The kind of march looked impressive and celebratory, almost euphoric; I surely did not felt like anyone organised it, but rather felt spontaneously with all the people joining us, sometimes getting out of their houses as we walked past. Already near Vyšehrad the atmosphere was different from what was expected. ‚We are at the wrong Castle!‘ was the label at Mácha´s statue. We got into the group that was pushed to the level of Mikulandská street. I was nowhere near Spálená street, which was closed. I remember really clearly, that we were standing at the arcade, where the memory plate with the palms has been until recently and we felt the pressure. The first lightly panic strike came when we looked back near Mikulandská and the line of people, end of which was too far to see before, suddenly ended somewhere near the New scene. The area near the bridge was already cleared and empty. They first started to push people and then we felt the loss of security, as we were no longer a part of a large mass and only became a smaller group. Still I remember singing the song ‚Ach, sonny, sonny‘ and ‚We shall overcome‘, and then I don’t recall much, but I know we managed to leave through the Mikulandská street and they were letting us out in part. I first had a good idea to hide in the arcade but my friends talked me out of it and persuaded me to run away. As they were letting us go through the side in cycles, some people got beaten by a baton. I did not get beaten, but a friend walking behind me did and showed us huge bruising. As we were leaving through Mikulandská, they selectively marked a few people. We went through some small squares led by some locals, who got us all the way to Spálená...“
“We were counting ourselves at the bottom part of the Wenceslas square and were a bit afraid as we found out some people were missing and I don’t know who suggested going back for them. We were returning from Můstek to the National Avenue and got behind the crossing in Spálená. As we arrived there were shoes and pieces of clothing lying on the ground; we saw blood stains. That really scared us. We found none of our missing friends. We were returning past Národní towards Jungmannovo square and wanted to go to the underground. And there was a group of policemen with batons chasing people through the street. We all ran down the underground in Můstek from Jungmannovo square. Someone stopped the escalator going upstairs so that we could use it to run down too. We saw batons above us and though: ‚Well now we are trapped!‘ and just kept praying so that the metro comes soon and stops in our station. Luckily it did and we got on and went to the Republic square and then to the Prague-centre station, from where we were supposed to take a train to Ústí. Accidently we found a boy we were missing and went looking for in one of the metro carriages, and he was rather beaten and bleeding from his head. It could have been almost ten o´clock and we got out in the Prague-centre station, got into the waiting room and waited for the train to Ústí. It was a tense feeling as there were armoured transporters coming from Bulhar through Hybernská with the barb wire ploughshares and many of them lined from Lidový house to the back and many policemen around them. We were looking at them through the window and commented in a rough way. There was a man sleeping in the corner, who looked like a homeless but a while later we saw him standing at the transporter talking to those officer. We got scared and took the first train coming in regardless to where it was going. We got off in Kralupy waiting for the next train to take us to Ústí, where we arrived right before midnight. We talked the whole way and the euphoric feeling totally changed to an intense feeling of danger.“
Radek Kotlaba was born on 3rd January, 1967 in Mladá Boleslav in a family of a technician and a clerk as the first out of two children. Following elementary school he studied a gymnasium in Mnichovo Hradiště finished by graduation exam in 1985. His first attempt of high-school studies at the Faculty of Pedagogics in Czech Budweiser ended up in the first grade. The next year he taught at the first grade of the basic school in Mladá Boleslav and returned to the high school in autumn 1987, when he started studying the Faculty of Pedagogics in Ústí nad Labem. In 1988 became a member of a theatre group performing political plays. In 1989 he signed the petition Several sentences and in October the same year he attended the democratic initiative meeting in Brno. On 17th November he participated in marching from Albertov to the Vyšehrad and the Národní avenue. After returning to Ústí he became the founder of the strike committee along with other students and an organiser of occupation strike he helped organising public meetings and happenings. He also participated in a campaign to support election of Václav Havel. In 1990 he was present at establishing academic community, academic senate, students´ self-government, scientific committee meeting and initiative in moderations of pre-graduate preparation of teachers. Following his studies he shorty acted as a pastoral assistant in a parish and then worked as a teacher at the gymnasium in Mladá Boleslav, where he has been teaching history, the Czech language and social sciences and also works as an educational councillor. He has got two daughters, lives with his family in Mladá Boleslav and in his leisure time he plays amateur theatre.
With a gingerbread house, which my granny used to baked each winter; photo taken following my fourth birthday in January 1971 (the motive repeats in the album, which my dad was created all through my childhood)
With a gingerbread house, which my granny used to baked each winter; photo taken following my fourth birthday in January 1971 (the motive repeats in the album, which my dad was created all through my childhood)
"End of holidays, what a misery" – that is how my dad called the pic he took in the summer of 1970, which was the time, when I did not go to school yet, so I actually don’t know what made me feel so sad
"End of holidays, what a misery" – that is how my dad called the pic he took in the summer of 1970, which was the time, when I did not go to school yet, so I actually don’t know what made me feel so sad
Lovely time of snowy winters, when I used to teach skiing in the Riesenbirge (in Rokytnice nad Jizerou, where we had out cottage) – photo taken at the end of 1973; please notice the type of bonding, which I later used also during my first regional cross-c
Lovely time of snowy winters, when I used to teach skiing in the Riesenbirge (in Rokytnice nad Jizerou, where we had out cottage) – photo taken at the end of 1973; please notice the type of bonding, which I later used also during my first regional cross-c
Here I already had real cross-country skies – at a start of the "Memorial of cpt. Jaroš", which is an annual race in the area of the cottage "Erlebaška" in Rokytnice nad Jizerou organised by the skying club of TJ Autoškoda MB, an image taken in 1981
Here I already had real cross-country skies – at a start of the "Memorial of cpt. Jaroš", which is an annual race in the area of the cottage "Erlebaška" in Rokytnice nad Jizerou organised by the skying club of TJ Autoškoda MB, an image taken in 1981
A reader, probably no need to add more, as anyone who knows me just figures that is rather characteristic for me (I guess I got an encyclopedia in my hand); an image taken in 1986.
A reader, probably no need to add more, as anyone who knows me just figures that is rather characteristic for me (I guess I got an encyclopedia in my hand); an image taken in 1986.
A photo from the summer 1989 I spent with my friends in the Romanian Transylvania, where we crossed the mountains of Fagaraš; I almost did not take off the hat with a peak although it was a railway sort of hat, but I wore it instead of the one T. G. Masar
A photo from the summer 1989 I spent with my friends in the Romanian Transylvania, where we crossed the mountains of Fagaraš; I almost did not take off the hat with a peak although it was a railway sort of hat, but I wore it instead of the one T. G. Masar
A photo made in an atelier of Václav Vopata for the graduation tablo in 1985 (a son of the photographer have been running the atelier until today and accidently they were taking pictures at the graduation ball of my daughter in 2015)
A photo made in an atelier of Václav Vopata for the graduation tablo in 1985 (a son of the photographer have been running the atelier until today and accidently they were taking pictures at the graduation ball of my daughter in 2015)
A styled image taken during the Silvester night 1989/90 in the high-school club in a college of the Faculty of Pedagogics in Ústí nad Labem witnessing a rather decently wild atmosphere there, as we could always celebrate well
A styled image taken during the Silvester night 1989/90 in the high-school club in a college of the Faculty of Pedagogics in Ústí nad Labem witnessing a rather decently wild atmosphere there, as we could always celebrate well
In 1990, one of the happenings in Ústí, a march from the Peace square to the Činoherní studio, Karel Tománek is the one lying in the coffin carried by the former actors of the theatre; I walked on the left
In 1990, one of the happenings in Ústí, a march from the Peace square to the Činoherní studio, Karel Tománek is the one lying in the coffin carried by the former actors of the theatre; I walked on the left
Graduation took place in the Saturn hall of the castle; here I stand with the promoter, a professor Lenka Bobková, a rare personality and a great expert I really like remembering
Graduation took place in the Saturn hall of the castle; here I stand with the promoter, a professor Lenka Bobková, a rare personality and a great expert I really like remembering
A portrait photo done for the purposes of election campaign in the city representation in MB probably in 2002, when I was a candidate for SNK; and finally did not get elected anywhere
A portrait photo done for the purposes of election campaign in the city representation in MB probably in 2002, when I was a candidate for SNK; and finally did not get elected anywhere
This is how it suited me in a Renaisance costume celebrating the 400th anniversary of promotion the city of Mladá Boleslav to the royal city in 2000; I represented a council and the city chronicler, Jiří Kezelius
This is how it suited me in a Renaisance costume celebrating the 400th anniversary of promotion the city of Mladá Boleslav to the royal city in 2000; I represented a council and the city chronicler, Jiří Kezelius
Wearing this costume I acted in the library of Mladá Boleslav on the occasion of "The night with H. Ch. Andersen" and read his bedtime stories to children (around 2005)
Wearing this costume I acted in the library of Mladá Boleslav on the occasion of "The night with H. Ch. Andersen" and read his bedtime stories to children (around 2005)
In this photo the principal of the Divadýlko na dlani, P. Matoušek, we are participating in the Napoleon’s days at the castle of Loučeň, me standing on the left (around 2009)
In this photo the principal of the Divadýlko na dlani, P. Matoušek, we are participating in the Napoleon’s days at the castle of Loučeň, me standing on the left (around 2009)
Here I am running to the finish of "Grand Prix Dalovice", a run, which my friends have organised annually in October for over thirty years and it keeps me fit and in a good shape (some time after 2010)
Here I am running to the finish of "Grand Prix Dalovice", a run, which my friends have organised annually in October for over thirty years and it keeps me fit and in a good shape (some time after 2010)
With Mrs. Mandel (the head of ASUD) and Mr. Milner (deputy ministry of education) prior to recording the program "The Bat Club " produced by Antonín Přidal in Brno studio of the Czech TV, the part called "Gloss and misery of history" on 31st October, 2000
With Mrs. Mandel (the head of ASUD) and Mr. Milner (deputy ministry of education) prior to recording the program "The Bat Club " produced by Antonín Přidal in Brno studio of the Czech TV, the part called "Gloss and misery of history" on 31st October, 2000
A picture from the Peace square in Ústí nad Labem during demonstration on 22nd November, 1989, where I accompanied a future film scriptwriter, Vašek Holanec (I stand on the right)
A picture from the Peace square in Ústí nad Labem during demonstration on 22nd November, 1989, where I accompanied a future film scriptwriter, Vašek Holanec (I stand on the right)
