Eva Mašková

“We’d arrive at the meeting point, some people would be given parade sticks, everyone was anxiously trying to avoid getting stuck with a banner or anything of the kind. There were people designated for checking attendance, how many had come from thermodynamics, how many from R&D. But when it started, no one passed by the grandstand, we all sneaked off. We did at school as well, instead of going in the parade we went to Petřín. We’d sabotage it as best we could. The first time I joined the parade gladly and of my own volition, with my family, was in 1968. What an atmosphere. People were well-behaved, Dubček was popular, he behaved decently, not like an idiot. One almost started to like those Communist people. But that only lasted a very short time.”

“My husband and I were in Austria in sixty-nine. We had our children with us. When we drove up Grossglockner, with our [Škoda] Octavia, he informed me he’d rather not return, that he’d emigrate. And I must admit I was the dunce who said no. Because it was raining, it was cold, we only had the car, our two children, and a tent. I said: ‘Zdeněk, I pretty much don’t have any skills, how would I support our family if something happened to you.’ He was a responsible man, so we went back. And I must give it to him that he never once reproached me for it, despite all the rough times he had. That’s who I was. I wasn’t a hero. I was a coward and a dunce.”