"[I was] mainly blamed for a discussion paper at a district conference on Two Thousand Words. Yet paradoxically, a number of lectures on party history, which no one in our party was able to do, I had to do even as an expelled party member." - "I wonder if I may ask how you got to the conference and perhaps the text?" - "It was common for there to be a delegation from each party organization. Well, I was there for our school. There were about nineteen of us, so then at the meeting it was decided, 'Well, you don't have a class, you don't have to give a report cards, so you'll go.' That was purely a formality. It wasn't like today that they were sort of fighting over who was going where." - "Was that the only reason you think you were expelled from the party?" - "Yes, at least that's what I was officially told." - "Nothing else you yourself..." - "No. There was also somehow, in the conditions of such a town, a small town, no possibility of making any major trouble. It's true that during those August, September days I signed various resolutions, but that was a perfectly normal thing.
Look, at that time, on the whole, the overqualified ones were not very popular. And... it just decided, period."
"I joined it [the Communist Party] when I was still in college, most of the members of our group joined then, that was a candidacy, and then I was accepted as a member when I started teaching. And so my party activity consisted of, because of my historical education, doing various lectures instead of being included in that regular cantorial training."
- "What led you to join the party?" - "Well, I say, it was a kind of ideal that something was going on and that by doing so we could somehow intervene in social events. You know, every generation has some ideals. Today's generation's ideal is to make money, whether it's at home or in Australia or anywhere in the world. In our country there was still, perhaps, this now outdated thinking that we should do something for this country.
That was the decisive impression and the turning point that the entry of the troops made, because - I knew a number of people who were anti-communists, but who said, 'The forefather of Bohemia has led us to a stupid place in Europe and we have a choice - the Germans or the Russians. In any case, the Russians are better and we have to take them.' And by that I think the greater part of that generation of ours, we were young then, thirty years old, was somehow affected and it affected its further development."
"The graduation was so interesting. I took the Rigorous Examination in 1968 and in the autumn of 1968 I had my doctoral graduation in Olomouc. At the same time I was finishing the other thesis, and I submitted and defended my dissertation in the fall of 1969, November 6. The vote of the committee was one against, all the others, that was about twelve members, for, and nothing happened. In February, I was approved for the rigorous procedure and received my degree of Candidate of Science. The only hitch was that that November was in 1969 and that February was in 1990. It was pointless to think about an academic career at that time, even though I was offered a position from Olomouc, because somehow the cadre evaluation - 'expelled from the party' - would have prevented it in any case."
Professor František Musil was born on 7 January 1939 in Pardubice. From childhood he was interested in castles and chateaus, which he visited with his parents. This interest also influenced his choice of study. After graduating from the grammar school in Česká Třebová, he enrolled to study history at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc. He appreciated the opportunity to attend lectures by Professor Hosák, who was a great expert in his field. He took the Rigorous Examination in 1968 and in the autumn of 1968 he had his doctoral graduation in Olomouc. At the same time, he also studied older Slovak history. He defended his dissertation on 6 November 1969, but he did not receive his CSc. degree until 1990. The reason, as he says, was his speech at a district conference, where he spoke positively about the document Two Thousand Words. František Musil was expelled from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), which he joined as a young man. Subsequently, his professional career also ended, and he could only teach at the textile secondary industrial school. Only for his own pleasure could he then devote himself to his favourite castellology, visiting many Czech castles on weekends and holidays, but he could hardly publish. It was not until 1993 in Olomouc that he was able to start his truly free academic activity. Subsequently, he was admitted to the University of Hradec Králové, where he has been working ever since. His research interests include older Czech history, regional history of eastern Bohemia and Kladsko, castellology and the earliest history of Hungary and the position of Slovakia in feudal Hungary. In 1998 he defended his habilitation thesis and on 6 November 2006 he received the title of university professor from President Václav Klaus.
