Václav Procházka

“Each platoon had a political worker who was supposed to reeducate us. Those people were completely ignorant. Sometimes they taught university graduates and they were almost illiterate. They knew nothing about education, just the political bullshit.”

“Have you become a member of the Communist party? Did they persuade you to enter?” “There is a story. It happened when I came back to the Horoměřice collective farm and they held meetings of the Friends of the Soviet Union Association. Our political worker kept on persuading me to enter the Association and when she really didn’t know what to do, she asked me in public at an annual meeting in front of almost the whole staff of the collective farm. ‘There is only one person left who has not yet become a member of our association. Mr. Procházka would you like to enter at last?’ And I told them in front of the directors and the whole farm that I would never join such a bunch of rascals. And of course that was another misdemeanor. And it always followed us.”

“Regular political schooling was a part if the military service. It was lead by political workers. They kept on telling us that we were the trash of the society and that they will reeducate us by work and that we would not go home before we would be completely reeducated. They vented their inferiority complexes on us. The meetings were held every evening. We came from work tired and they started with political education. We were gathered in the room for meetings and they started telling us tales abut Russia, about the Russians and their inventions, that they were far ahead, that they could conquer the weather and nature and similar bullshit. Russia was a ideal with all its inventions and beauties. We were supposed to be reeducated to think the way they do in the Soviet Union.”

“Of course they put me to the worst collective farms that there were in the district. The first year I worked in Ovčáry near Kolín that was definitely the worst farm in the district. Then I married and they had to transfer me near Horoměřice to provide me with a flat, – I worked in Noutonice, Prague-West. I spent another year there. The third year I worked in Kopanina. The director was a great comrade but the farm production was a disaster.”

“In Karviná I was transferred to the disciplinary unit and our task was to fill mines. Those were jobs that nobody wanted to do, so they gave it to criminals. That was a terrible experience. They took us to the used mines which were supposed to be filled with waste rock. The shafts were only about 50-60 centimeters high. Imagine, that for the whole shift, the whole eight hours you couldn’t stand up. You had to lay down on your back and shovel the rocks all the time. We were in a row on the shaft and a civilian who worked with us brought carts with rocks. He just poured it out and if we didn’t shovel enough he would bury us under the rocks. So we had to shovel no matter if we wanted or not. A horrible job.”