Mgr. Michal Šaman

“After it calmed down a bit I dared to speak. And immediately I found out how it worked. So as the bad cop stopped yelling at me that I would end up in Bory prison, I tried to ask the good one. I told him: 'Well we do have a dean's day today but we still have to attend. So I wouldn't like to be absent...' And it was a chilling moment. As it was more than all the books. As one of my teachers would teach us later: he who didn't experience such a thing, who didn't feel it, could never understand. That smile of his and that gesture he made... He pick up the phone and said: 'Hi, Zdeněk,' - that was Zdeněk Maced, a vicedean at the Faculty of Education – on such a good term with the State Security – 'we have here this student of yours. You will excuse him, won't you?' - 'Sure.' - 'Thanks, stay well, honour to work.' - 'You are excused.' It was unbelievable how they would show you the unlimited power they had. Show you that you were nothing.”

“A classic interrogation scenario: a good cop and a bad cop. And this one was the good one. He told me that I was at the literary evening and asked me what my intention was. I told him: 'There was no intention. It's my profession and my life in fact.' He said: 'And do you know that some of the things were... Why did you spread something like that? My answer was: 'I didn't spread anything. It was an official literary evening, so I gave the material to people who were interested so they could read it.' He said: 'And are you aware that some of those things may be harmful?' I said: 'Which ones?' He took my notebook, looked inside and said: 'What about this, as this our unappreciated author writes that every time there is a volcano explosion, the first thing that would fall out from the Red Right (Rudé Právo Newspaper) is culture? Do you mean that the Communist Party doesn't care about culture?' I said: 'Well, that culture is like Cinderella. As you would hear such things, right? Come on, perestrojka is here.' So I was teasing them for a while. They couldn't get me. And as they didn't know what to do, this man came – I don't know his name – this short, red-faced fatso who started yelling at me that I was there for three hours already and he would be done with me in no time. And I said: 'And what do you want from me? To denounce something? I don't know why should I denounce anything.' Of course I knew how it was meant to be understood, but there were no explicit statements like: 'Just fuck them' or 'they are criminals.' There was nothing like that. So I told them: 'You are asking me what my opinion is, so I suppose that it is my right to share my opinion with you.' After that the short one become furious and said: 'That's your right, but you better stop fucking with me! Stop babbling about those nice feelings of yours and books and all, and just answer my questions or I will show you my rights!' And I said: 'Which rights?' He said: 'I will lock you up in Bory prison for the next twenty-four hours, and after that you will yield and sign everything I want, and your studies will be over. You will do a military service and after that you will end with a shovel! That's my right!”