„We got our first cyclostyle copier, so we could print some material. Mainly we copied stuff coming from Prague. Some material came, some directions, not instructions, but primarily things publishable for those people in those cities, factories and schools, to make them understand that they have to do something too to get things moving. Which was complicated because it’s easy to stand on Wenceslas Square, it’s easy to go to the fountain too after all, but to say at work: ‘Look, you will leave your post because you have a Red Book’ – ‘But I didn’t do anything to anyone.’ That was the philosophy back then: we are not like them. That’s why I don’t like to call the November events a revolution. Revolution has to be radical a theoretically has to have victims on both sides, I’m not saying casualties necessarily. The Velvet was humane and at that moment acceptable and admirable. From a long-term perspective it probably wasn’t one hundred percent right. But back then it was the only solution, so we founded the Civic Forum a started to overtake institutions.“
„In the meantime, I commuted between Prague and Brno, because there were different co-ordination centers, and on top of that we also had to be here in Jihlava. So Pavel Novák would travel the most, I would go with him whenever it was possible and we had to split it up. You cannot be everywhere, you cannot be here, in Prague and in Brno at the same time. On top of that I kept mixing my work into it. I think that my part here in Jihlava was that I acted as a spokesperson or as a coordinator. That I was persuading the public face to face. They invited me to places where it was acute: ‘So come.’ I got into situations which I didn’t understand at all. But so I just had to cling to the basic principles of what was going on. That there really would be a new kind of regime, a newly structured society in a way. And that things would no longer be dependent on who has a party membership card and who hasn’t. That was the basic message, to loosen up the energy of people. I had always presented that everybody will be capable of using their skills and experience and that there will be no more bowing down to the red calf, no more debating with the comrades from the reception.“
„I was even given a gun, but without cartridge because apparently I would shoot myself with it or something. But during a military service you can think what you want about it, but they will threaten you. First a counter-intelligence service appears, and everybody is afraid of them, even if the fear might be exaggerated. And then they tell you that they’ll declare military law, which is basically martial law. They can be through with you pretty quickly there if you don’t obey an order. I think that the whole army, if it wanted to move, could have of course moved. It’d probably end up bad, because the men were poorly trained. You can think what you want about it, that it’s crap, that it’s a scam, a total bullshit, but I’ve experienced this feeling there that you cannot do anything about it. Whoever has more stripes gives the command and I get transferred from Škoda 1203 to UAZ and on the border they give me a medical SKOT, which was an eight-wheeled armored personal carrier with a red cross, and we continue rolling. “
Pavel Svítil was born October 20, 1955 into a family of doctors Miroslava and Stanislav Svítilovi. From his parents he took over the disapproving stance towards the totalitarian rule of the Communist Party that had took away a farmstead of their relatives in the countryside. His parents encouraged him to study languages and, when it was possible again, they traveled abroad a lot, before the borders were closed for them again in the 1970s. Because of a bad ‘personal evaluation’ Pavel had problems getting accepted to the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague, but eventually managed to graduate from it. In 1980 he had to undergo a compulsory military service during the operation ‘Krkonoše’, which meant he was trained to invade Poland. When back to civilian life, he started working as a cardiologist at the Internal department of Jihlava hospital. His career growth was limited despite his professional success, due to a constant vocal refusal of the Communist Party membership. He viewed the brutal intervention against a student demonstration on November 17, 1989 as the last slip of Communists and their collaborating system. He stood up for a regime change and as a spokesman of the Jihlava Civic Forum he tried to persuade people of the immorality of a favored party politics. He acted as a co-opted MP of the General Assembly until the general election in June 1990. After that he returned to the Jihlava hospital and became a chief physician of the Internal department. In 2004 he entered the private sector, running a private cardiology.
