Ondřej Tichý

“One of those personalities was Bohumil Smrčka, a Tábor painter and graphic artist who was absolutely amazing. Through him, I also perceived very heavily the weight that his generation was carrying. The weight of the Russian tanks that came to them in that 1969 (sic!) to make their dream disappear. And now, twenty years later, he is experiencing a similar sense of hope, a similar breath of chance that things can be different. But it is a fact of experience for him that tanks can just come to the streets and destroy everything. Not for me. For me it was the same kind of fiction and virtual reality at that moment as Luke Skywalker's battle in the Star Wars. I couldn't imagine anything like that happening. So there, I think it is possible that there is at least some part of the dynamics of that connection between the generation, which - even if it has settled to a hobby, a leisure activity, or has remained in a supportive or active dissent - and that generation that is now coming and does not believe that someone can just spoil its chance. Which is just going to get into it with all the energy of youth to the extreme end.”

“My parents were always my closest confidants during my childhood and adolescence, so there was no reason to hide anything at all, we always talked about these things openly, so my dad was openly talking to me about what he was experiencing. If he were in a life situation, when he would have to stand on the opposite side of the barricade against me. Because he also took an oath, which is a strange phenomenon in a guy's life - taking an oath - and now he would actually be looking for some balance between what his heart was saying. Of course, in his case, his heart would win, but how to cope with the fact that here is something he just promised, and he actually promised it to the Socialist homeland and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, now he would just take it and throw away. But of course he would throw it away. But how to work it out and maintain inner, human dignity. My dad in the heart of a warrior - I really think he went through very heavy thoughts in this situation.”

“Twenty-nine out of the thirty-three classmates voted to express my agreement that my conduct was reprehensible, and only one abstained; he was my best friend then. And it actually occurred to me that even though I took each of my classmates and friends as pure-hearted people, exactly the same as me - that they were not bad people – they were actually terribly forced or compelled to bending the spine. Many of them then came and apologized for that. They would said: 'Sorry, I really want to go to college, I don't want to have any problems. If I had not agreed, they might not accept me afterwards.‘ Or:' Yeah, you know, I was afraid that if I didn't raise that hand, the teacher would have kicked me out of the graduation exams.'”

“There was the canonization of Agnes of Bohemia. And a big speech by Cardinal Tomasek. I wonder how false and deceitful could a regime be that actually not only tormented a lot of people, but still try to just spoil the canonization of the Czech saint. Those are the jewels of the nation, aren't they? If today our soldiers, like my friends, risk lives abroad somewhere, and they are ready to sacrifice lives for this country after taking an oath, these are the moments… that is where the Czech saint belongs. And the regime was so crazy that because, of course, Cardinal Thomas had spoken in all his life-wisdom - fairly, from the depth of his heart, in Christ - the same rotting communist regime tried to label it 'Censored'. “

“Another situation, which was considerably more difficult, and it actually deals with the period of eighty-nine. That was, I guess, sometime towards the end of November. At that time, I suspect that one of the generals of the Czech Republic Army had a speech in a parliament that the army - the Czechoslovak People's Army - was ready to stand on the side of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and establish order against the reactionist forces and so on. In other words, set off with military force against the demonstrators at that time. I returned from school one day, disappeared into the city to distribute leaflets, meet people, gather information, and then I came home sometime around one o'clock in the night. I know it was after midnight, and I know that under normal circumstances my parents would have been angry that I didn't report myself and that I was that late. And I saw Dad sitting at his desk with his service gun. Mom was already asleep. According to the rest of coffee in the glass, I saw that there he had experienced a few more hours of solitary meditation there. I said: 'Dad, why do you have the gun here?' And he replied: 'I was just thinking. Don't worry, that's nothing that should make you more wrinkles. But I was wondering how I would behave if I was ordered to take part in an action to suppress a demonstration. And I was thinking about what I would do, how I would react if I found myself in that situation, if I suddenly stood on a different side of the barricade than you did.”