Čestmír Vaško

“I had been questioned twelve or fourteen times in Chrudim. Then I went there again on an appointed date; it was on October 19, 1977. They told me: ´This time it will be held in Hradec.´ We walked down to the car and we drove to Hradec as if nothing was happening. I didn’t anticipate anything. It was around noon, and I said: ´We could stop here for a lunch before we begin the interview.´ They refused: ´You will have a snack afterward. Not now.´ They refused to stop for me and let me go to that restaurant, although during the interviews in Chrudim we had been going to the Růžek restaurant afterward. After we had passed a second and third restaurant and they still didn’t want to stop, I realized that something was wrong. They drove me to the prison from the back and began to go through my things. I wasn’t yet told that I had been detained. I had to figure it out myself. I had to take everything out of my pockets and then I was sent behind the bars.”

“Vladimír (Hajný) went to see me at that time. He expected my release. He was not allowed to visit me in the Mírov prison. It was on April 9, 1982, thus in four months it will be thirty years from then. Vladimír arrived to Mírov and waited for me in front of the gate. When I was released, we went to a Jednota shop and bought ham and wine and we walked up the hill which faced the castle. Up there we had a picnic while looking at the Mírov prison and I was happy that now I was able to see the castle from the outside.”

“I can tell you how easy it was for a criminal to become a political prisoner. There was one case on the New Year. There were many prisoners and they were watching president Husák’s speech on television. There was a tall-case clock standing next to Husák and one of the prisoners said: ´I would take that clock and kick the old geezer’s ass.´ He said it quite loudly and he was later sentenced to three years for that. Three years for contempt of the president of the country.”

“The majority of the people who worked in land survey were anti-communists. Even these old experts simply could not stand the communists. They had a positive influence on me. Some people from there had emigrated already in 1968 and they sent messages and letters how things were over there. I worked there until the end of July, 1970. I was being influenced by the atmosphere there and I planned to emigrate as well as soon as the work ended. I also visited my uncle who asked me: ´So when will it go bust?´ It was like ripening of wheat. Wheat will not become ripe in a day, but the process of growing from the sprout to the ear takes nine months.”