Alois Bouda

“I lived at the 1st May Square, in a house on the left side from the hotel Tatra, on the second floor. I was looking out of the window, when I saw a helicopter flying around, and at about half past eleven p.m., suddenly, there were communists and tanks. What was going on? Well, they were taking over our country. So, we didn´t sleep that night, and on the next morning I participated in a demonstration near the University (ed. note: Comenius University). I was only about ten meters away from that Danka, who got shot down.” Interviewer: “Can you describe me the situation, what happened there?” “You know, there were so terribly many people, Russian tanks. And the people acted foolishly. You cannot use shovels against tanks. They provoked the soldiers, what didn´t make sense at all. I guess people do not think in such situation and they act according to their emotions and not common sense, thus it had to end up like this. They dragged out Russians from such an off-road vehicle or jeep and pushed this vehicle into the Danube. I was there back then as well and people kept throwing stones at soldiers. One of them missed and smacked the rock right into my head. I remember there was also a waiter who poured gasoline on some cloth and tried to throw it under the tank to put it on fire. Finally, it ended up by a Russian soldier shooting and killing a girl named Danka. She even has a plaque at that place.”

“On the next day I almost got into trouble. I went to demonstrate on Banskobytrická Street. It is the street near the Presidential Palace, leading around the garden towards the Government Office. We marched that way and shouted slogans like: Dubček, Svoboda, that´s our freedom! That of course, could not change anything, although, as thinking about it now, it really made no sense. Well, and I demonstrated. As we were walking, suddenly there appeared four or five kneeling soldiers with Kalashnikov rifles pointing at us. I heard shooting and quickly ran into the closest door. I wasn´t alone, there were many of us. However, at once a man rushed in and screamed: ʻRun upstairs, because they are coming and shooting into the hallways!ʼ We were running upstairs and as there was a glass wall next to the stairway, all of a sudden it rattled and three bullets perforated the wall next to me. One soldier was shooting from a side road on the stairway. I don´t know what happened later as on the next day we got on a car and ran away.”

“We were living at the 1st May Square and I remember like today that on October 28, or around this date, a minibus came and we travelled to Spain to a concert tour with a band, and with the Tradicionál club. My wife was looking out of the window and shouting to us: ʻTake care!ʼ.ʻDon´t worry, we will. And maybe when we come back it will be free here already!ʼ I answered. I remember the beauty, we had a concert in the conservatory hall in Bilbao, when our Bolshevik government headed with Adamec resigned. During the break, I had such a small short-wave radio with me and I listened to it down in the dressing room. When I found out the news, I ran out and as the second half of the concert was about to begin, I wrote an English note about resigning of the communist government and read it aloud: And from now on, Czechoslovakia is a free country. And a huge applause followed.”