On Monday, November 27, the General Strike was announced. It was already a nationwide event. Our undoubted role in the youth club was that we also organized the whole event in Bardejov. Now, on the 30th anniversary of November 1989, I feel as if they're trying to create the impression that people have come and done it spontaneously. Yes, it wouldn't work without them. However, only a few realize that someone organized it. That from Friday, leaflets were sent around the city, calling people to the square. Someone was handing out the ribbons. Although French tricolours, there weren't' other in shops at that time. That is, someone was preparing these things. It didn't happen by itself. Over the weekend, we wrote the text of the first statement on a computer and printed it out on a dot matrix printer at our grammar school, because I taught computer science. The durability of the printer was tested. We distributed the statement over the weekend, as there was supposed to be a General Strike on Monday.
"I didn't deal with those things at all. I wouldn't be able to do it when I was 26, I wasn't that good. If someone told me that I would speak in front of a full square, I would not believe him. In that atmosphere, in that situation, and in that sequence of events ... An event was always followed by another event. It was always necessary to solve something, it was necessary to take a stand on something. That means, I first had time to rest sometime in May. The election campaign was already raging, but I was on a trip to the Slovensky raj with my class. There, when you fall out of the action, you realise, that it could have turned out in all sorts of ways. However, I did not ask myself such questions at all. Later, when I was already in Prague, I found out what could have happened, what had been prepared. Most people become heroes without knowing. I didn't deal with it back then."
Vladimír Savčinský was born on March 10, 1963, in Bardejov. His father was the Czechoslovak athlete competing in the high jump, Vladimír Savčinský. He graduated from the grammar school in Bardejov and later studied at the Faculty of Science in Košice. After graduating from university, he taught mathematics, biology and computer science at the grammar school in Bardejov. In Bardejov he became the chairman of the film club. During the events of November 1989, he actively participated in the preparation and organization of meetings in Bardejov. He was a founding member of the VPN coordination centre in Bardejov. In the 1990 election, he was elected to the Federal Assembly. In 1991, he became the chairman of the VPN party and in 1992 a member of the presidency of the Federal Assembly. After the 1992 elections, he became a member of the Conservative Democratic Party, later the Democratic Party. In 1998, he entered into regional politics. To this day, he is a member of the Bardejov City Council. The last two terms he is the vice-mayor of Bardejov.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
