"Well, and that's exactly it! You know, that's the fate of our generation. When we were just starting out in our twenties, the Russians came here, and we had our lives turned upside down. Then we got to the peak of our careers–I was forty–and I could have reached a great position in a few months, maybe even sooner, and then - on the street. You know, some of my colleagues couldn't take it. Some ended up in psych wards, and some... those were tragedies, divorces. Because, you know, it's hard with women. Women ran away immediately because they were used to a high standard of living. But I didn't have such a hard time because history helps out a lot. The revolutions, they were always... But the worst mistake is to sit down, open a bottle and start pitying yourself. That's like digging your own grave."
"To a certain extent, it worked that way. On Monday after the demonstration, I was invited to a meeting with the high officials, but it was completely outside the conservative mainstream. And they were projecting footage that had been taken by State Security. I was invited as a television crew because they were deciding what footage could be submitted to Czechoslovak Television. I'll just say one interesting thing about that. Among those officials, where I was present as an advisor, it was not in the interest to look for footage justifying the police intervention. On the contrary, they were looking for footage that was supposed to show the brutality of the police."
"You want to have a career. I wanted to achieve something in my life. I don't deny that, of course. I also knew, actually, I wanted to say that I don't like it when people say today - I did it out of youthful indiscretion or I did it - no! We all knew what we were getting into that year–in the seventies–when we joined the party! We all knew that. That's not youthful indiscretion. Nowadays, when I hear a high official saying it was a youthful indiscretion. Especially when they were in their early thirties at the time. No! That's complete bullshit. We all knew what we were getting into! Because we all experienced 1968. By that time, you know, when I joined the party, few people actually believed in the ideology. 1968 cured just about everybody. Especially I, as a historian, I knew exactly how it was. And I still had the memories of the fifties. So we all knew! I'll say that again emphatically: we all knew."
"The big disappointment here was how the figures of 1968 then quickly... well, not quickly, but for how long they were giving it up. I mean, look at Dubček, he was still... then he went to that Federal Assembly, he signed the baton law, then as an ambassador. Císař and all those who used to be our idols when we were young. It was a terrible disappointment for us. Not only did they not do what Kriegel did, we didn't even begrudge them that much when we were young. But the fact that they held on to it for so long when they saw it slipping away, that it was going away. Any reasonable person could see that. That they didn't end it, that they didn't walk away from it!"
Jaroslav Dobiáš was born on 31 October 1949 in Třebíč and spent his childhood and youth in the nearby Přibyslavice. His parents divorced when he was still a small child, but by then, his father, Vladimír Dobiáš, no longer lived with the family. Jaroslav never established a relationship with his father. He grew up with his mother, Drahomíra, née Komárková, and his older brother Vladimír. The head of the family was his maternal grandfather, Jaroslav Komárek, who was the mayor of Přibyslavice for many years. After graduating from the grammar school in Třebíč, Jaroslav Dobiáš continued to study History and Czech language at the Faculty of Arts of today‘s Masaryk University in Brno. After graduating from university, he taught at the Secondary School of Economics in Třebíč for several years. At the end of the 1970s, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which opened the door to a career that had been closed to him because of his unsatisfactory personnel record. In 1981, he started working at Brno television as a programme editor and quickly worked his way up to the position of deputy director. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History Teaching a year later. In 1989, he was poised to become the central director of Czechoslovak Television, but 17 November stirred the pot. At the turn of 1989 and 1990, he briefly served as director of the Brno studio of Czechoslovak Television but resigned at his own request and left after a few months. Since the 1990s, he has worked in the field of media consultancy. He has written several television scripts, a play, and a book of short stories. In 2023 Jaroslav Dobiáš lived in Radkovice u Hrotovic.
From the left: central director of Czechoslovak Television (ČST) Jan Zelenka, J. Dobiáš as deputy director of ČST Brno, director of ČST Brno Svatopluk Bimka and second from the right, director of ČST Ostrava Evžen Saidok, 1982
From the left: central director of Czechoslovak Television (ČST) Jan Zelenka, J. Dobiáš as deputy director of ČST Brno, director of ČST Brno Svatopluk Bimka and second from the right, director of ČST Ostrava Evžen Saidok, 1982
Jaroslav Dobiáš in his office as deputy director of Czechoslovak Television, from the left: head of the drama department Svatopluk Vála, Oldřich Navrátil, circa 1983
Jaroslav Dobiáš in his office as deputy director of Czechoslovak Television, from the left: head of the drama department Svatopluk Vála, Oldřich Navrátil, circa 1983
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!
