“I somehow found myself in the front and saw the police officers and when they stopped it, I could see the cordon, I looked back at one moment and I saw that the crowd of people was not so big anymore because they simply separated part of the people. When I turned to Národní, they blocked it for a certain moment and they were advancing and letting some people out through the side streets, or some people ran through the houses. And we stayed there for so long that we left through the street that is, I think, called Mikulandská, it was the last one that was left. As they were pushing, there was only one escape route left and they sometimes let people out. So, occasionally, they opened it, and one could run through - however, one was hit with the baton - and that is how they gradually reduced the number of people. So, we left the place which was partly motivated not by fear, but it was because it was Friday and an evening bus went home to Liberec, so we left at some point. However, we somehow got to Jungmann Square, so we heard when it started there. People were screaming and they started to beat them. We managed to return there and went to the back of the cops, but they jumped at us and basically drove us into the underground. So, it might have been a quarter-hour or ten minutes before they started to beat them when we got out of there.”
“As I have already mentioned, we had a dispute with the management, they even told us they would cut off the water and electricity in the halls of residence and that way they wanted to make us leave. However, we told them - because it was quite cold in November - to do it and that we would stay there anyway but they would have to deal with the consequences because there would be material damage when the frost came. At last, they did not do it. The management did not cooperate with us back then, on the contrary, there was a disagreement from the beginning and even when not only student representatives but also teachers started to come for central meetings - no one came from ours. It was quite tense with the school but in the end, they did not cut off the electricity.”
“Everything, including the Civic Forum, was happening in the halls of residence or Činoherák [Činoherní klub Theatre in Prague], but nothing was happening in public. Students went to factories, but they were three or four, it was not a big demonstration. And from the point of view of the Civic Forum, it was necessary to organize a demonstration in Ústí. And they knew that there were a lot of us, that it was not possible to fill the square without the students. However, I was worried to take all the people from the halls of residence. Because I thought to myself: ‘These people work here, and we will put them in groups and take them outside.' I was worried that the police would occupy the halls of residence and would not let us go back. Or that they would beat us because many people were undecided - people from families from Chomutov, Litvínov, Most - and we did not know how they would react in case something happened to them, whether it would strengthen them or whether they would say: ‘I do not need this’ and they would go home.”
Michal Koleček was born on 22 January 1966 in Liberec where he grew up with his mum. He studied at Military Grammar School and two years later he transferred to Grammar School in Frýdlant, later he studied at the Pedagogical Faculty in Ústí nad Labem. On 16 November 1989, he performed with Ústí Gratis Theatre in Prague and the day after he took part in the student demonstration. The following weekend he and other participants of Prague events informed students from Ústí and told them to join the student strike. In the following weeks, he was active as one of the student leaders and after Václav Havel was elected president, he prepared the campaign for free elections. He graduated in Art History from the Faculty of Arts, and he later became a curator, art historian and professor at the University of Ústí nad Labem.
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!
