František Kopecký

"For example, I had a colleague at one of the high schools where I worked who denounced some boys for going to the American Embassy because they were interested in aerospace. This happened, so caution was appropriate everywhere. Where I was, I preferred to argue with physics. When I was questioned directly, I would ask, but physics itself was infinitely good for explaining the nonsense that was going around. You could always put it so that you weren't fighting but rather diverting that Marxist world view, in a practical way and with great caution. We didn't want to be heroes or provoke unnecessarily, but we didn't want to cross certain lines either; that's the way it was in our families. Like I said, I'd rather go work the shovel than to sell out. I had been teaching at the vocational school for two years and the first year I was offered to join the Party tp become a deputy headmaster, but of course I refused. Also, our employment contracts were for a definite period, it wasn't a permanent contract, and when I applied for a permanent contract, the relevant comrade said to me, 'But you've already refused to join the Party five times, haven't you?' I said, 'Right, you have the right figures.'"

"Just because we went to church regularly, we signed Augustin Navrátil's famous petition in Břevnov at St. Margaret's, which is actually not talked about although it amassed 600,000 signatures in a moment, if I remember correctly. I don't mean to make light of the 1,200 Charter 77 signatories. I met those oeioke at various times not being aware of the context; those were different matters. When there was an event, an activity, we did it, but we were not involved in this... Still, there were situations when I came home and told my wife, 'Anna, I don't know if I'll still be a teacher tomorrow, but I'm strong enough to dig trenches, so I'll work.'"

"Then we had some troubles with the new comrade director. As today we do not like to remember those time, and some of us would rather not hear of that, but I do not know, if you learnt at school, who were the flaggers...? It was a certain anti-fashist group. In my birthplace some people changed sides in a very short while and then they became the tough comrades. That´s how the history went on. For me it was the toughest that one of them sang. As in the village, how many men do you think could sing? And back then for example they sang at the Easter. Passion. So one of them sang, but if he had only sung the Judas character, but he actually sang the Christ..."

"The establishment of an agricultural cooperative has come into play. In our country it happenned quite late in 1957. I was ten years old and I remember the job well before. It was just like when you watch the movie [All good natives], exactly like that. And when Frantik signs it, we will also sign... and if he does not sign, we will not sign up. Threats - your children will not be able to go anywhere. We'll give you the land of felds right next to the woods. Because we had fields quite a distance from the forest, so there was quite good ground there. Those were not bad fields, our parents saved each crown to buy them, and when they repaid the debts, the the coop took place. We'll give you the fields in the forest with all the stones, and we'll give you big contingents, those weree mandatory levy, the supplies that were collected. They threatened, sufficated us, and finally daddy said, "Okay." on informal terms, he told him: "You know, Frantik, that we have a lot of power to do all this." And be careful, because that can happen at any time in the society. That's just the way people do and we need to be careful."

"At that time a school for repairmen of agricultural engines was opening at Dobris, and we were somehow destined to fill it in. That's where I could go, but I did not want that. I wanted to be a bricklayer like my dad. He took it pragmatically, he said, "Well, you will finish these studies and when you good at it and you want it, so you will continue to industrial school, and when you are really good at it, you will want to go to college." In order to know things from handwork to some other matter. Well, the local comrades meant otherwise. The comrade director of the school, the comrade chairman of the cooperative and the comrade chairman of the National Committee said, "No." That was such a local menace, so here was the absurd situation that some people were not allowed to go to study. When they realised I did not want to study, I was not allowed to go to become a bricklayer."