“The repression during the normalization period was not so brutal and straightforward like during the 1950s‘. In the 1950‘s, the saying was: ‘Who is not with us, is against us.’ During normalization the rule was rather ‘Who is not against us is with us.‘ And a number of people could live happily without ever entering in a major conflict with those in power, provided they would step back and not express themselves publicly. But for those who were religious it was not possible to step back fully. Already by visiting the church you would demonstrate that you belong to a certain group of people who disagrees with the morals and rules set by the Communists. And of course, among the religious people the scope of tools for expressing disagreement and dissatisfaction with the totalitarian regime was quite wide. It would range from the mere disapproval, from going to the church once a week all the way towards a point where one decided that they needed to actively defend at least a part of one’s freedom.“
“The situation at the workplace in Olomouc was interesting because the people who were against the regime were in a majority there. And even our director, who was himself a member of the Communist party, you could say that he was cheering for us. He only did not want us get locked up for too long because he needed someone to do the job. But generally he was someone who, despite his membership in the Communist Party during a certain period of time, displayed great bravery even in face of secret police officers. They came to him and asked him to fire me, Víťa Pelikán and Petr Fráňa. The door to the secretariat next to his office was open or semi-open so we heard an authentic version of what he said to them. He said: ‘Comrades, do you see that door? Please go and close them behind you. And do not ever come visit me again.‘ So you could say that even among those who were formally Party members you could find people who were able to oppose the secret police.“
“They never offered me cooperation during those interrogations or interviews. Rather, they would try to persuade us to stop doing what we did. There were of course two of them, playing the good cop and the bad cop. The bad cop would raise his voice and tell us all they could do to us and what would happen to us. And the good cop would say that we were smart and intelligent people so why should we spoil our lives like this. Why didn’t we rather go do some gardening or go swimming instead of instigating people against the regime. During one occasion, me and my colleague Tomáš Hradilek wanted to go to a court hearing but they would keep us busy in the office for so long that the hearing was over already. It happened to me a number of times that my Trabant which I used for distributing the samizdats had one wheel loosened. Once, it was not me but my father driving it and the wheel rolled off. Luckily though, he was going through a steep curve at 20 km/h so nothing happened to him.“
Tomáš Kopřiva was born on 8 February 1956 in Šumperk. Since he was prohibited to study humanities for ideological reasons, he graduated at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. He privately studied theology under the instruction of Josef Zvěřina, the Srovnalovi couple, and Oto Mádr; he became part of the Šumperk circles around Julius Varga. He also developed relations with the Prague underground and dissent. He worked in the detached department of the Prague Research Institute for Pharmacy and Biochemistry in Olomouc. At the same time, he was busy with producing and distributing samizdat periodicals and publications. He was one of the founding members of the Civic Forum in Olomouc and later co-founded the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). He was also briefly in charge of the Czech Press Agency. As an MP, he supported artist David Černý in placing a pink tank replica at Kinský Square.
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