"[The Karlovy Vary Region] is the smallest, least populous region in the country with relatively very harsh scars from the past. These manifest in the strucutre of the population; in the social climate affected by the deportation of Germans from the borderlands. This is still evident today in the entire Sudeten region. At that time, we lost the elite people who lived, worked and created here. Back then, the border region was developed radically differently from what it is today. We have not completely recovered to this day. The second major blow was the industrialisation of the entire Sub-Krušné Mountains basin, the mining of brown coal and the industries connected to it: heating, power generation, chemical production, which pretty much devastated the region. There were some 'islands' in the form of spa towns that were not completely affected, but I have said before that the Krušné Mountains looked very different thirty years ago than they do today, thank God. These two 'scars' affect the region to this day. After all, we are one of the three most structurally affected regions in the Czech Republic, along with Ústí and Moravia-Silesia. But I think that the process of the region's transformation is already visible today. This is not to say that we are doing well, but we are certainly better off than in 2000. I think that the transformation of the region will proceed slowly. It is not that something will happen overnight or that you will build something in five years. The image of the region is reflected in people's minds. This means that, unless and until the people who live here find a closer connection with the region, a setting in their minds, a sense of belonging to the region, a pride in the region, their relationship will never be the same as, for example, it is in South Moravia or in other regions where families have lived for generations and people are much more closely connected to the region than we are here. I guess I am the second generation be born here, so my roots are still relatively shallow. The outlook is optimistic, however, because we are finished with coal, the Krušné Mountains are green again, and our spa towns are on the UNESCO World Heritage List which clearly is a mark of quality. We are connecting our region, which was previously difficult to reach, to a relatively normal motorway network step by step. The transformation has been and will be long, but I don't think it could have gone any faster. It's really a matter of two, three generations."
"We came home for the weekend and found out it was not exactly easy to convey what was happening in Prague to people outside Prague. The regions had not been informed about what was happening in Prague, and most importantly, there was a significantly different tension or fear of what was about to happen. That's why the coordinating committees, actually the strike committees, started to put together a kind of information summaries at the individual universities, which they distributed outside of Prague using students who went home, to provide as much information as possible and as true as possible. We [the witness and his then girlfriend] both took part in this. A few days after 17 November, well before any protests began taking place in front of the main post office in Karlovy Vary, we brought mimeographed A4 leaflets with basic information on what had happened on Národní třída and that this was a unique opportunity to change the situation and the regime. We posted these around the city, but it didn't last long because the local security forces were very vigilant and alert. We were careful, posting late in the evening and at night. After maybe an hour, when we managed to post them all over a part of downtown Karlovy Vary, a Volga pulled up to us and the secret policemen pulled us in. They took us to the then 'Gestapo', the police headquarters in I. P. Pavlova Street below the Thermal, and brought us in for questioning. We were informed of all the possible crimes we had committed. Of course, we were stressed out, but back then we already knew telephone numbers to crisis centres in Prague for legal assistance if something like this happened. Those started working right from the beginning. We didn't put up any resistance, we were just trying to explain to people that a fundamental change in society was happening and that we wanted to spread the information that was already widely available in Prague and known to everyone in Prague, so that people in the regions would know it as well. This was why we were posting the information because there was nothing wrong with it. I remember... I don't know his rank or name, it's not important anymore. It was a pair that exactly matched the roles of a 'good' and a 'bad' policeman. The 'bad' one was saying there was no need to give anyone any information because people had enough information. We were questioned about where we got it from, who these people were, and we didn't comment. After about three or four hours, we were allowed to go call home and say we were not lost but were at the police station. We also called the legal aid line and were told not to resist; to answer if we wanted to; and if we didn't want to we didn't have to and no one could force us, which is exactly what happened. Maybe four hours or so later, we were released with the understanding that this was not over. Of course it did not escalate because the regime just collapsed in a matter of weeks and the people who were working in these forces either caught the 'new wave', unfortunately, though I don't know if it could have been avoided at all, or some of them left voluntarily, were in isolation or just got other jobs."
"You know what? From today's point of view, it's very interesting when someone asks 'how could you have lived in those times?', especially the younger generation who did not experience the rigid totalitarianism, the 1970s and early 1980s. See, when you live in that time, you don't really know anything else. We had no idea of what freedom meant. Today, I can say I'm going to Europe for a weekend, and just get up and go. I can write and say what's on my mind and nobody restricts me. We lived in a kind of pigsty where we knew the limits - this was possible and that was not, and we navigated that. And actually, at the time... well, not that we didn't find it strange. After all, thanks to the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, we knew that things were different in other civilised parts of the world. But by not knowing anything else from a young age, we were able to live with it and take advantage of what was possible at the time."
Petr Kulhánek was born in Karlovy Vary on 14 April 1971. He comes from a family of teachers; his parents Jitka Kulhánková and Vladimír Kulhánek were persecuted during the normalisation period because of their political views. He attended the Dukelských hrdinů primary school and then the Secondary Technical School of Electrical Engineering in Ostrov nad Ohří, graduating in 1989. He enrolled in the Czech Technical University in Prague in the autumn of 1989, majoring in microelectronics. He was actively involved in student protests during the Velvet Revolution. He distributed news leaflets in Karlovy Vary, for which he was interrogated by the StB. Following the revolution, he transferred to the University of Economics in Prague, majoring in business economics and management. He interrupted his studies twice for year-long stays abroad - in the USA (1992-1993) and in Australia and New Zealand (1994-1995). He received his economics degree in 1997. Then he worked as a transport logistician at Hopi. In 2000, he returned to Karlovy Vary and took over his mother‘s company, Promenáda Publishing House, publishing an information magazine for spa guests. In 2006, he entered municipal politics, co-founded the political group Karlovarská občanská alternativa, became a municipal councillor in the municipal elections and has been Deputy Mayor since 2010. KOA has been cooperatint with STAN since 2014. Petr Kulhánek also sat on the regional council for STAN and was the Marshal of the Karlovy Vary Region from 2020 to 2024. He will defend his position in the 2024 municipal election.
Petr Kulhánek is active in politics and public life in the Karlovy Vary Region. He strives for the development of the region and the promotion of local identity.
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!
