Jiří Kvapil

“I was on a training camp in the woods with him, we shared a tent. We got out. What was happening? Stir everywhere. I noticed the planes flying in the sky, one after another. Something was going on. Someone had field glasses, so I looked and said: ‘Guys, it’s the Russians!’ You need to understand that there had been a major military exercise here. So there had been many Russians here. But it was like the exercise in June or July was not ending. They were still here but then they finally started to move. But no one knew they were just staying right past the borders. The politics of the attack must have been long prepared, I think. I said: ‘It’s the Russians!’ At that moment someone came with a transistor radio turned on. ‘Occupation. Planes are landing at the Ruzyně airport. They crossed the borders. They attacked us from all sides except for Austria and western Germany, apart from that they’re flooding the republic.’ There was horror, tears. Everyone knew it was over. All the promises and hopes of the Prague Spring were dashed in that moment. We lit the campfire, it was around noon instead of the evening, and that day the forest training was terminated. Strong impressions and strong experience, the gilwell circle by the fire. We felt the unity of people and that a struggle for survival is ahead of us. Nobody knew what was going to happen.”

“Religious education was still taught at school back then and our parents enrolled us, of course. The headmaster came into class. ‘Everyone who wants to take the religious education class, get up.’ So we got up. There were more of us, maybe half of the class. He didn’t say anything but even then we felt that it was something shameful, a flaw. This happened again every year and every year there were less and less students getting up. I have to say that I looked forward to seventh grade being over, that I wouldn’t have to get up anymore because religion was only taught until then. And it got worse every year. The communist shame and the love for the Soviet Union that was promoted everywhere, there was no escape from it. I know that from about fifth grade I started feeling very uncomfortable at school. Sometimes we were hauled over the coals to the headmaster. And there we heard: ‘How come you’re not a Pioneer? Why aren’t you a Pioneer?’ It wasn’t easy to answer. One didn’t know what to say. We were just kids after all.”