RNDr. Ivan Makásek

“Then one day my mum came to me, saying, ‘Ivo, would you like to be a part of Foglar’s unit? What if I entered you there?’ I said, ‘Mum, I could register in this unit? Don’t make a fool of me. The unit is long…’ And she says, ‘Don’t be fooled, the unit works. The Hawk lives.’ So I said, ‘Well, that would be great.’ It was thanks to the fact that my mum shared an office with a guy, Mr Stehno, whose two sons attended Foglar’s unit and brought home excited stories. My mum got an idea and asked him whether he could see to it that I was accepted. I waited for about nine months. I won’t elaborate here why but it is related to the way a Boy Scout unit lives. It was spring and the boys were getting ready for summer camps. As a novice, I would have encountered difficulties to cope. The recruitments were usually done in September. And in September of that year, my moment came indeed.”

“My future bride lived at Smíchov, Hřebenky under the Strahov hill, I lived as far as Hloubětín. When Franta from our group called me around three in the morning, saying: ‘Ivan, turn your radio on!’ I did as he said. I woke up my father too. We stood at the radio, listened, cried and heard Antonovs or what their planes were called landing in Ruzyně. The next morning I walked to Hřebenky. It was quite awkward to zigzag among the tanks and the soldiers. The most dramatic moment came when I was crossing from the National Theatre to Újezd. The Russians blocked the road but the pressure of the Czechs was so strong that eventually there was no shooting and they let us go. But walking from Štefánik’s Barracks and Holeček street up, I was really scared. Why did I walk up there? I was afraid of my bride!”

“To say ‘Ditch Makásek’ or ‘We’ll stop this’ they knew the impressions were high and that there would be unrest among the people. I was not assessing the political situation back then. This was the way it was suitable for them… and for me too. But this was not the only pressure on us. They made an effort to find a mistake in our accounting. This is the biggest and easiest weapon against everybody, as there is nothing more elegant than to find a mistake in accounting. But we managed. We were so wild, no wonder they were afraid.”

“There were three currents: The first group said that it was all about the kids, and that we need to remain especially for them. They pacified many and got many to stay with Pioneer. The second camp basically resigned. They said that it was all over and gave on the Scouts. They claimed that the Scout organization ceased to exist. And then there was the third group, which was us. We were basically an underground Scout movement.”

“We would call on Scout functionaries of the old days to help us. For example, Franta Němec-he used to be a high ranking functionary of the Scouts, a deputy mayor of the Scout movement in Czechoslovakia. Now he worked in a hotel somewhere in the Krkonoše Mountains. I’ll tell you what I witnessed. We created a Scout information agency in Prague at Gorkáč, where we alternated duty. The purpose of the agency was to spread the word, to tell the Scouts that this and that happened, that they were supposed to do this and that and to answer their questions. One day I was sitting there and you wouldn’t believe what happened! The door opened and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Franta. He came in and said: ‘Hey, I’m here’. He wouldn’t even introduce himself. I think he was touched. He just said: ‘So what do you have for us boys?’ He pushed me to the side of the table, sat down in my chair and started to manage the whole thing. I was completely taken away by that. We didn’t have the courage to lead the way for an entirely new segment of the Scout movement. We were helping it and of course these old Boy Scouts sat into the saddle and directed it all.”

“When they were reporting the show trials with the Boy Scouts in the broadcast, my dad would walk around the room and say: ‘These Communist bastards, go to hell with slandering the Scouts. The Scouts were the best organization I’ve ever been in’.“