"I remember that day, we had a meeting of the VPN coordination committee of students at the old Slovak National Theater. We met there. It was beautiful, we were sitting downstairs, of course, and there were still cameras with cameras on top of the balconies, filming our entire meetings. And suddenly the director of the theatre had such a small transistor there at that time, and that's when we learned that the Central Committee of the Communist Party was resigning and so on. "
56:13 - 56:49 A memorable day when the students learned that they would not be imprisoned - the resignation of ÚVKSČ
"We do have a democracy, but we don't know what to do with it. We have freedom, but we do not use it. We can say our opinion, we can write it, we can promote it. We are even obliged by law according to the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, we have a duty to check the deputies to see if they are doing our will. But who is doing it? Which citizens control our MEPs? That's a few bright spots when something happens. Mostly it's after a huge catastrophe, after a problem and so on. "
1:07:36 - 1:08:09 We have a democracy, but we don't know what to do with it
"I have believed since high school that the regime must fall once. Although it may have been naive, but I believed it would fall. Our ancestors, who believed after '48, also believed that it would not be long, albeit of them served 20 years in prison. They, too, believed that the West would help us then and so on. Well, they left us like that, it just stayed the way it ended. I believed it would fall one day. None of us knew that something would happen after the candlelight, that something would happen after that Friday ’89. We just believed it again, no one knew it would happen. "
32:44 - 33:22 Belief in change is strong
If people want change, they have a chance. However, politicians or people will not make a difference by talking in a pub or in a church. Only the street can do that.
photo from the student index of the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University
MUDr. Peter Michalko was born on July 10, 1967 in Brezno. The parent raised him and his older brother in the spirit of democracy and freedom. He graduated from primary school and grammar school in Bratislava, where the family moved due to better education for children. During his studies, he encountered the injustice of the political regime when he had trouble getting to the school of his choice because he was not an exemplary pioneer. He did not get to the dream medical faculty because his older brother studied as a dentist and two family members could not study at the same faculty. He began studying at the Military Medical Faculty in Hradec Králové. He did not sign a military oath, he was expelled from the faculty, demoted and transferred to a tanker. After two years, he was accepted to the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University. November 1989 caught him in the third year of study. He was one of the most prominent faces of the student movement. He was a member of the strike committees coordination centre. They organized meetings of politicians, students, artists and dissidents and discussed freedom and democracy. MUDr. Peter Michalko was one of the students of the Medical Faculty of Comenius University who, with his determination and desire for freedom, changed the history of our country. Today he works as a specialist orthopedist and as a mountain rescuer in the mountain service. He has two adult daughters and three grandchildren.
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!
