Imrich Močko

“Back then it was before elections, right before the first elections in liberated Czechoslovakia. There were four political parties – Labor Party, Freedom Party, Democratic Party, and the Communist Party. We all, my friends, the notary, and the priest, were supporters of the Democratic Party, not the Communist one. One of the members, named Cina, was promoted to a staff constable and he called us to the tavern. Where else would we go in the village? So we went for a coffee, some shots and to eat something small. However, when we arrived, all the tables were taken since it was on Saturday. Only one table next to the stove was free, but it was heaped with some leaflets. We sat down and the commander moved the pile towards me saying: ‘Throw it in there!’ And so I threw it to the box near the stove. The barmaid, she was a Russian, reported that action and me to the Ministry of Interior in Prague. And can you believe that from the Prague´s Ministry of Interior there came a committee to investigate my case? Accusing me of what a horrible crime I committed! And so I just laughed at them. I told them: ‘Excuse me, please, but I only hope you know what it was. Electoral leaflets. Pieces of paper.’”

“Nobody knew whether he was being punished for something he would have committed or not. Simply, there was no excuse. They caught you, threw you into the car and you had to go to gulag. The landlady told me back then, there were app. 15 million people already dispatched like that by Stalin. And so when the Germans arrived, the Russians claimed, even it was horrible that way, nobody had to leave to gulags and could end up being killed at home. Then the lady said: ‘Come and pray with me in the room.’ So I went; in the corner there was a carved icon and an eternal light. She told me it was their church. Her face was covered with tears, poor woman. You know, I was 22 years old, but I also had tears in my eyes. Such condition, such human treatment was something dreadful. So here I came to realize what the real communism was about. I imagined it completely different. But then I saw communism and fascism were the worst things, what can exist in world. Those were the most terrible dictatorships ever.”