"The second state examination was on November 27, that is on the day of the general strike. I did not expect to go there at all. And my head of my study circle, who was part of our strike committee, Professor Dušan Šlosar, mentioned several times aside, he convinced me to go to that state examination, that nothing was decided that God knew how it would turn out, I studied for five years, now I had nothing, and so on. I was all sort of strange, so I do not know how it actually happened, but the next day I ran from the strike committee upstairs where there was a statesmanship committee made up of the Communists themselves, the subject was called Marxism-Leninism, coincidentally for the same term. As it was a compulsory and hated subject, and it was clear that they were obviously more afraid of me than I was, so they asked me a brief question what I think of the current political situation, I said, in a nutshell, something that their time was over and I went away to organize a general strike. I was ready in a few minutes, because I simply did not have time to do a general strike for things like the state exam. But in any case, I was in the paradoxical situation where I was both a strike and a strike foreman, because at the time of the general strike there mustn't be a state exam, right."
"I remember that time as a time of extraordinary physical exertion, an absolute lack of sleep. I remember that once I went on a certain mission, I think at the Faculty of Agriculture and now the students from that school gathered around me and informed me about what they do, and I just fell asleep. During that meeting. I was just totally exhausted, and that caused it."
"I came to address Professor Šlosar and Professor Rusínová and they came to address Dr. Jelínková, the wife of Milan Jelínek, a well-known dissident. So these three were actually identified and we followed them on Sunday and basically it was pretty easy. We came to Professor Šlosar, and he said, 'Oh, that's clear to me what you're going with!' I was already Sunday and everyone knew what was going on. We told him that it wasn't all that we not only wanted him to join the strike committee, but we wanted to take his office for the strike committee, but we want his work office to function as a strike committee´s room. So he looked at us as if we were not joking, so he had no choice but to say yes. So we had our room already on Sunday to work as a committee."
Jiří Voráč was born on July 16, 1965 in a maternity hospital in Brno on the Cereal Market. However, he spent his childhood in nearby Adamov, a small industrial town, where the absence of cultural stimuli balanced the possibilities of sports in the surrounding countryside. A young family with three sons found home, background and understanding in the local Catholic community. Inspired by his six-year-old brother Miloš, after graduating from high school in Blansko Jiří enrolled at J. E. Purkyně University (now Masaryk) in Brno, where he studied Czech language, history and film and theatre science at the Faculty of Arts. His interest in culture, political and social events led him to dissent. He was actively involved in anti-regime activities. He worked as an editor of the Forum magazine and later the samizdat Revue 88. As one of the last students in the republic he passed the state exam of Marxism-Leninism. In November 1989, he participated in the organization of the strike committee at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, in the preparation of student demonstrations and in the mobilization of citizens for a general strike. Although he was proposed to be co-opted by the Federal Assembly, he was never actively participating in politics, which, looking back, he considered a failure. After the revolution, he worked as editor-in-chief for the independent Moravské noviny and subsequently worked at the Masaryk University, where he contributed to the establishment of the Institute of Film and Audio-visual Culture. He was a member of the Czech Television Council, the Council of the Cinematography Fund and others. In 2019, he was considered by the professional public as a recognized professor and expert in the field of film and theatre culture.
Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno, from left Šárka Nikodemová, Mirek Pospíšil, Petr Osolsobě, Jiří Voráč (photo Jiří Rambousek) in November 1989
Strike Committee of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno, from left Šárka Nikodemová, Mirek Pospíšil, Petr Osolsobě, Jiří Voráč (photo Jiří Rambousek) in November 1989
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