"I understand it from the point of view of the headquarters, from the point of view of the situation it was an evaluation I would say strict and to some extent purposeful. As I have already pointed out, the departure of a certain group of young journalists, among whom I belonged, was being prepared. And the ground was being prepared to keep the older ones, who were not yet able to leave, for whatever reason."
"There were, with a few exceptions, language-skilled university students who were highly qualified, who were able to handle analytical work and also write assessments and recommendations. I worked there for about three years, then I was transferred to an operation for German-speaking countries. So, agency work, which is generally not to be described even after years."
"Some of those exhibitions, could be today, over time, described as tendentious or ones that were supposed to justify the entry of troops or the situation after 1969. However, it took a short time and then we did exhibitions that had a completely different focus. For example, I wrote a screenplay for an exhibition on counterfeiting of Czechoslovak currency, which was exhibited for a long time in the then Federal Assembly, and some similar exhibitions that travelled through regional cities."
"I agreed with the scenario, to which I made certain comments, I added some things, specified them, gave my opinion. It is true that my daughter respected this only to a certain extent. I gave her absolute freedom. I think I did well. A man who is twenty-five, thirty years old develops his professional activity. If I "forbade" these films or asked her not to make them, I felt that I would hurt her far more in her artistic development than they would have hurt me in the end."
PhDr. Dušan Sedláček was born on July 6, 1934 in Prague. He grew up in Řevnice near Prague under the influence of a left-wing father. From 1944 he started studying at the secondary grammar school in Beroun, for the last two years he transferred to the secondary pedagogical school in Brandýs nad Labem, where he graduated. From 1952 he studied history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, graduating in 1957. After school, he started working at the school of the Ministry of the Interior, teaching philosophy and history there. In 1963 he joined the 1st Administration of State Security - Intelligence. He initially worked for about three years in the study department of intelligence. He later worked in the operational department with a focus on German-speaking countries, but he does not want to talk about his work as an intelligence officer. From the autumn of 1968, he was a representative of the Czechoslovak Cultural Center in West Berlin, and was recalled in 1971 under threat of deportation by the West Berlin authorities. A party punishment followed - he was assigned inferior work; he was transferred to the archives of the Ministry of the Interior. From 1978 he worked again at the Ministry of the Interior in the cultural and promotional department, he was responsible for communication with art associations. Since 1988 he worked at the Union of Czechoslovak Fine Artists in the section of exhibitions and screenwriting. He left here voluntarily in 1990, as he did not feel support for his activities. Since then, he has been devoted to organizing exhibitions independently, to curating activities, and he founded a small Art Propag agency, which operated until 2012. Dušan Sedláček is the father of the director, screenwriter and editor Andrea Sedláčková. From 1999 to 2007, she made a series of television films loosely inspired by the life of the witness.
The surveillance. The photograph of the ex-head of the intelligence school, Vladimír Stern, was secretly taken by his colleagues during the surveillance, Dušan Sedláček, on the far right, circa 1970.
The surveillance. The photograph of the ex-head of the intelligence school, Vladimír Stern, was secretly taken by his colleagues during the surveillance, Dušan Sedláček, on the far right, circa 1970.
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