„Vyslýchali mě. Já jsem tehdy teda byla bez jakýkoliv informací, netušila jsem, jak se mám chovat. Takový ty instruktáže na průklepovém papíru, co se mi dostaly do rukou poté, co kolovaly v Chartě a tak, tak to jsem se samozřejmě do tý doby, jsem se s tím vůbec nesetkala. Takže jsem tam byla poměrně dost ztracená, nicméně měla jsem dost rozumu na to, abych sice o sobě vypověděla, i koho jsem myslela diktátorem, ale jakmile se mě začali ptát na přátele nebo na lidi, na kontakty, co jsem měla v telefonních seznamech, který zabavili, tak jsem odmítla vypovídat. Tam se mě snažili jakoby vydírat, že pokud o nich budu vypovídat, tak že půjdu, že mě pustí, že půjdu domů, a pokud ne, takže mě čeká vazba, ale to jsou prostě takový věci, který já tvrdím, že ani nesouvisí s odvahou, ale jenom s tím, že si člověk uvědomí, že pokud by něco udělal, že prostě jako ztrácí sám sebe.“
„Jsem odešla z domova a usídlila se v Praze. Tak jsem přišla za Radimem Vašinkou a začala jsem v divadle [Orfeus] zkoušet, ale měla jsem strašně nepříjemnej pocit, že se něco kolem mě děje. A tenkrát se rozhodla odejít Tereza [Boučková] s tím, že nevím přesně, jak popsala ty problémy, který má, ale vnímala to tak, že její přítomnost, by mohla existenci Orfea ohrozit. A odešla a já jsem vlastně tenkrát řekla něco na ten samej způsob a odešla jsem taky. A potom za několik měsíců, možná za dva za tři, mě zadrželi. Přijeli si pro mě do práce, do Úřadu důchodového zabezpečení s tím, že měli povolení k prohlídce. Měli to teda jako hezky připravený překvapivě – protože jak víme, tak někdy dělali ty domovní prohlídky, tak jakože když člověk odešel z domova, tak že se tam přišli podívat – ale měli to tentokrát připravený. Udělali mi domovní prohlídku na pracovišti v podnájmu, odkud mě teda potom ten majitel vyhodil, že nemá důvod mít problémy se Státní bezpečností, nebo policií vůbec.“
„A dostali jsme se s těma básničkama na Wolkerův Prostějov. Tam jsem potkala Milana Prince z Písku ještě s někým a ty mě pozvali posléze na ten autorský večer poezie v Písku, který pořádali. Já jsem se jim snažila… Já jsem tenkrát měla napsaný básničky Ať žije společnost a chtěla jsem to s nima nějak předem ještě konzultovat a oni říkali: ,Ne, ne, to bude dobrý.´ Mysleli si, že mám s sebou nějaký lyrický něco. Potom tedy splakali nad výdělkem. Už když jsem začala, tak zároveň mě jeden začal kopat pod stolem, jako že bych toho měla nechat. Ale jsem se moc umlčet nedala, když už jsem se do toho pustila.“ – „To bylo před publikem?“ – „Bylo to před publikem, bylo to v knihovně, v městský knihovně, v nějaký místnosti městský knihovny v Písku.“
“I was looking for some people who shared the same views, or I desired them. I wanted to sign Charter 77 for a long time after I had learnt that it had not ceased and that it was still alive. But I did not know anybody, I absolutely did not know anybody from that environment. Only after my first prison term I somehow... Or it was in some tavern and there was Miroslav Hájek, he is no longer alive, his nickname was Míra Nemíra, and he knew many families of Charter 77 signatories, and especially Václav Benda and his family. Somebody told him that I had been imprisoned for my poems. We started talking and he, I think, brought up the topic of Charter 77. I told him: ‘I would like to sign it so much, but I don’t know where.’ At that time he introduced me to Václav Benda, and I signed Charter 77 in his home. We were thinking about it, because my trial was being reopened at that time, and I did not want to wait and I simply signed it. In 1985 I was sentenced for the second time. Then I got to know other prominent people. At that time, they were figures of immense authority for me: Ing. Petr Uhl, Anna Šabatová, Petruška Šustrová, Dana Němcová, Václav Malý and later Václav Havel, of course, and many others. For me it was as if to step into some magical world.”
“I did not get as far as Národní Street. I was in Albertov, and I was in Vyšehrad, and then we started marching in a procession down to the Vyšehradská Street, and we walked past the ministry of justice and then it was already clear that it was bad, because there was already a double line of policemen armed with shields and batons standing against us by the building of the ministry of justice. They were standing in two lines, and I was walking in the front row and about three people away from me there was John Bok. I had a camera borrowed from somebody, and when I saw those policemen, or the members of the Public Security, I was worried about the camera. I was not afraid for myself. Then, when we approached them, they started beating us and I, as usual, experienced a blessing in disguise. They did not hit me, and although they did not hit me, I got behind this row of policemen. That was because when they started beating us, somehow the row of people spread and I actually got behind that double line of policemen. I saw John Bok, and there were about five policemen beating him, they tore off his jacket and they threw him to the ground and they were beating him with batons. I think that there were six of them, because five of them remained there and one of them started running towards me, because I was running to them and I was in shock, I was yelling: ‘Leave him alone, leave him alone.’ And he ran to me, and he sprayed a tear gas into my eyes from some twenty or thirty centimeters and then I became dazed. Since I started feeling dizzy, several people then helped me, and I began to feel sick, and so I went to a tram stop and I went home and thus I did not experience the worst things that happened on Národní Street, because at that time I was already at home.”
“This poem was lost, they confiscated it from me at that time and I have never seen it again. The name of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was not mentioned there, but it was quite obvious. It was basically a kind of reflection on the reactions of those schoolmates and many people around me. It was nothing eloquent: ‘A dictator died, crowds rejoiced, how big will be his photo in tomorrow’s papers?’ Basically, you could say the poems were innocent things like this. But at that time, it was enough for being sent to prison.”
Lenka Marečková was born on June 3, 1963. She was imprisoned twice for recitation of her own poems at an authors‘ poetry reading in Písek in 1982. She was nineteen years old during her first prison term. Lenka was arrested several times on various occasions, and she initiated and participated in the publication of an independent ecological Bulletin and in 1988 she established the Independent Ecological Society. She signed the declaration of Charter 77 in 1984. She took part in activities of many independent movements, including the Independent Peace Association and especially the editorial committee of VONS (the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted), which was meeting in her home for about three years. She assisted in publication of many samizdat works and she kept an archive of Information on Charter 77 in her home. In her profession she deals with the issues of prisons, criminal law and human rights. At present she collaborates with the Václav Havel Library and she focuses on spirituality.