Aleš Svoboda

"At our faculty there were these - I quite remember them - these strange guys who ruled the SSM [Socialist Youth Union - trans.] at the school and had already joined the party. And now they had this demeanor that was a little over the top and they were walking around in suits. I was in the dormitory at Větrník, doing something, perhaps studying, and somebody knocked. And he came, like, 'Well, we have a statement here against the Charter, sign it here.' And that was such a turning point for me, because I was like, 'Okay, but I'm not going to sign this.' I knew what was in the Charter, and I knew I couldn't sign it. So I took this kind of awkward strategy, I said to them, 'Okay, let me read what's in there, and I'll tell you if I condemn it or not,' and the guys were sunk, so they backed off and left."

"This one became the director, the landman, the orderly deputy. And I remember that through the door, when we had classes, our class master Zíta was dismissed. And through the door we heard terrible shouting, swearing and arguing, so strong. The result of that was that he left, he had to leave, and then he went to work, I think, for some Water and Sewerage Company. So, again, the progression of that, that at the beginning a fine teacher, we liked him, he could explain things, and now suddenly the ones that aren't quite that good start to dominate, but there were still some teachers left that you could get along with and weren't totally weird."