Josef Hrdý

"Kdo měl víc jak deset hektarů, tak byl kulak. Já vzpomínám, když jsem byl malý kluk, tak v jedenácti letech, vyvěsili na stodoly - to nebyly jako dneska všude baráky, to byly stodoly u silnice... Tak vyvěsili plakát, kde dali takovéhle břicho - aby bylo vidět, že je ten kulak přežranej, že vykořisťuje ty ostatní. A napsali tam Špatenka, Hrdý a tak dále - všechny ty, co měli víc jak deset. A já jako malý kluk pamatuju, že jsem šel ještě se dvěma nebo třemi večer - to byla odvaha, ale mně to nedošlo - jsme ten plakát šli strhnout. Aby tam nebyl." "Who owned more than ten hectares of land was declared a kulak. I remember when I was a little boy, about eleven, they hung up on those barns - it was not like nowadays, houses all over by the road, then it was barns by the road... so they hung a poster where there was [a man with] this big stomach so that everyone could see that the kulak was so fat, that he exploited the others. And they wrote Špatenka, Hrdý and so on, everyone who owned more than ten [hectares]. And I remember, that as a boy, that I went with two or three others in the evening - it was quite reckless but I did not get it beforehand - that we went to pull the poster down. So that it wouldn't be there."

“So they sent us, as a school, to pick potatoes or thinning up beet or cutting of the beet green, to help some agricultural co-op. Because the kulaks working on their own who did this in two people, at the co-op, there was a plenty of people but, well, they never managed to do it on time, so these work groups were invited. And, I, even back then, used to say, 'So tell me what to do and I'll do it, and yes, sure, when you will have it done, you're finished, you'll be left in peace.' Imagine, well, this is another memory. So I was done with my job in, dunno, say, three hours, the others were supposed to be doing it for five, so I was finished and sat down. A teacher came, the who was to look after us, and he says, 'Go help that one, he can't manage'. I was really stubborn so I said 'Right, I'm going nowhere, you said and so on and so on who will do that.' So I was called to the Headmaster's office and so I got my first Headmaster's reprimand. I never had any other issues but I got the Headmaster's reprimand because I did not go to help a schoolmate.”

„So I took some paper and wrote to Comrade President Novotny – obviously to his hands – but it went to his office, and now I elaborated on how I trained in this and that, that I had… there were no photocopiers back then so I just claimed that I had excellent grades and so on. That I was accepted for study to technical school of agriculture and it ended up this and that way and that I would be grateful if they could review it somehow. Imagine, in a month – and now I don't know whether I took it with me, maybe I did – I got a reply from the district committee of the Communist party in Chrudim in which it stood: Dear So-and-So, and how I would have to quote if I was reading this, well, just, we reviewed, it was transferred to our office, that your request or complaint to the President's office regarding your study at the secondary technical school, we, after a review, are presenting this resolution. You were not recommended for study at the secondary technical school of agriculture in Litomyšl from the local chapter of the Communist party and then because of how you behave in your workplace.”

„The truth to be told, I was graded somewhat differently, it's true but it was good for something because when I got a 3, as a boy, I felt that it was not fair but the Headmaster said in the pub: 'You know, Pepík, we gotta do it this way.' And that was it. We took our revenge, though, I ganged up my schoolmates aged six to ten and then, they started to introduce 'Hail to the labour!' and 'Comrade!' and I told the boys, and we would say 'Good morning, Headmaster!' Well, it was terrible, wasn't it. I don't know, maybe there was no sense in it but I felt it as a sort of resistance, and when I saw how scared they were that they wouldn't manage to introduce that people are addressed 'comrade' and greet 'Hail to the labour' so then I had that little good feeling.”