Ing. Jiří Línek

“I went towards the radio building; some trams were burning there, or there was a barricade made of trams. The tank overcame that rather swiftly, such a barricade… And then they started firing. We hid – most of us were younger people – in one of the houses; the people just let us in. The Russians then fired into the windows of the houses. Then I went to Wenceslas Square and saw tanks being set on fire. That was interesting, I guess the tanks ran on diesel. Someone would jump up on the hood, pierced the barrel with a pickaxe, threw a burning rag at it, and that set it on fire. That was quite interesting. Then I went home and made the decision that I wouldn’t stay here, in this country.”

“So, 21 August came. President Svoboda read an address in the night of 20 August. He was calling for peace. I take issue with the fact that whenever there is a trouble, citizens are asked to be peaceful. If you listen to President Beneš’s address right before he left the country, it’s the same really: a strong tree has healthy roots, and another tree will grow from these roots, and whatever. There are times when a nation should defend itself, even at the cost of far-reaching consequences, because the outcome of not defending itself lingers on for generations.”