David Litvák

"I'm sure it was that 17th [November] was a Friday, on Saturday we were playing [with the band] and suddenly on Sunday 19th [November] I found out that something was happening - that there were some meetings going on at the Činoherák [činoherní klub Theatre] and that we were going on strike from Monday. And then on that very Sunday, 19 [November], the Democratic Initiative was meeting at Mrs. Tomková's, and there were already policemen around, so it was hastily moved to our place. Only it didn't meet." - "Like at your flat?" - "At my home. In Letná Street. At Mrs. Štolbová's. I said Tomková, but she was [Mrs. Štolbová's] daughter, so at Mrs. Štolbová's down - she lived down there below [the street] Dukelských hrdinů, we [lived] up. And so it was supposed to meet at our place, but only a handful of people arrived there, because [the police] picked it up, on the way to our place. So I had the absolute ultimate adventure there, where we acted like 'big guys' - when it looked like they were going to come and pick us up, we ran across the backyards and left the women behind. 'We're going to save the world and you just get arrested here.' So we ran across [the walls] and then I went to sleep at a friend's place. I picked ones that I didn't interact with very often at all, so that the enemy wouldn't think of [looking for me there]. I spent the night with them and then in the morning I went to Prague 8 in front of the faculty to tell the students that there was no school, that we were on strike, and that was that."

"The student section - we were strict, but also [the student march on 17 November] was about the fact that there was democratisation going on all around, and that [democratisation] should also take place in terms of study, in terms of access to materials, in terms of getting sources of information and so on. And then I'm not talking about that also in the framework of travel, gathering experience. Of course, it was also supposed to be about all the things that constrained student life. It wasn't about the occupation, it was about the fact that everything here is not O.K." - "And then you also got to the Národní Street..." - "I did. I was arrested there, so by some miracle they didn't drag me down that proverbial alley, but before that they ran at me with a dog, which didn't bite me, but barked at me. But terribly." - "Were you scared?" - "Not really... well, I guess I was. But anyway, some people [detained] us and took us to Školská - I was in custody there. Or rather in detention - we were sitting in the corridors. And we didn't know what was going on. And after some - I don't know, it seems to me now after six hours, or it was after three hours - they let us go again. But I think it was sometime during the night. By that time I was living alone, or rather not with my parents, I was already married. And so I went home."