Lubomír Sazovský

* 1956

  • Sharing the Frenštát neigbourhood with Russian officers "There were two houses similar to ours where Czechoslovak officers had lived. The Russians just claimed them. So the Russian officers lived in the same neighbourhood with us. We were not happy. At the beginning, everyone just spat.. The Russians did now show much. Later on, when they had some money and started buying all goods that were available, some families befriended them." Question: "How did they befriend them?" "In our house, two pro-regime families lived, they invited them to their flat, there were various parties. And there was a lot of illegal trade with gasoline, Russians had plenty. But only a certain percentage of people did this." Question: "You saw those Russians entering your house?" "Yes, they walked the same hallway as we did. They were there all the time." Question: "What would your dad say to the neighbours?" "He was livid but what could he do? So he at least always told them that they are traitors."

  • "I was at the club, there were more peole. The phone rang and I heard Comrade Khun from the workplace committee of the Communist Party. He told me that I had not obeyed an order of the committee and that I had to close the club right then. I told him that I would not do that. He replied that in that case, I will bear the... up to my liquidation. I can only imagine what exactly he thought by that. I did not feel good about it at all but I hardened the more. I told myself that nobody is going to talk to me like that and we did not close the club."

  • „Protože M-klub měl dobré technické zázemí, tak jsem se souhlasem Oldřicha Ryse, který prodával v knihkupectví na kopřivnickém náměstí, umístili televizi a video do výlohy obchodu a tam jsme stále dokola pouštěli záznam ze zásahu policie na Národní třídě, aby kolemjdoucí viděli, co se tam odehrálo. Z oficiálního vysílání televize se totiž tehdy ještě vůbec nic nedozvěděli.“ "M-klub had good technical equipment so with the approval of Oldřich Rys who sold books in the bookstore at the main square in Kopřivnice, we placed a TV set and a video and we would run a loop of the news clips of the police action at Národní třída [in Prague] so that the passers-by could see what had happened there. They could not learn nothing from the official TV coverage."

  • Bypassing the blacklist. "Every show need to have a protocol of approval. The approval was issued by the department of culture of the local council. For every show, there had to be the artist's name listed, and names of the pieces they would play. It had to be stamped so that we could perform legally. We had a plenty of it so they usually just formally approved it even though we smuggled a name that was blacklisted there. When the comrades found out, they investigated who permitted that. They called me, as the chair of the club council and asked whether I knew that it was a blacklisted artist. I made excuses and .... that I did not get any black list. There were threats that I would be kicked out of work but nothing happened."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    v Ostravě, 17.06.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 03:06:52
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

I am glad that I could have helped in November 1989. I was scared but I dived head first.

Lubomír Sazovský / Ostrava / June 2019
Lubomír Sazovský / Ostrava / June 2019
photo: E.D.

Lubomír Sazovský was born on the 9th of August 1956 in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm at the foot of the Beskydy Mountains. Growing up, he lived with his parents and his older brother in a neighbourhood close to the barracks which were, after the invasion of the armies of the Warsaw Pact in August 1968, occupied by the Soviet army. He went to a trade school and became an office machines and computers repairman. After he got married, he moved to Veřovice near Kopřivnice and started working in the Tatra car factory. As an amateur actor and later the chairman of the drama club, he collaborated with the M-klub in Kopřivnice. In November 1989, he helped organising anti-Communist demonstrations in Kopřivince and was one of those who initiated the establishment of local Civic Forum, which was founded in the youth club. In the free times after the Revolution, he was a longtime director of the cultural centre in Kopřivnice. In 2019, he participated in organising the demonstrations against Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.