Barbora Štěpánová

* 1959

  • “I went to Wenceslas Square and I had the same feeling again. I went up to the horse, there were canons, police vans, policemen in white helmets and: “Stop, stop!” I remember that I shouted in my trained voice: “Your mother should be ashamed of you!” Something like that would always come out of my mouth and I decided that I would go put a flower to the horse anyway. I went and I knew that I wouldn’t make it. And when the man, I remember his name, Major Šára, whom I supposedly was hitting, he took me, hit me, and threw me into the bus. The buses were prepared there. And I was actually relieved at that point. I was telling myself, yeah, that’s how it is supposed to be, it’s alright this way. And I won’t forget that, what a situation. But I did forget what actually happened inside the bus, because a person I met a year ago reminded me of that and he told me: “You don’t remember me but I was sitting in the bus when you came there and started singing.” And I went: “Jesus, you’re right, yes!” This person reminded me of what I did. Those unfortunate people were sitting there, no one knew for sure what they would do to us. There were no executions, just people were taken somewhere out of Prague and get beaten up and left there, so that was what used to happen. So the people were sitting in the bus, by the windows and I got there, saw those frightened faces and suddenly I said, there was a cop sitting: “Singing is allowed, isn’t it?” And he stared at me and I started singing: “Čechy krásné, Čechy mé…” (“Beautiful Bohemia, my Bohemia”)”

  • “So based on how this Major Šára arrested me I was charged with assaulting a public servant. So there was a trial, unfortunately I don’t remember the judge’s name, she acquitted me because it was obviously nonsense. But they appealed so a trial again, it went to Doctor Bělohradský, a beautiful judge, tall, looked like he graduated from Oxford. So it was an obvious choice for him, he had to find me guilty. And we knew with some of those people that we would go to those trials at least as moral support. And the Committee for Defending the Unjustly Prosecuted had been working for a long time. So thanks to the fact that I was found guilty and had to pay some sort of fine… and if I didn’t pay it I’d be sentenced to two months in prison, so the fine was quite significant. I have to say that when we came to Petr Uhl back then, who took care of these things with Mr. Benda, they paid the money for us.”

  • “He (Václav Havel – ed. note) became a sort of unofficial president of the dissent. Because everyone, all of those initiatives always wanted to know what Václav thought about that. Everyone wanted him to like them. He was simply on the top, the highest judge. I don’t know, I’d like to know what the others say, but I think my impression is correct. He liked our Společnost za veselejší současnost (Society for a More Cheerful Present), he even did this happening with us. We, and I’m not bragging here, we were the best of those initiatives, Společnost za veselejší současnost. So we did this happening, we invited representatives of the Peace Club of John Lennon, there were simply five of them and Václav and we put them in a sandpit. We gave them all their own toys to do something in there. And that was supposed to be a symbol of how everyone only does their own thing. And then, we wanted a big truck but that wasn’t possible during totality, this car arrived, with Společnost za veselejší současnost written on it. It was full of sand and our sand covered, it all covered all the toys and castles of the others and all that remained was a pile of sand called Společnost za veselejší současnost.”

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    v bytě pamětnice, Zákolany, 14.03.2017

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When somebody shows me trust I‘ll do anything

15 - Bára - mladá.jpg (historic)
Barbora Štěpánová
zdroj: Jan Holík

The Czech actress and presenter Bára Štěpánová was born on the 18th of December 1959 in Prague. Ever since she was young she leaned towards art, she sang in the Kühn children‘s choir, she was a guest performer in the National Theatre and the Semafor theatre. After graduating from the state conservatoire‘s music and drama department she joined the Josef Kajetán Tyl theatre in Pilsen. She had a disagreement with the theatre‘s management and left for Prague. She joined the František Ringo Čech theatre where she performed until 1991. In 1986 she signed Charter 77 in Brno. In 1988 she was arrested at the Wenceslas Square during an anti-communist protest and charged with assaulting a public servant. The same year she co-founded an initiative called Společnost za veselejší současnost („Society for a More Cheerful Present“). From 1990 to 1992 she worked as personal secretary for President Václav Havel. Today she performs as an actress and lives near Prague in Zákolany with her family.