Peter Zajac

“It is very strange that today everyone imagines the VPN (Public Against Violence movement) as some kind of organization existing within the social system. People imagine, it had a structure with certain hierarchy and particular leadership, but nothing like that existed. Firstly, until December 1989, the Public Against Violence as well as the Civic Forum were still illegal. Only in the end of 1989 there was a law passed, allowing the existence of such type of the civic associations. And secondly, it was the time of horizontal structures. No hierarchal structures existed in VPN. There was no chairman, no vice chairman, no committee.”

“Well, it was a very peculiar upbringing. It was like a combination of the first-republic upbringing and at the same time of upbringing inclining towards proletarian internationalism. It was unbelievably intertwined. However, I would say, we were raised very well, as none of us three (siblings) had never had any tendency to enter the communist party or to apply for the membership. It is very interesting that as we observed it at home, – although only from the distance, since our parents didn’t talk to us about that – that’s how we behaved later. They were moving away from the regime and once we matured, we had no temptations to get close at all. That was the unintentional consequence of our upbringing.”