Josef Malina

* 1959

  • Spreading of information. Today it's so funny, but at that time writing and copying and distributing something and posting it somewhere or passing it to someone or organizing some informative discussion was difficult. The copiers were behind the lock, there was a so-called special tasks officer, and he had the task of guarding this so that no one would accidentally multiply something and spread information freely. Questioner's question: You then said you had the negotiations. And who was it necessary to negotiate with? With the leadership of that district national committee or with the leadership of OV KSČ. Questioner's question: And what was it about? For certain people to leave? Discredited people? Yes. Or it was about showing some quick results. There was no health center in Kolín for years. It was so awful. Thus, one of such very early ideas arose that when the leading role of the Communist Party was abolished, they no longer needed the Communist Party District Committee and at the same time it was not owned by the communists, nor was of the Communist Party OV, the house was owned by the District National Committee. So, we had such a discussion, such pressure on the ONV: get rid of the communists from there, they have nothing to do there, let them rent something somewhere. And we're going to make a clinic out of this. And as I was in the Chemoprojekt, we redesigned it to a health center within a few weeks, and within a few months it was a new luxury health center for people.

  • Distinctive faces were there. I have called it the first wave, for myself. And this is actually the first wave of those people who signed up for it in that theater. Plus in a few days some more came. In the first wave, there were people who, for example, knew about each other, they had some idea about each other, they knew that they could rely on each other. From this first wave, people were selected either for the district national committee or for the mayor to the city's national committee. And then a second wave came a little late, where - not for everyone, but for some - I or other colleagues already perceived such a practical focus, many people sensed the opportunity that this is the right time to get on, that there will be something from it.

  • There, when someone dared to say something against them, they just cleared him away. Somewhere outside of Prague, when someone started getting angry, they just made him got lost and it had no impact at all. Whereas when someone in Prague got angry in this direction, people knew about him. The defense mechanism of the Charter, for example, was such that someone in Prague could dare to do something, because the Charter got him out of it, it reported it to Free Europe, for example. But in the countryside, it was not possible to take a banner and go to Pečky to shout "Communists, go to hell, finish here!". It would be a suicide. So, to talk, to swear, to meet someone was OK, but there was nothing to organize. The force that prevented the resistance was so strong and brutal that nothing could be organized. Questioner's question: And how did one know in November 1989 that it was different, that it was worth it? Well, one didn't know, not at first, but quite quickly I started to take it as a completely real possibility, and - so that it would not be so pathetic - I took it as such a duty to do something about it. Questioner's question: What did it look like in Kolín? And when did it become apparent that more people were joining? Hour by hour, it just changed, and I would say that even the dynamics, when more and more people were joining mentally and physically, on the contrary, it was bigger in the countryside. And I still felt there that we were pushing from those regions in relation to the Prague leadership to make it more dynamic, to have demands on the Communists harder and faster, and that Prague then began to slow down and falter.

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 20.08.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:44:35
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

We pushed the center of Prague to be more dynamic from the countryside

A photo from  2019
A photo from 2019
zdroj: a current photo from the filming

He was born in Městec Králové, but grew up in the village of Dobřichov. He went to school in Pečky, later he studied at the grammar school in Kolín and the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In 1989, he co-founded the Civic Forum in Kolíně. As its member, he organized discussions and negotiated with communist representatives from the ONV (the District National Committee) or OV KSČ (the District Committee of the Communist Party). In 1990, he began working at the district office as a deputy mayor. He remained here until 1995, when he returned to his original field. He has been working in various companies (Geosan, Geoindustrie) to the present.