Petr Mička

* 1967

  • "Another terrible anniversary celebrated at our school was the 'Victorious February' 1948. In fact, it was probably the most terrible anniversary, given the circumstances. Because we were to become teachers of civics which made us a sort of an elite among the future teachers - expected to bring up future generations. We had a professor who of course was a communist and served at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. But in retrospect I have to say he wasn't the swine. So we liked him in a way, and built up a relationship. When in February the faculty was tasked with participating in the parade, we were selected to be in its lead. We havn't had the courage to refuse or to play sick which would have been cowardly anyway, but better still. And so really, we marched in the parade. Paradoxically, our colleagues who stood on the pavements of Fučíkova street and waved, later accused us of being the bastards who marched in the lead of the parade. But they were also present themselves."

  • "Then it got thicker. We got out of the streets at some point only to find out we couldn't walk on because a police cordon was blocking the street. Those were regular policemen armed with batons, no special units with shields. Still, it was becoming emotional and we were nervous and scared. I vaguely recall that at some point we found ourselves at Wenceslas Square. In any case, a crowd set out from Kampa and at one point we were crossing the Jirásek's Bridge. They closed its one end and sent two yellow police lorries in. The lorries had little windows and from them stuck out hands with batons. The lorries were moving slowly and the policemen who were inside were beating people over their heads. I became really nervous at that point. There was a fantastic girl there with us with purple eyelashes, a real beauty. And she also got almost smacked there."

  • "Sometime late December a regular uniformed policeman came to see my parents, delivering an order for me to appear for interrogation on the morning of 31 December. Nobody could make any sense of the date and it all. My parents obviously smelled trouble - it meant their son had done some wrong. I didn't tell them what it was about so that made it even worse. They didn't know what would happen but they probably suspected it was related to some anti-regime activities. On 31 December I walked into the station at Kaštanová street in Děčín. There sat a guy who as I realized arrived from Prague just to see me, and it was all clear: you were present at Kampa, describe what took place there. My tactics at that point was to play completely naive, claim that I didn't know what the protest was all about. Which was partially true. I definitely didn't show any courage there because I said I thought it was only about Lennon who was singing about peace - and what is wrong about that after all?"

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 07.06.2016

    (audio)
    délka: 01:56:12
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memory of nations (in co-production with Czech television)
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Had they tried me, I may have also ended up an informer

Petr Mička, end of 80th
Petr Mička, end of 80th
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Petr Mička was born on 20 November 1967 in Děčín. His father Pavel Mička was a sea captain and Petr spent part of his childhood on his ship, getting to see many places. After finishing grammar school he went on to study Czech language and civics at the university in Ústí nad Labem. He chose this subject because he was interested in the Czech language but the only way to study it was in combination with a subject as a teacher of which he was then supposed to persuade pupils about the advantages of the communist system. Despite his studies, he was making fun of the regime and was in contact with people who openly opposed it. In 1990 he transferred to a newly-established degree in Czech language - Art teaching. In 1987, he and his colleague Jiří Imlauf went to Prague to a memorial event at the John Lennon‘s wall. The march was broken up by the police. The two of them were inspected by the police and became of interest to the secret service. He was summoned for an interrogation. Only at around 2000 had he found out that his friend Jiří Imlauf had become an informer of the secret police. Petr still doesn‘t know what information had Jiří given on him and his colleagues. In the end, he didn‘t work as a teacher for long, and today instead makes a living as copywriter and designer.