We didn't know what we wanted to achieve. But we did know what we were running away from
Author: Zuzana Dostálová, FIM UHK
In celebration of the Velvet Revolution, the Faculty of Informatics and Management hosted a talk with one of the student leaders of that time, Václav Bartuška.
The talk was mostly attended by students of the same age as Václav Bartuška was at the time of the revolution. Mr Bartuška told his listeners: “We didn’t know what we wanted to achieve. We knew what we were running away from. We wanted to be a part of the West,” and he passed the following message to the public: “You are living in a free, content and rich country and that is not commonplace. You shouldn’t take that for granted. I wish you minor cuts and bruises in life, so that you are able to understand what you have.”
Václav Bartuška, a diplomat, is also the author of a book titled Polojasno. It was published in 1990 and portrays the diary of student Bartuška, a member of the Parliamentary Committee investigating the events of November 17, 1989.
When asked if, when looking back, he would change anything, he replied definitely not. “No-one had any idea of how to run a government. We made mistakes. But we did all we could,” adds the current Ambassador-at-Large for Energy Security in the Czech Republic.
You could hear a pin drop in the assembly hall during the debate; so enthralling it was. And many questions came from the public. The experienced speaker did not forget to point out that he greatly values those who started the demonstration outside of Prague. “We would not have succeeded if it had not been for the Republic and people from all over the country who stood behind us,” he concluded.
