The Regime’s Most Sensitive Spot
BLAŽEK, Petr – PAŽOUT, Jaroslav (eds.): Nejcitlivější místo režimu. Výbor na obranu nespravedlivě stíhaných očima svých členů. Diskusní setkání 19. října 2007 (The Regime’s Most Sensitive Spot. The Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted through the eyes of its members. Discussion Meeting on February 19, 2007). Pulchra, Prague 2008, 143 pages + CD.
The book is available from the online bookstore Kosmas.cz (in Czech).
This publication is a transcript of a meeting of members and associates of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted which took place on October 19, 2007, in the apartment of the Benda family, where VONS had been founded almost thirty years previously. In addition to the record of the proceedings of the meeting, the publication includes facsimiles of historical documents, period photographs and a complete collection of the bulletin Information on Charter 77 (Informace o Chartě 77) on CD.
Contents (in Czech)
Foreword (in Czech)
Summary
CD
It touched the former regime’s most sensitive spot because it presented concrete cases indicting the regime of lies. General declarations concerning persecution in the cultural sphere, inadequacies of the healthcare system, environmental problems and such like were of course important issues, but here specific cases demonstrated how the system functioned. This is what I would like to emphasise. And also that VONS, as well as Charter 77, contributed to breaking the information monopoly, since the fact that information was getting out of the country meant that the regime no longer had complete control over it; although it was still able to keep tabs on it at home, thanks to those brave enough to get information out, the information monopoly was actually being disrupted.
Václav Malý (October 19, 2007)
Excerpts from reviews:
In an original way, this slim book with a long name – The Regime’s Most Sensitive Spot: the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted Through the Eyes of its Members - looks back at one of the most important opposition activities of the ‘Normalisation’ period (produced by Petr Blažek and Jaroslav Pažout, Pulchra, Prague 2008). The authors managed to bring together 26 VONS members (out of a total of 44) for a four-part discussion on the history of this organisation during the ‘Normalisation’ period, as well as after the fall of Communism. The transcript of this discussion supplemented with archive documents is not only a valuable resource for the history of the opposition, but also an important testimony to human memory and the interpretation of one’s own history. (caj).
Dějiny a současnost (History and the Present), Volume 30, No. 6 (2008), p. 48.
A year earlier, Charter 77 had already described what lay behind the euphemism of a ‘happy life’ under ‘Normalisation’: failure to respect basic human rights, snooping and prying into people’s private lives, indoctrination into Communist ideology from a tender age, economic failure. The Charter called for dialogue, but the aggravated regime reacted with aggressive persecution. As a result, some people started carrying ‘emergency packs’ consisting of a toothbrush, toothpaste and a supply of cigarettes when getting around Prague and other cities in case of suddenly being arrested. As early as January 1978, the State Security Service (StB) arrested Václav Havel, Pavel Landovský and Jaroslav Kukal. It detained them near Divadlo na Vinohradech (the Vinohrady Theatre) and charged them with disturbing the peace – they were, after all, on their way to the Railwaymen’s Ball in Národní dům (National House). On the initiative of mathematician Václav Benda, the so-called ‘Committee for the Three’ was formed with the aim of setting them free. Strangely enough, the police actually released the three detained ‘troublemakers’ after they had spent several weeks in custody. ‘We should follow such cases more closely and bring attention to them; it seems it has some influence,’ Havel said subsequently. Several weeks later, on April 27, 1978, the founding document of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted was fashioned in the apartment of the Benda family. In October 2007, twenty six former members of the committee met with historians at this symbolic location to discuss the beginnings of its activities, the repressive measures taken by the police and the justice system against them, as well as the work of VONS after 1989. The result is the book The Regime’s Most Sensitive Spot. The Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted Through the Eyes of its Members, prepared and edited by historians Petr Blažek and Jaroslav Pažout and published by Pulchra. It was published at the occasion of the seminar on VONS held last week in the Senate of the Czech Republic.
Jaroslav Formánek, Nejste v tom sami (You Are Not Alone, Respekt, No. 18, April 26, 2008)
This transcript is captivating for several reasons. It is testimony to the unreliable nature of human memory, collective memory included: the participants in the discussion argue about dates, names, events. Petr Uhl in particular stands out in many respects – he corrects the others, clarifying his own statements and explaining how they should be understood; we get the impression that his memory is excellent, but then suddenly someone makes a remark that somewhat undermines this feeling. Václav Havel gradually fades out of the discussion, the voices of Jan Ruml and Václav Malý, on the other hand, grow stronger. Otta Bednářová, Jarmila Bělínková and Anna Šabatová also become very active. The transcript gives an idea of how difficult it must have been to formulate the protest documents, to reach a consensus. That is one of the reasons why the final form of the VONS declarations was decided by a very small number of people who managed to agree on a text relatively quickly.
The historians try to provide the discussion with a framework, a correct chronology, if nothing more, but fortunately they do so with circumspection; if at all possible they let the discussion flow. During a group session where many people recall past events one cannot reach a factually binding result (symptomatically on several occasions it is the researchers who prompt those who actually took part in the historical events with dates and context). In the first instance the inspirational discussion was about clarifying and examining certain traits: how the committee functioned on the level of human relations, how it maintained contacts with other opposition groups both domestic and some based abroad, how the participants view their past activities and actions today. The development of the discussion closely resembles a dramatic structure, for everything inevitably leads to the cases of Věra Vránová and Josef Danisz who while being members of the committee intensively – and for no small financial reward – collaborated with the State Security Service (StB).
Josef Chuchma, O některá fakta se režim raději nezajímal (The Regime Preferred Not to Examine Certain Facts, MF Dnes, Kavárna, 9. srpen 2008)