At peace with ourselves
An interview with Martin Palouš, Czech diplomat
and philosopher and one of the first signatories of
Charter 77. Interviewer: Łukasz GrzesiczakŁUKASZ GRZESICZAK: Have you
heard this joke? Back in the 1970s a Polish
and a Czech dog meet at the green border...
MARTIN PALOUŠ: I don’t think I
have. Carry on please.
The Polish dog is on the way to Czecho-
slovakia while a Czech one is going to Po-
land. “Why are you going to Czechia?” asks
the Czech dog. “To eat to the fullest at last.
What about you?” the Polish dog asks. The
Czech dog replies: “So that I can bark as
loud as I want to.”
This joke seems very real to me as it
describes not only the reality of the 1970s
but the whole period of the totalitar-
ian communist regime. Poland enjoyed
more freedom than Czechoslovakia, but
our economic situation was better than
in Poland.
One should be aware of that when com-
paring the Polish and Czech opposition.
Definitely so. After the invasion of the
Warsaw Pact military forces on Czecho-
slovakia in 1968 the time came for “nor-
malisation”. The regime tried to sup-
press all critical voices and punish the
Czechoslovak communists for partici-
pating in “the revolutionary rebellion”,
as the Prague Spring was later named.
The Soviet troops stayed in Czechoslo-
vakia and the atmosphere worsened as
people lost hope for change. The com-
munist regime used various methods to
manipulate the public and force people
into suppression. There were three basic
reactions to that situation.
The first one was migration. At that
time more than 100,000 people left
Czechoslovakia, among them was Mi-
lan Kundera (a Czech-born writer who
immigrated to France. He is known for
such works as The Unbearable Lightness
of Being as well as the essay “The Trag-
edy of Central Europe” – editor’s note).
Another way was to adapt to the new
situation and here the regime was hap-
py to make concessions. Charter 77 was
the third alternative. It was attractive for
those who decided to stay in Czechoslo-
vakia but wanted some freedom. This sit-