We are thinking about the vague memories of history lessons, the yearly media-churned facts about 21st August, and information loaded with politics and politicians whose faces are unfamiliar to most of us. It is a picture of the revolutionary year that can hardly attract anyone’s attention.
It’s a great pity, as 1968 wasn’t just about politics! Just like today, people had everyday problems. They went to work as the first subway was being built in Wenceslas Square, lovers kissed under Mácha. Jan Palach left the University of Economics for Charles University, six-year-old kids went to school for the first time to read from their spelling books. An ordinary life was lived, but … thanks to politics, everything suddenly became more colourful. It was much more intensive an experience than the preceding years and unfortunately the many years that followed.
In 1968, many of the existing taboos were broken. People queued for newspapers that were sold out in the blink of an eye. Magazines presented previously unthinkable topics, and brand new periodicals with unbelievably open articles became very popular. Films from the Barrandov studios once again had people queueing in front of ticket offices, but not only for Czechoslovakian films but also international films. Writers wrote books that were immediately out of print and those who failed to get one could read their works serialised in newspapers. Radio and phonograph records brought recordings that appealed not only to the eighteen-year-olds that went to cafés for afternoon tea, but also to much older fans of Kubišová, Vondráčková, Neckář, Přenosilová, and many others.
Barbed wires and guards with dogs still in place on the border but surprisingly it became more permeable. After many years, the top place for summer holidays once more became the Adriatic coast and going to Vienna or Paris no longer resembled a sci-fi adventure. Together with the tenuous inflow of goods from outside ‘the socialist block’ to the shops, people certainly did not resist the latest fashion styles. Shoppers searched the counters for at least a hint of what their contemporaries were wearing in other parts of Europe. Music was included with the hits from Radio Luxembourgh being much sought after. In this year, regular beat services were held in churches, students rediscovered the tradition of Majáles, and striptease could be seen in Prague night clubs. The height of style was to drink cognac from Albania, so called Albaňák, smoking original American cigarettes and… a host of imported influences.
Naturally, the centre of all this was Prague. Social change affected the course of the whole country, but it was in the capital that the politics later known as the Prague Spring were discussed and formed. It is obvious that of all Czechs and Slovaks, Praguers experienced the Prague Spring most intensively. They enjoyed it most, they fought for it for the longest time, and finally they paid for it most dearly.
We would like our series to depict all these events. We are aware of the enormous task we are taking on. We know that some topics will be touched on only slightly and others may be forgotten completely. Nevertheless, it is not our aim to be perfect, nobody has ever been, apart from the saints maybe. Not even in 1968, in that wonderful year that unfortunately sucked.
František Sládek