Opening of the Exhibition “Brno in August 1969”
Prague, August 20, 2009 – Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes Miroslav Lehký, First Deputy Mayor of Brno-Center Zdeněk Pazdírek, Eva Pánková of the Moravian Museum, and Jiří Mikulka of the Security Services Archive opened the exhibition „Brno in August 1969“ today in Brno’s Freedom Square. The exhibition will remain on view in the square until September 17. Miroslav Lehký emphasized the importance of recalling the nation’s past in places in which the public might not be inclined to seek out history.
The twelve-panel exhibition begins with a recollection of the events of the year 1968, followed by an analysis of the situation in the first year of the occupation, that is, from August 1968 through August 1969. That turbulent year climaxed with intense preparations, mainly on the part of the security services, for the first anniversary of the occupation. One of the panels features documentation of the preparations for the initial intervention, including a photograph of a tear grenade thrower which had been transported to Brno from Poland. Four further panels document the August 21-22 protests in Brno and Prague, among the biggest in the Republic.
The exhibition concludes with an historical evaluation and statistics from the protests. “The data on detained or lightly wounded demonstrators differ to a large extent, whereas the statistics on wounded security services servicemen are very precise. It is conjectured that 600 demonstrators were detained in Brno, and probably 2500 in the whole of Czechoslovakia. As for lightly wounded demonstrators, their count is estimated at several hundred. A number of people never visited the doctor out of fear of persecution; while some doctors, out of sympathy, did not record their treatment in the relevant charts,” says one of the exhibition authors, Institute historian Milan Bárta.
The exhibition’s goal is to recall the events in Brno on the first anniversary of the occupation of Warsaw Pact troops in a publicly accessible place, thus reaching the segment of the public that does not regularly visit exhibitions or archives. “Brno 1969 is a memento of the end of the ‘Prague Spring’ and the rise of normalization, due to the fact that two human lives were lost here in addition to a number of wounded, including Jiří Ševčík, for instance,“ adds Bárta.
In cooperation with the Security Services Archive, director Peter Kerekes has filmed a half-hour documentary on the August 1969 events, to be broadcast August 21 from 8:55 p.m. on ČT1 (Czech Television 1).
For more information, please contact Institute spokesperson Jiří Reichl.
Jiří Reichl, Spokesperson
Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
Siwiecova 2, 130 00 Prague 3
mobile: +420 - 725 787 524
email: press@ustrcr.cz