Overview of Interview Process: This interview was conducted over Skype, and recorded using Skype’s recording feature. I had to edit a decent amount of the transcript, because of occasional background sound, as well as my dad’s accent. This was recorded in my dorm room.
Biography of Interviewee: Jaroslav Flidr was born in Považská Bystrica, Czechoslovakia on May 2nd, 1967. He grew up under the iron curtain of communism and the Soviets, and was a college student when communism fell in Czechoslovakia. He has one brother, who still lives in Czechy with his wife and three children. He attended the Charles University in Prague, where he got his masters in Physics. He then attended Cornell University to obtain his PHD in physics. He has worked many jobs in areas of mathematics and science, especially computer science. He is currently employed by George Washington University as Principal Architect of Research Cloud Computing and Professor of Cybersecurity. He has three children, all of whom grew up in the United States.
Research: In my research I looked for sources that would help me expand my knowledge on areas of my dad’s childhood that I knew less about, as well as more general sources on communism, so that I was able to ask well informed questions to my dad. I put three below that I really found useful, and that helped me form interesting and intelligent questions.
“A Look Back … The Prague Spring & the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 30 Apr. 2013, www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2008-featured-story-archive/a-look-back-the-prague-spring-the-soviet.html.
Lots of information on the Prague Spring, which happened right around when my father was born. While my dad does not remember the Prague Spring, it still affected many people around him, such as his parents, and so it was important for me to know what happened in this uprising.
“Czech Republic Slovakia: Velvet Revolution at 25.” BBC News, BBC, 17 Nov. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30059011.
This talks about the fall of Communism in the Czech Republic. My father was in Prague when this happened, so it was important to be well informed of this moment in history, so I could ask questions about his personal experience.
McDermott, Kevin. Communist Czechoslovakia, 1948-1989 London: Palgrave, 2015. Print.
This is all about the daily life, and the effects that communism had on the people of Czechoslovakia. I liked this source the most, as it provided the most information across all areas of life under communism, and so it really helped give me a good understanding of what my dad’s childhood was like.
Transcript:
[Jacob Stowell]: Okay dad, I’ll be asking you some questions about your childhood and Czechoslovakia. So first of all, how was school different from schools in the US nowadays?
[Jaroslav Flidr]: How the school was different in that time from schools today?
[JS]: Yeah.
[JF]: Okay. Well interestingly enough, I would sort of suggests that schools in the US are on the path to become very similar to the schools I experienced with. That is that certain viewpoints are becoming more and more the only ones acceptable today. So you know diversity of thought was totally suppressed under communism. And as you know, my sort of observation today is we have embarked on a very similar trajectory- it is that is we are actually, by celebration of diversity, we are actually suppressing anything else which is not diverse- whatever that means. So you used to be that you know, so it just to just slightly change the answer, would be under communism you were allowed to think only certain things, and pretty much anything else was this allowed or down, you know downright illegal. Okay?
[JS]: Right, right. And so also we’re going to say anything else.
[JF]: No, so, you know again, you know, you were supposed to say- like for example that the you know Soviet Union is the best country in the world. That’s the only thing you’re allowed to say. If you didn’t say that you basically risk serious problems. And so if you asking me how it was different when I came to the US which is quite a long time ago, that is the fundamental difference and it’s a freedom of expression right? There was no freedom of expression. And so if you’re asking me about schools today, I suggest that we are getting closer to Communism than you might think. You know, that’s the same mindset just for the, you know on behalf of the common good. We are basically suppressing opinions we don’t like and you know, that’s not necessarily good idea. So you basically have to be able to be more specific. So if you’re asking me how in general the schools were under communism when I came over, you know after it was just there was a very substantial fundamental difference in freedom of expression, but we have eroded that quite substantially in the US over the course of the last three decades.
[JS]: Right, right. So going off of that, besides school were there are other areas of your daily life that you felt like were restricted by communism in your childhood, like having fun or going out and shopping and stuff like that, do you feel like that was also-
[JF]: So going out and shopping- that was a non-existent activity because there was nothing to buy, right? So this whole concept of going shopping doesn’t make any- didn’t make any sense, because you went out to a store to buy stuff you needed, and most of the time you didn’t find it anyway. So shopping was sort of more like an act of desperation because you just go and shop for toilet paper, you know, just hoping that they will have one.
[JS]: Right, right.
[JF]: They didn’t and so that’s the, you know, centrally planned socialist economy. That’s what happens. You basically don’t plan well, and so most of the, you know, things- daily products are not available, or were not accessible, or were too expensive, or were produced only for a much smaller portion of the population than the actual demand would be. So, no, there was no shopping; that basically that never happened. And so that’s one thing. Second, what was probably the most restrictive was the practice of religion, let’s say.
[JS]: Right, right.
[JF]: And that is like if you’re going to church, it basically amounted to sneaking through the darkness, you know, disperse your family and everybody would go in different ways, hoping that you emerge at some church, jumping out of a bush and making it for the door. So, and again that would be something which was not illegal per se, but would definitely be treated as such; would disqualify you from anything in the future if you were caught.
[JS]: Were there any issues like that in your family, like did any of your parents or did your brother ever end up getting in trouble with the Soviets?
[JF]: Yeah, everybody did, but so from that angle, you know, my brother was not allowed to go to university, period, right
[JS]: Oh, wow.
So, that’s very simple. My father getting fired and transferred like million times to different jobs. So, you know, that would disqualify you not only you, it would disqualify your kids and your grandkids. So if your grandfather was, you know, as transgressed in any way against the party, then basically the next three generations would suffer. That was the whole idea, and it’s basically how it’s always been. You basically don’t take it out only on an individual, but the whole family as far as you can go. So yes, they would they would punish and destroy everything around, so which is a very effective method how to prevent people from transgressing, right?
[JS]: Right.
[JF]: Yes, if you’re tough or say, “Oh I’ll just deal with it”, but they’ll say, “Yeah, be tough but we’ll take your kids and grandkids, how about that?” and you know, so so that so that was the definitely sort of, you know component of that and so outside of myself pretty much everybody got railroaded in because of that.
[JS]: Ok, so before you came to the US you went to University in Prague. So what was it like to go to university under communism- like did others- were other students like you? Were you guys all opposed to communism, because usually universities are areas of more liberal thoughts, or were you guys kind of 50/50, or what was it like?
[JF]: Oh, so that’s not that simple actually. So first I went to university only because even the Communist sometimes played by their own rules, right?
[JS]: Right.
[JF]: So because I had grades which allowed me to go to university without being examined- without tests right? I was basically automatically accepted with grades and because I was mathematics and physics. right?
[JS]: Right.
[JF]: Then I actually got in. Otherwise if I so the whole, you know, the admission tests were designed to prevent people from my background to enter. So they would basically just ask you questions, you know about, You know, what do you think about socialism and I would say just, “Yeah well, I don’t think you are suitable for, you know, for education go and beat it.” you know, so but in my case I ended up as a school where basically this. this was I actually bypassed that and also even Communists knew that they needed somebody who actually is educated. In the more than some sort of brainless political dribble, right? So, you know, they did know they needed engineers and mathematicians and physicists to actually build things for them. So it was sort of an interesting result of that was that the school which I went to- the particular school of mathematics and physics was full of people who are just total anti-communist. Because it’s basically the only school they could go to, and usually, you know people who are anti-socialist/ anti-communist are not brain-dead. So it’s sort of you know, just it was a sort of a good alignment. So I would say in that school. I would say 90 percent of people were just total anti-communist. On the flip side, the people who were like in the, you know, law school, right?
[JS]: Yeah.
[JF]: Or humanities- they were just brainwashed idiots. They were just accepted based on their class backgrounds, right so, a working-class background would basically be the opening, you know, magic for somebody to get in to say, law school or to psychology or sociology. So those people were just horrible, right? So I actually was from that angle: A, they had to accept me, which was the only reason why I got accepted, because I just bypassed that, entry-level trap. So, yeah, if I know if I applied say for law school, I would have no chance in hell- it would not have happened. But you know coincidentally I didn’t care, because I really wanted to do mathematics and physics- that’s one thing. And B, I actually met the criteria to actually be accepted without the entry exam. So I just showed up, and interestingly enough, most of people I went to school with were like that. So it was an unusual, unusual situation. You didn’t find a situation like that, that much anywhere else, and everywhere else people basically accepted in different areas of study like medicine or law or psychology or literature, were for people who were above certain class background; basically political hacks or definitely their parents were.
[JS]: So, when you were living and going to school in Prague, did you feel like the view to- was the view towards communism as a whole in the city different as to when you were living back in your small town, or do you think overall it was the same?
[JF]: It was about the same- nobody believed in it. Everybody hated it, but it was a game which was played, and, you know, so it was sort of a very cynical game and people used it for- I actually don’t know anybody who- let’s say look at the 50’s when it started. They probably are people who are actually believers. By the 60’s, everybody knew it was just a pile of garbage and it’s absolutely brutal, stupid, something promulgated by a bunch of idiots. But by the time it was a politically established class, so people used it as a career elevator, right? So a lot of people that just, you know, repeating these, you know idiotic rants just to promote their careers, and I don’t know if- with one exception I don’t know anybody who would actually believe that. But people would still be willing to destroy, on behalf of that, just to promote their own careers. So it was a sort of a very pathological, cynical situation. But in general, yeah, there were not too many differences between living in a small town and Prague. Nobody believed that- everybody was just making- You know, behind behind the Communists backs everybody was making fun of them.
[JS]: Yeah.
[JF]: But on the face on sort of the face value or in the face of the things, everybody was behaving as if this was a thing which everybody liked doing. So it was a very schizophrenic situation in many ways.
[JS]: So, after joining the university in Prague, you came to the US and you did your graduate studies at Cornell. So, why did you decide to come to the US, and when did you know that you wanted to come?
[JF]: Oh, so first of all, that was already after the Communist collapse- that is something you should know. So yes, I actually saw it to the end. I was actually there when they you know, the final battle when the Communists were just finally knocked out. I was there.
[JS]: Can you tell me what about that then?
[JF]: The famous Velvet Revolution. I was actually there, beaten by secret police. (Joke) But yeah and well, I could talk a bit more about it. I mean, I actually do remember most of it. But that was my last year at school. I was basically finishing my master’s, and so there was a demonstration which was the 17th of November, which was a demonstration based on something which the Nazis did to the students in 1939, and it sort of went sort of wrong for the Communists and the students decided, you know, screw this, we will just take on the Communists as a result. So it went out of hand and then it was basically a clash between the state and the students, and it was sort of strange and at the end the Communist sort of decided to give up so to speak. And the actual underlying causes are a little bit much more cynical actually than for what happened, but felt like it that way so actually no in 1989 the Communist sort of collapsed and by 1990, you know it just became a relatively normal regime, democratically-elected people and so. But I was still at school that time so that was basically- so when I got to the US it was basically just because I was accepted it; I wasn’t blasting my way through the barbed wire- That’s what it was, I mean, the whole border was actually wrapped in the barbed wire to prevent people from leaving. So, in order to get out, you would have to really just blast your way through.
[JS]: So when you came to the US, was it difficult at all when you first got here? Just like your immigration process, were there any-
[JF]: Well, so we just have to understand one thing. So it was not an immigration process. I just came to school. So there was probably there was not that much difficulty and I was accepted based on merit, let’s say and some exams. So I started studying physics at Cornell. That’s basically what happened.
[JS]: So you don’t need to worry about obtaining like a visa or a green card.
[JF]: Well I did have to- I mean, of course, but if you’re going to study then you just get your visa and you go to school. That’s-
[JS]: There was no real permanent-
[JF]: No there was nothing permanent about it, no.
[JS]: And then later on when you decided to stay then you could-
[JF]: That was different, because that time we actually have to worry about it. And then you have to go through the process, and then the process is not necessarily straightforward, and but there is a process- at least was, and so, there is a way if you decide to do something like that to make it legal obviously right? Because why would you make it illegal if there is no particular reason, you know, just being illegal. So there is a perfectly well-defined- used to be perfectly well-defined process, you know, transition from say a student to legal resident citizen, right?
[JS]: And so my last question is how do you think growing up under communism affects you today, or is it still a part of you today in some way? Do you ever feel like you’re-
[JF]: Oh, yes, 99% of me. That’s what it is and what it effects- the effect today is A, obviously I’m much more cynical than most of people, but it also gives me, gives me definitely a better view and understanding of things which are happening today.
[JS]: Right, right.
[JF]: And so if I tell you that this is not much different, and we are on a trajectory which will eventually become something akin to what communism or socialism was like, that’s what I’m very much sensitive to- I can see that, I can feel that, you know, you start behaving certain ways, and once you start behaving certain ways it’s like, “Why are you behaving certain ways?” Because this is basically what I’m used to- it comes to me very naturally, and what it means is you basically say different things than what you think. And once you’re in that mode it’s like okay, so it’s so there that’s the effect, that means the cause got to be very similar, right?
[JS]: Right.
[JF]: And because it is very similar.
[JS]: Yeah. So you feel like because of Communism, your political views are definitely more towards the privatization of, like, industries and freedom of individuals, although I mean obviously, but more than other people- and more power to the state instead of the federal government; things like that.
[JF]: Well perhaps, nut I would not even go to you know to those details. That’s not the main difference, if it’s federal versus state state governments that’s not irrelevant to that. What’s important is I’m definitely on the side of individual responsibility and freedoms, definitely, because if you don’t have those, you will slip into totality, and there is nothing you will be able to do about it, because at the end of the day, those will be the people who will dictate what you are allowed to say and think. So it has nothing to do with capitalism as an economic system or model: it has a lot to do with freedoms and the ability to basically express yourself, and even though even if your opinions are not necessarily aligned with official views, and there’s another thing- there should be no official views; people should be able to make their own mind and actually express their own thoughts. So again, yeah, obviously economically I’m not inclined, anywhere close to touch socialism. You know, I know how it is going to go, if anybody decides to go to socialist path, I’m not going to be the found anywhere close because I’ve seen it, and it happened- every time people try something like that, it always goes the same way. It’s absolutely idiotic that people think today that it will do better. That they will figure out some magic- that actually the things which have failed repeatedly for a hundred years, you know, the whole 20th century, will suddenly start working. It’s not going to happen and it will be a miserable situation for everybody involved in that, and so yeah, I’m definitely on the opposing side to that, but it’s not as simple as that. There is the underlying problem with you know, totality is not just necessarily economic system. It’s also a belief system, or actually the non-existence of belief systems now- the same way like how the communists basically tried to destroy any religion because they saw it as competition with their own- communism and socialism is in many ways very similar to a religion: just man-made and a really primitive stupid religion, but there’s nothing transcendent about it, but effectively that’s what basically you dom you basically destroy your competitors. So it’s actually not just the economic system. And the problem is if you want to transform the economic system to something which is close to socialism, you will have no choice but to transform the rest as well, otherwise you won’t be able to sustain it and that’s basically how socialism- socialistic and say communist communist systems collapse. It’s the inability to transform people. I mean at a cost, so the cost is you kill them. Right, so you can transfer them they are against you so you kill them. That’s basically, you know, if you look at the history of socialism and communism. There’s like about a hundred million murdered people in just the 20th century just as a result of ideology, right? They didn’t come along. It just didn’t happen just for no reason, because originally the socialist system was supposed to help people, right? It’s to build a Utopia make people everybody happy and then just the opposite the very opposite happened.
[JS]: All right. Well, thanks for doing this interview Dad.
Conclusion: I really liked this interview, because even though I didn’t get to ask all the questions that I hoped to, the information I got was still very interesting. The way my dad talked about his views, the way he was so clearly oriented and in touch with his views shows me how much of an effect communism had on him. He wants nothing to do with anything that might resemble even a smidge of communism, and it showed through his very intentional and strongly held views.