Interviews with Sasha Vondra

Look, I was the member of, let´s say, the younger generation. So the older generation, they were somehow forced into this kind of a ghetto. Or Charter 77. Because they, you know, many of them, lost their jobs or were even jailed after the Russian invasion in 1968. So for them, it was, let´s say, a move of necessity. While for us young people with some ideals and with the love for freedom, for us it was the choice of the will. You know, the choice of will. Choice of will.

We– I– intentionally preferred to risk even the jail — or criminal. For me, it was more important to be free, than to build some official career in the totalitarian society. If the price was to behave like a slave. So, you know, for us young people even this element of adventures were much more important than, let´s say– the elements of the conformity with something what we did not believe in.

Alexandr “Sasha” Vondra is a former Czech dissident who later became a leading figure in Czech politics. In the 1980s, Vondra was a member of the Charter 77 movement. Charter 77 was a document published in 1977 to criticize the government of Czechoslovakia for failing to abide by its obligations under the human rights provisions of the Czechoslovak Constitution, the Helsinki Accords, and United Nations covenants. Vondra was one of the original signers of Charter 77.

Vondra remained active in the anti-Communist movement in Czechoslovakia and later was a leader of the Velvet Revolution, the non-violent movement in 1989 that caused the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to relinquish power. Following Václav Havel’s election as President of Czechoslovakia, Vondra became his foreign policy advisor. He served as Czech ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2001.