Prague, New Year's 1990

Nádraží

The ghosts of the old regime die hard

On the first night of a new era, a blizzard seals Prague's main station with a dead secret policeman and a briefcase of names.

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Case Brief

The public story is already unstable.

Prague Main Railway Station, New Year's Eve 1989. Weeks after the Velvet Revolution toppled the communist government, a former secret police officer is found shot dead in the locked station master's office. He had been summoned to hand over files that named informants. A record blizzard has sealed the station—and eight people had access to the administrative wing. One of them is a killer.

Follow the files, the keys, and the grudges left by the old regime.

Setting: Prague, New Year's 1990
Region: Czechoslovakia
Season: deep winter
Weather: record blizzard, heavy snowfall, sub-zero temperatures, howling wind
Start: 1990-01-01 00:10
Case Type: Full Case
Length: Multi-session
Suspects: 9
Locations: 9

Cast

Everyone has a version of the night.

The Victim

Major Miroslav Kadlec

Former StB Officer

Major Kadlec served the Státní bezpečnost—the communist secret police—for twenty-five years. He was an interrogator. A good one, by the regime's standards. He broke dissidents, turned informants, and filed meticulous reports. When the Velvet Revolution swept through Prague in November, pressure mounted for StB officers to surrender their files to the transitional authorities. He resisted for weeks, but tonight, cornered and out of options, he agreed to surrender the files naming every informant he ever ran.

The Partner

Major Karel Šťastný

Former StB Officer

Karel Šťastný was Kadlec's partner in the StB for fifteen years. Where Kadlec was the interrogator—methodical, brutal, efficient—Šťastný was the handler, the recruiter, the man who turned ordinary citizens into informants through a mixture of threats and promises. He was good at it. He knew everyone's weakness.

The Platform Guard

Marek Vacek

Railway Worker

Marek Vacek is a junior railway worker assigned to platform duty during the blizzard. He has spent the evening keeping stranded families away from the snow-drifted track edges, checking heaters, and pretending he knows when the trains will run again.

The Playwright

Tomáš Bartoš

Dissident Playwright

Tomáš Bartoš was one of Czechoslovakia's most prominent dissident playwrights—a peer of Havel, though less famous. His plays satirized the regime with such precision that the StB arrested him in 1984. He spent five years in Bory prison. Major Kadlec personally oversaw his interrogation. The beatings left scars; the isolation left deeper ones.

The Archivist

Klára Nováková

Government Archivist, Transitional Archive Commission

Klára Nováková is twenty-seven years old and already carries the weight of history on her shoulders. The transitional authorities appointed her to receive and catalog the StB files—a task that requires both meticulous skill and moral courage. She volunteered because it's personal: her father, a university lecturer, was arrested by the StB in 1978. He died in custody. The official cause was heart failure. Klára has never believed that.

The Diplomat

Werner Hartmann

Austrian Embassy Attaché

Werner Hartmann is an Austrian embassy attaché with polished manners and a talent for seeming useful in any room. He moves through late-1989 Prague like a man who understands border crossings, paperwork, and favors better than most diplomats admit. He came to the station expecting a discreet meeting and has no interest in explaining more than that.

The Musician

Luděk Horváth

Street Musician and Busker

Luděk Horváth has been playing violin in Prague's main railway station for eight years. He knows every corridor, tunnel, stairwell, and hiding place in the building. The station is his home in every way that matters— he sleeps in the waiting room when security lets him, stores his belongings in the old service passages, and earns his living from the coins travelers drop in his open case.

The Nun

Sister Anežka Dvořáková

Catholic Nun, Order of St. Agnes

Sister Anežka Dvořáková has served the Order of St. Agnes for thirty-five years and carries herself with quiet authority. During the communist years she became known for sheltering frightened families and offering comfort where the state offered none. Even stranded in the station, she projects warmth, discipline, and an air of practiced self-control.

The Telegraph Operator

Bohumil Krejčí

Telegraph Operator

Bohumil Krejčí has operated the telegraph at Praha hlavní nádraží for twenty-eight years. He processes messages, connects phone calls, and hears everything through the thin walls. Tonight he processed the archivist's telegrams and connected the diplomat's call to Vienna. His authorized post in the administrative wing makes him one of the eight people with access to the critical area. He heard a muffled sound at 23:47 but dismissed it as a firecracker.

The Station Master

Václav Procházka

Station Master, Praha hlavní nádraží

Václav Procházka has been station master of Praha hlavní nádraží for thirty-five years. He joined the Communist Party in his twenties—not from conviction but from the understanding that a railway career required it. He has never been brave. He has never been cruel. He has simply been present, keeping the trains running, keeping his head down, surviving.

Locations