Jiří Blata

“I recall these situations, like when we were sitting in the taiga, eating. And I would dig a spoon into some food in my mess tin, and before I could reach my mouth, the spoon was covered with mosquitoes, it just turned black. So I would blow them off, maybe half of them, but I would eat it anyway as I didn´t want to go hungry. We used to wear mosquito net hats. As while walking in taiga you would step into vegetations on the marshes and this cloud of mosquitoes would rise so you couldn´t see the man walking in front of you. And you had to bear that for twenty four hours a day. And it would take a heavy toll on the mental stability of some people. Such thing can even drive you insane. Also, walking through the taiga, you would sometimes come across a dead reindeer, and while trying to find out what happened to it you would see its nostrils clogged with mosquitoes.”

“It was just unbelievable that areas as large as the whole Czech Republic were just charted on like a little piece of paper. For example, there would be just Yenisei and Ob rivers with several tributaries and the largest mountain ridges. Anything else we charted on our way. Nowadays, it´s quite a different story, as now, they do have satellite photos, from Sputnik and such, but back then, the system was that the geologists would be improving the maps with data they would gather while traversing the vast territories, charting every stream, every ridge, every plain or iceberg high up in the mountains, they would chart it all and send it to the central institute in Moscow. There, the cartographers would just add it to the old map they already had. And as the next group would set out they would have this more detailed map and continue with charting the details. That´s how maps were made.”

“They (The Russians) camped on a high ground overlooking our barracks, so they could see right into our quarters. They were controlling the situation with all those tanks and guns stationed above. And all the guns were pointing right at our windows. So I can recall several situations which were quite interesting. As a recon unit we had a jammer so our radio operators were jamming their communication. And they would find out, of course, so their commander showed up. And he would enter our barracks by driving a tank through a closed gate, stopping at the courtyard and turning its gun in all directions. Then he would get off and begin to yell that we should bring the men operating the radio station, who were jamming their signal. Or there was this ammo depot which they were patrolling. However, at the right moment, we managed to get inside and fill a truck with ammunition. We didn´t know how it´s gonna be, whether that was the end of it, or there would be a confrontation. In the end, we had to hand over our weapons and thing went their own way. So we went through quite many situations like that. And sometimes, we were only few steps away from a bloodshed, as in the first days neither us nor them knew how the situation would evolve.”