Major General (ret.) Ing., CSc Stanislav Chromec

"Imagine this: when I was a civilian already, Chief of General Staff Rusov filed a criminal complaint against me, claiming that me and my colleague Vácha with whom I studied at the University of Economics and wrote the final report analyzing the system of management and command in the army and forecasting future developments that ended with 'Farewell to Arms!'... Well, the Chief of the General Staff simply understood this like we abused the rules for working with top secret material of special importance. No way! I went to report this to Director Klasna. I may have had tears in my eyes. He says, "Did you do it?" I said, "No way!' And he said, 'Do you keep a copy of the document you're being prosecuted for?' I was quiet for a while; I knew he was going to ask me for it. I thought, I trust him enough to give it to him. So I gave it to him and he saved me. When I was in the last interrogation in Pankrác, three months later, the military prosecutor pulled my leg for a while. I had one copy with me, and I wrote him a dedication. Then he said, 'The proceedings against you have been dropped for lack of evidence.' They couldn't have any evidence. We wrote it at a time when we didn't even have access to top secret material anymore. It was just complete nonsense. It was Mr Klasna who saved me. He approached his comrades and told them he supported me and this was just nonsense. Otherwise, both of us were facing eight years minimum and a life sentence at worst. It wasn't funny."

"And when they 'set me aside' in the office, waiting to fire me, counterintelligence officer Major Hedea approached me. He determined my destiny, and horribly so. We met one day skiing in Velká Fatra, at a Volareza facility (Military Spa and Recreation Facilities). He was cross-country skiing and I was on the slopes, and we just noticed each other. He came to me and said, 'Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I know you don't counter-officers, but I would like to know about the restructuring from the other side.' We met three times, I told him what was happening to the institute as they were destroying the whole core research team. Seventy percent of the creative core of the institute got kicked out. He listened to me, and he liked me and thought he could save me. He invited me to the Demínka wine cellar in September or August 1970 and said: 'You're going to sign two things here today.' I knew what was going to happen. 'First, you will work with me at Dukla handball.' I said, 'I'm sorry but I've never played handball and I can't accept that, I'm totally unqualified in that field.' Second, 'You're going to sign my cooperation.' I said, 'No way, this is the last time we're talking.' He was sure he was going to save me, so he signed me in. Then, as the republic was coming to its end, Chief of the General Staff Karel Pezl who was a friend of mine said: 'Stan, you're joining me at the general staff as the head of the ground troops effective second of January.' I said, 'Fine, I'll report.' I went there on the second of January, asked for my desk, and they said, 'You're not here.' I didn't know why, what happened. They found out that Hedea had signed me in. See, the guys who survived 1968 didn't have a very good relationship with us who came back. I held no grudge; I knew what had happened. They found Hedea's note. Then in 1974 they deleted it (he was no longer listed as a collaborator, ed. note). When Hedea died, they sent his successor to me. By then, I was already a civilian, having finally landed a job on my thirty-sixth try. He started talking and said, 'I come from Hedea'. I said, 'What do you want?' He wanted me to work with him. I said, 'No way.' They deleted it and never got anything from me. Hedea wrote me down in 1970, thy fired me in 1970, and they deleted it in 1974 because they had nothing except what Hedea had written down. I still didn't get the job. So I was 'branded' and it kept backfiring. It was used against me even when I was already working in the Union of Officers and Ensigns of the Army of the Czech Republic, of which I am still the first vice-president. Hedea liked me so much that he called me when he was dying. He said his goodbye. Even though he was counterintelligence, whom I really hated, he was an interesting man. He liked me, he wanted to save me, but I didn't want to be saved that way and I couldn't accept it. I didn't sign anything for him, not at all. He didn't have a single word from me in writing. I told him what I thought of what they were doing and what the implications were for destroying the institute. Nothing more, nothing less. And this is how I eventually paid for it."