Pater Sergej Magid

“I witnessed an incident concerning a train full of Soviet women who were coming to Czechoslovakia. They were civilians who normally worked as waitresses in the officers’ clubs or did the laundry. They were coming to Czechoslovakia because the pay was better. We as soldiers were supposed to greet them at the railway station. When we arrived, the train was already at the station. The platform was full of students who prevented the girls from getting off the train and they were shouting in bad Russian. The girls were all scared. So that was one of the anti-Soviet demonstrations that did not stir anything but contempt among us. (We thought:) ‘Why don’t you fight with us? Why do you have to harass the women who have nothing to do with it? Let them go.’ And then when the students saw us, they left.”

“During the training they told us the most horrible lie - that we were going to save the Czechoslovak nation from a German invasion. That the Bundesrepublik has already sent its tanks, which were proceeding to Pilsen. That was really a shocking thing to hear. First, we had no means to verify this. When I came to the fire brigade station there were no newspapers apart from those with the same information. But I knew it was a lie. But even I, who hated communists, was very disturbed by the thought of German tanks in Czechoslovakia. And you can imagine what the others might have thought, no matter if they believed it or not or if they understood it or not. They told us that we were going to liberate Czechoslovakia. Not to attack, conquer or occupy the country; that we were the brave knights sent to save the poor people. That was the tragedy of Soviet soldiers during the occupation, including me and my friends.”

“We flew over the border during the night. I repeat that most of us believed that we were flying to northern Kazakhstan for military operations. We landed and got out of the planes at some airport. Later we found out it was the Ruzyně airport. The old Ruzyně, not the one we have today. It was a dark night and the lights were off. We could see only the headlights of trucks and tanks and the torch lights between them. It all looked like a scene from an American sci-fi film. We really had no idea where we were. There were only Russians at the airport, no Czechs. I was a radio operator so they put me in a tank. The vehicles left the airport and it wasn't until four o’clock in the morning that we were allowed to open the lid and look out. I looked around and I saw an apple tree orchard. It was clear that we weren’t in Kazakhstan. I thought it was Ukraine or some other country. There was a sign in the orchard which said ‘Attention, train!’”

“About ten percent of us were sure that we were flying to Czechoslovakia and that we would finally have the chance to hear the Beatles, who were prohibited in the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia was a western country and we thought that we could get American cigarettes, meet some Czech girls and that everything would be all right. We thought that everybody would see that we also like democracy and hate Brezhnev because he was a moron. Ninety percent didn’t really understand what was going on... maybe eighty-five percent. And about five or three percent, really thought that the Czechs were traitors and so on. Everybody laughed at them but they were real fanatics.”