„A lot of thoughts are crossing your mind while you are in prison. You are wondering about your future, or you rather don’t think about it at all. In the garden of the ‘Little House’ where the chief of the prison grew vegetables there were paths on which the prisoners on outdoor breaks were walking. And suddenly I noticed that someone was whistling a familiar melody. I climbed to the window and spotted my brother. He was jailed for the ‘he-knew-but-did- not-tell’. You can imagine my feelings. My brother was kept on the ground floor and I was kept on the first floor. It happened once that the warder pulled me out to clean the corridor and he pulled out my brother to clean the ground floor as well. And so we bumped into each other on the stairs. This good warder managed our meeting.”
„I was sent back to a prison Leopoldov. The official reason was I had been recognized as an unuseful working force. Welcome was really harsh this time. We were told we would leave the gate of the prison in coffins only. Conditions were really bad, much worse than the first time. Now it was year 1952. We had to toil all the time. A bullying started immediately after we were put in cells which were modernized already. A water tap was installed on a wall, a lavatory in the corner. Under the tap a zinc washbowl was placed. The zinc washbowl was shining bright like a mirror. In the cells we arrived completely exhausted after previous ‘welcome’. We had had to run around the prison yard naked. I washed myself a little when I found the tap in the cell. But the zinc washbowl went dark at the very moment. Therefore the first punishment was polishing of the zinc washbowl. It had to shine like a mirror. We had to scour the floor day and night; left the window opened regardless the temperature outside. Even if it was possible to survive – I am a proof – some did not. We were exposed to our wardens absolutely. For example a warden passed trough a corridor and knocked the door of your cell. You had to start to perform squatting. You were allowed to stop only after he had knocked again. You were squatting as a nitwit, because you never knew if the warden is watching you. Wardens wore shoes with rubber soles, so it was impossible to hear them passing by. Of course you had sometimes tried to cease squatting but severe punishment followed in case the warden caught you. Either you got lower rations or you had been put in a dark cell. Once I was punished with the dark cell too. There you had to walk constantly around in a total darkness. On the contrary a light was on during the night. I had no time for rest at all, there was no bad of course. At least time was running fast there.”
„I was placed in a sergeant office. My task was regular daily paperwork. It was a fine job, but I saw what was going on behind the curtains, what a political officer was doing and so on. I had been able to pass all useful information to my colleague Čepelka. He handed on this information to Americans. Dou you know the name Katek? He was the chief of American intelligence staff in our country. Čepelka was in direct contact with his subordinates. I had tried to get in direct contact with American intelligence officers as well, but I had never succeeded. Once we drove together to meet them, but on the spot Čepelka got in their car and left me behind. I had just waited until he had returned. Our activities could have saved lot of people. It was possible to warn them to leave the country soon enough to avoid detention. I think it was useful. If it was worthwhile to hand on documents for example about one operating room in Kbely, where I had worked later, I don’t know.”
„My message for the future? I am a profound optimist; therefore I hope people will learn a lesson from the past. I hope young generation will not be tricked by communist. There are a lot of proofs to warn them. But gullibility and ignorance knows no bounds. If humankind will elude the danger I don’t know. Nazism and communism have passed like the other -isms, but people prefer to forget their bad experience. I’m afraid of it. I see my duty in remembering the past: what was First World War and Second World War, what was communism and how it has affected our nation, what meant USSR, that USSR presented a threat. That Russia presents a threat now despite inner political changes, that other countries affected by communism present a threat as well. To think the situation can be changed by economic means is naive. Some western politicians maintain such position. If only they were right. But I don’t believe they are. There was no reason to interfere in many situations, but for example in case of China or North Korea West should have been engaged. I think western politicians are not engaging in places where they should be.”
„The day of reckoning came; it was in May as usually. I was born in May, the most important things in my live have always happened in May. In May I was arrested too. I was moved to a military headquarters for interrogation. I had been sent to maintain a radio station when I had been arrested – simply nitwit! I should have doubt the order for a while. I had had no experience in maintenance. But I had trusted my senior officer. I had followed the order, when he had sent me to maintain the radio station – I had been a soldier on duty. But I had been arrested instead. Even Reicin came to see me during the interrogation. Then I was placed in so called ‘Little House’. I was still there when President Benes died. I could hear the presidential guard playing fanfare behind the wall; chimes in nearby monastery Loreta were playing its melodies. A lot of detainees were saying: ‘After I will be released, I will buy a LP with the Loreta chimes and I will break it into pieces.’ When I had arrived to the ‘Little House’ jangling chains could be heard all around the place. People who had tried to escape across the bordered had been usually chained. They wore special clothes which could be unbuttoned at side in order to enable the detainee to go to toilet. Times were tough.”
Sergěj Solovjev was born on May 1st in 1924 in Turnov. His Russian name came from his father, the Tsarist general and captive of the First World War. In 1947 Solovjev together with Vladimír Čepelka (both were soldiers) became engaged in espionage activities in the services of the United States of America. In May 1948 he was detained and interrogated by the agents of the Defense Information Unit in the infamous ´Little House´, the house of torture, at the Prague’s Loreta. He was convicted to capital punishment for capital military treason and conspiring; the sentence was moderated to life-imprisonment. Shortly after him his brother was also detained, simply on the grounds that he had not given his brother in. Solovjev had been detained in prisons Leoplodov, Opava and Valdice. He was released during the amnesty of 1960. Presently, he has been active as the head of the Confederation of Political Prisoners in Semily. Sergěj Solovjev died on November 25, 2021.
