"The strategic plans anticipated a quick advance to the Dukla Pass and a speedy arrival to the Czechoslovak territory. The reality was totally different, however. The offensive itself against the strong German defence started on September 8th, 1944, and our troops fought their way to the Czechoslovak border, which they reached on October 6th, 1944, suffering heavy losses. The operation, planned to support the Slovak uprising, was launched on September 8th, 1944 in in the direction of Krosno, Dukla and Prešov; it was to last five days. The operations´s failure was blamed on two Slovak divisions, which became disarmed by the German army shortly before the beginning of the operation. It needs to be emphasized that the Dukla operation is the largest military operation of our foreign army in WWII, and it should be regarded as a prominent event in our modern military history. For us, who passed through the Dukla Pass, the operation will forever stand testimony to the bravery and self-sacrifice of those who have not survived. We have to admit that owing to the neglect of all media and modern-era historians, the public today shows no interest in the Carpathia-Dukla operation nor in other operations by our foreign army."
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Ivan Solovka. I was born on September 6th, 1923 in the then region of Carpathian Ruthenia, which used to be part of Czechoslovakia after the WWI. My childhood or youth years were very complicated, according to present-day standards, and I can say these were indeed difficult times, for when the economical and even the political situation in Czechoslovakia was in the process of development, it was even more difficult for us in the region of Carpathian Ruthenia, there were few job opportunities, the material conditions were also inadequate, since it was soon after the First World War and the were not enough funds for the postwar recovery. My family has been living there since - I do not even know since when exactly, because our region had been then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire - thus my family, my parents, have already been living there.
When I reached the school age, I started attending an elementary school. It might be of interest to you that I used to walk to school barefooted. The schoolhouse was about two and a half or three kilometres from our house. And we walked in this way during winter as well. As for my clothing, I had a very long shirt, which today you would probably call a nightgown. And this is how I was dressed, this was my school uniform."
"Right after the coup d´état in February 1948 the Communist party illegally and forcibly liquidates all public democratic organizations of resistance-fighters, including the resistance-fighters´ associations all over the country. The communists managed to take over the leadership of all these organizations, and to abuse them for over four decades to promote the objectives of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. On May 8-9th, 1948, the Communists founded The Association of Freedom Fighters, and forcibly unified all existing resistance-fighters organizations into this illegally formed communist association. They took over their contacts and agenda, and also appropriated their merits in military operations. All members of the Czech Legionnaires Association clearly see that the Czech Association of Freedom Fighters was founded by the Communist party three years after the war, and that it still remains a section of this party today. Its present-day organizational structure clearly demonstrates this. For this reason, we have been repeatedly asking the question, when and where the Czechoslovak Association of Freedom Fighters participated in military operations of the WWII, where did they fight? The answer is unequivocal. This association has never participated in any war operations; nevertheless even today it still actively follows the totalitarian regime of the communist party.
"And there they started the court trial with us. Every time they brought us in, there were no explanations, no investigations into our case. They would bring us one by one, or sometimes two of us, to the judge. We walked through this prison, it was all underground, about six floors below the terrain, and it was all encircled by a high wall, surrounded by a moat filled with water. So they would bring us to those judges. They were all very fancy people, in military uniforms, but completely inapproachable. They spoke to us exclusively in Russian. If we did not understand, they would not explain anything. And their answer was always very straightforward: ´You are enemies and you will be tried for illegal crossing of Soviet borders, because in our country you are considered violators of state laws.´ And we were also treated as such.
"It was quite evident to us, both from our environment and from the opinions of the local people - mostly Russians, Soviets who were imprisoned with us - that no one has returned alive from these gulags, or concentration camps. That these prisoners mostly stay there and that such horrible conditions are being imposed upon them, that they succumb. And if they survive, the Soviet authority usually tried to keep them there somehow, by offering them various positions and certain security, but they did not want to release them and let them return where they came from. Because in the Soviet Union, they feared this kind of environment and the things that were going on there. And therefore the people, who got into the gulags, were not coming back. Not only us, strangers, but they also kept their own people in there."
Ivan Solovka was born September 6th, 1923 in the village of Volová in Carpathian Ruthenia. He experienced difficult childhood, growing up in a poor region in times of the world economic crisis. He identified with the Czechoslovak Republic, and after the state’s breakup in 1938 and 1939, Solovka decided to relocate to the Soviet Union and to work there on Czechoslovakia’s restoration. However, he was imprisoned and interned in a gulag on the Vorkuta peninsula, where he laboured in coal mines. In 1942 he was released and transferred to the Czechoslovak foreign army, which was then being formed. Solovka went through training in Buzuluk and Novochopersk. Afterwards, he was sent to the 1st artillery unit of the Czechoslovak brigade to serve as a signaller. He held this position during the fighting for Kiev, in the Carpathian-Dukla operation, and further on till the liberation of Prague. After the war, he joined the Czech Legionnaires Association, and he is still an active member of its Olomouc chapter. After the war, Solovka studied for two and a half years at the officers´ academy in Hranice na Moravě. He holds the rank of colonel, and was decorated with the following: For liberation of Biela Cerkva and Kiev, for participation in the Dukla operation, the Czechoslovak War Cross, the “Za chrabrost” (For Valour) medal, and the Polish War Gross for Torčin. Ivan Solovka died on September 5, 2018.
