"I was a worker at Škoda after graduation in July, August and part of September before going to the military. I only learned afterwards that when they came here on 21 August at about 8 or 8:15 am, the Russians were on Republic Square, at the station and so on with tanks... Plzeň's National Committee, today's town authority, assigned two men, comrades, to liaise with the Russian leaders. One of them drove in a GAZ with a Soviet colonel on the first day, zigzagging the city and checking the load-bearing capacity of the bridges because of the tanks. Tanks are heavy, massive machines. They wanted to avoid accidents with tanks dropping in the river and so on. Everything turned out well. The liaision officer wrote it down and it was published in our almanac called The Past of the West Bohemian Region, which is still published by our Plzeň City Archive where I used to work. It's still published annually. That was about twenty years ago, so you'd have to look for it. When they were saying goodbye, the colonel was basically crying with joy, thanking him and saying he was glad that it had turned out this well. He thanked himp for being with him through the city and that nothing had happened. The officer said two things. The first thing [was that] if a tank fell into the water or there was an accident, it would be [taken as] sabotage and they were ordered to fire immediately. There were thousands of people everywhere. The Škoda factory was not working because the trains [didn't] bring [anyone], and [some] Škoda workers took to the streets. The factory was almost empty. I ran out too, it was basically a riot. There were hundreds, thousands of people everywhere. They were watching what was happening. So, the order to fire did not happen. The Russians were shooting in Prague, there were some dead. There were about 120 dead across the country [from August to the end of 1968], mostly it was weird or unfortunate incidents; there is a study about that. There were no shootings in Plzeň in August 1968. The other thing he said was: 'If you want to talk to the crew of any of our Russian tanks, please always make sure to talk to the commander, because the commander is the one who can certainly read and write.'"
"Then we were in Kiev, also for about two or three days; it was very interesting. Brezhnev was visiting, the top head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the head of state. We had half a day off, and I was walking along a main street with a friend of mine. We saw militia [police] men standing some twenty metres apart on either side, but that was it. Then they're coming - Brezhnev and more cars, the police, motorbikes - his escort. He just waved his hand and went somewhere in central Kiev, likely for a welcome ceremony and a meeting. That's what the locals told us later. People were walking about like nothing was going on. It was a weekday morning. Two ladies were walking by with groceries; there were gentlemen chatting and smoking; someone was walking with a child, but none of the Ukrainians [cared] that Brezhnev was coming, as if the road was just empty. Nothing at all. I was telling this to my Czech friend Jarda, and then young Ukrainian man stopped by. He knew right away we weren't Russians. He winked at us walking by and said, 'Romanov's coming.' The absolutist Romanov tsar dynasty ruled in Russia 1613 to 1917. It's very similar today with a presidential system. I got scared, I wasn't expecting it. My jaw dropped, by eyes balled... The Ukrainian guy got scared [too] and disappeared into the metro. Of course [he] got scared because he would get a severe punishment for something like that..."
"My father was a cyclist during the First Republic. He won some races and then trained every day. He cycled from [Horní] Lukavice to Škoda and back every time, in summer and winter, to get the [necessary] mileage. During the final air raid on Škoda plant on 25 April 1945, at the very end of the war, some 270 bombers from England [USAF] flew in and destroyed 3/4 of the Škoda armaments plant. [It was] the last functioning armaments factory for the Wehrmacht, and so it had to be destroyed. At the time, quite unusually, the Czech BBC service made a Czech announcement for the Škoda plant staff that those bombers were taking off and that they would arrive at Škoda at such and such time, so that people would have time to take shelter and civilians wouldn't be killed unnecessarily. My father took his bicycle, didn't wait and just disappeared with others. He went straight home, because it wasn't worth the risk. And I guess that saved his life."
Jaroslav Douša was born in Plzeň on 16 June 1949 to Marie Doušová, née Ungermannová, and Jaroslav Douša Sr. They lived in Dobřany until 1967, then in an apartment in Plzeň at Slovany. His father worked at Škoda most of his life. His mother was a saleswoman in a grocery store and then a janitor at the High School of Electrical Engineering in Plzeň. Jaroslav Douša Sr. was a successful motorcycle racer and manufacturer after 1945. He saved his life by cycling away from work during an air raid on Škoda plant on 25 April 1945. The witness spent the summer of 1968 after graduating from high school as a worker at the Škoda plant. He took his mandatory military service in Plzeň-Slovany from October 1968 to September 1970. He was admitted to study archive science and history at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague in 1970. He and his classmates went to work in the Soviet Union in July 1973, and the trip was eye-opening with regard to communist ideology and religion. He joined the Plzeň City Archives in 1975. Due to refusing to join the Communist Party, he was not promoted to the head of the archive until 1 July 1997. He held the position until 30 June 2012. On 28 October 2019, he was awarded the historical Seal of the City of Plzeň for his merits. At the time of the filming (2024), he lived in Plzeň at Slovany.
Jaroslav Douša (second left) with his teacher and classmates from the archive science and history programme of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 1971
Jaroslav Douša (second left) with his teacher and classmates from the archive science and history programme of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 1971
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
