André Lenard

"We lived, initially we were, I would say, among almost the first companies to integrate as a representative office in Moscow. The bank then couldn't be accredited as a bank, so the bank set up a trading company and we were accredited as a trading company. Banks were after that. So it was terribly interesting at first because we had a quasi-monopoly there too. I represented not only the French industry, but Bank of America, Univer and companies like that, so it was awfully interesting. I had a secretary, who I think was at least a KGB captain, and a chauffeur, who was lower down the ladder. They were both nice, intelligent, but as I said, 'The Russian character is like Saša always said.' I brought him presents and he liked me and I liked him, actually. But if I did anything, he would turn me in and bring me oranges to prison because he liked me. That's the Russian character. We are, I mean, we French, we either like or we don't like. The Czechs are a bit like that too, I think. But in Russia, you can like somebody and you can just turn him in because he did something anti-state and he swore to the KGB that he had to turn it in."

"I remember well, and that was actually by accident, because I was a little bit post-marriage at the time and we went out because we were young, to restaurants and bars and dances. I came home around midnight with my wife and I turned on the radio and I heard a report about dances in Prague. And I thought, 'That's strange that they're remembering World War II now.' It didn't got into my head at all. Well, then I listened to it and I realized that the Russians, in a friendly way, had come to liberate us, and then, just at that time, the poor Czechs who were on vacation in France, they couldn't come back because the border was closed, so I saw a couple there. They had a Czechoslovak flag painted on the sidewalk, the boy was playing the guitar, the girl was singing Czech songs, so I gave them something and invited them to dinner. For years after that I was involved in hotel financing here. The translator comes up to me and 'Don't you remember me?' For me, an older lady. And that was the girl who sang there."