Ivan Pletan

“Our daily routine looked the following way: we would get up at six, between six and seven. Each of us would wash and clean himself as the conditions allowed. In those circumstances, we had no water, so I would put some snow into the bowl which I used for eating, heat it on the stove and thus obtain water. Before seven you had to be done with breakfast, at seven we had to assemble and set out to work. First, we would be felling pines, then digging, and then placing sleepers. The sleepers were made from the pines we lumbered, and then installed on the frozen ground. This way we were building the railroad. At first it was only temporary. This temporary track was used for light wagons and light engines, only these were riding on this provisional track. Only after that there was a permanent track built along the provisional one. We were receiving food in exchange for the work. Depending on how you met the daily norm, food was distributed. If you did not fulfill the set standard, you received 300 grams of bread per day, and in the morning a kypjatok, this was boiling water with a cube of sugar. Actually, it was not cube sugar, but a sugar loaf, each of us would get a crumb from the sugar loaf and drink a kypjatok tea with it. At noon they would bring soup on the worksite, and in the evening we would have soup again. If we met the norm, we received additional food. If we did not, we only had soup. And the soup was bad. They would boil fish, it was a broth from fish or horse meat, they were butchering horses which were not able to work anymore. So the food was terrible.”

“Towards the end of February I was released from hospital and sent to the 2nd paratrooper brigade, the 2nd paratrooper brigade was being organized in the Soviet Union from soldiers who had fought during the Slovak State and who had surrendered, and they were now being formed into a paratrooper brigade. And I was also assigned there after my release from the hospital. I went through a paratroopers´ training, I was jumping – first we did jumps from a parachute, then with a parachute from a hot air balloon, and when you passed that, you progressed to jumps from an airplane, first unarmed, later in full gear. The training was held in Jefrimov till the end of April, and from May till August we were transferred from Jefrimov to Proskurov. In Proskurov our paratroopers´ training continued, we were there already as a front reserve till September 1944. In September 1944 we were deployed at Dukla in the Ilava section, our brigade fought there for eight or ten days. At that time I was a cryptographer in the brigade staff, and in mid September our brigade was withdrawn from the front to Krosno to the airport, and was gradually being transferred to the Slovak National Uprising, because the Slovak National Uprising had started in Slovakia before, on August 28th 1943. The brigade was being prepared for transfer from Krosno to the Slovak National Uprising to Tri Duby. That is an airport near Zvolen, the Zvolen airport was called Tri Duby back then. Gradually, the brigade was being moved there, except the wounded, who remained there to recover. Those who were healthy were gradually moved to Slovakia. As for me, I was transferred to Slovakia by plane on September 27th and at that time I was a corporal, I served as a commander of the personal guard of general Viest. We landed in Tri Duby, the landings were still possible there. Later, they did not land or jump there anymore. From Zvolen we were transferred to Banská Bystrica, there I served as a commander of guard of the staff of the 1st Czechoslovak army in Slovakia.”

“I come from Carpathian Ruthenia, during the era of the First Republic this was the easternmost tip of the Czechoslovak Republic. This is where I was born and where I lived till 1939 when I escaped to the Soviet Union. I was born on October 19th 1922 in the village of Bukovec, Volové district, in Carpathian Ruthenia. I attended the elementary in Bukovec, and then the so-called higher school. This type of school does not exist anymore, but it was something between a business academy, a teachers´ training institute, or another secondary school. The higher school, which you studied after you have completed your elementary education, lasted for four years. Then I was working at home, I was helping with agricultural work. My parents had two hectares of land, and we owned two cows and horses. I was helping my parents in our home till the time when I decided to emigrate. And why I left the country? In 1939, Carpathian Ruthenia became occupied by Hungarians, by the Horthy followers. After my school, I wanted to continue my studies at a business academy. But naturally I did not speak any Hungarian, and thus in 1939 I was not admitted to this business school, and thus the four of us decided to leave, and we fled the country on December 1st 1939.”

“However, I was not a party member. I have never been a member of any party, I was a non-party citizen. In Ostrovec there lived a very good friend of mine, whom I knew since the war, certain major Vursta. He called me, and he told me: ´Ivan, you got to join the Party, otherwise you cannot get anywhere.´ I said: ´Well, but I don’t think I want to.´ My father used to say: ´Look here, never join any party, leave the parties to party-members, who understand these things. If you don’t know what is going on, never rush into it, never.´ I kept resisting, it was already 1956. He says: ´You see, you also need to study, to move on to another position.´ So I eventually signed it, in 1956. Then, later, I was already working in a higher position, I was transferred to Budějovice, to the division, and I was the head of the financial department. I had a major’s rank. For this position, a diploma from a military university was required, together with a lieutenant colonel’s rank. Therefore, that was already in 1958, I called on to the division commander, and told him: ´I want to study the academy in Brno.´ - ´What’s the use of it for you?´ I said: ´It is required for this position. If I don’t comply, the academy will have me dismissed and you would not be happy about that, either.´ I eventually convinced him to agree with it. The admission process was in 1959, my application was sent to the ministry’s personal department, and the personal department turned it down, claiming that the age limit for admission was thirty-five and that I was too old. In 1959 I was thirty-seven. The division commander called me and told me: ´Ivan, look, your application was rejected.´ I replied: ´Rejected? No way, I will not leave it this way.´ - ´What will you do?´ - ´I request a one-day leave and I will go there and talk it over with them.´ He told me: ´You don’t need to take a day off, fill out a travel order, I am sending you there, and go there.´ So I went to Prague to the main personal department of the Ministry of Defence. I got to some general, I don’t remember his name anymore. He asked me what I wanted. ´I want to study and you did not permit me.´- ´What so you mean?´- ´Here it is.´ Well, but you are over thirty-five.´ I said: ´I think there are exceptions. When the people of my age were studying, I was shedding my blood for this republic. I was fighting.´ - ´That’s a different matter,´ he says. He called the head secretary, told him to rewrite the letter, writing instead that he approved it and was now making an exception. So he agreed with my acceptance to the military academy in Brno.”