Sergěj Solovjev

„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.”

„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.”