Nikolai Starikov

Eyewitness account:

We Russians are different from Europeans. We are a different civilization. And it becomes noticeable in everything. Including how we…occupy.

The entry of troops of the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact into Czechoslovakia in 1968 is an absolutely justified operation. We did not allow chaos in a friendly country and the destruction of our defensive belt. This is the first. Secondly, the same thing happened in Czechoslovakia (with a slight amendment) as in Ukraine in 2014. And thirdly, order and security in Czechoslovakia were provided not only by Soviet troops, but also by the military contingents of some countries of the Warsaw Pact. Including - the troops of the GDR.

How did the Germans and Russians behave? What was the difference?

About this material, which was sent to me by a reader of the resource nstarikov.ru Viktor Dmitrievich Bychkov. These are the stories of one direct participant in these events. He continues the theme that was opened by my story about the book I read by Yuri Galushko “Czechoslovakia-68. View of a Soviet officer from the past to the future.

Regarding Czechoslovakia and the events of 1968 that took place there.

These are my youthful memories. In 1968 I was in the 8th grade. And I remember well how we acutely experienced the events taking place there with our friends, how we felt sorry for the deceived Czechs, and were ready at any moment to move there to help. Already at the beginning of winter, somewhere in December, the elder brother of my comrade, Anikin Vladimir, returned from the army, who participated in the events that took place in Czechoslovakia.

At first, he said almost nothing, but gradually we started talking to him. A small company of young men gathered, mostly they were close friends of the one who had returned from the army, I sometimes got there as a friend of my younger brother. There was home-made light wine, but most importantly, we all eagerly listened to the stories of an eyewitness who had already been abroad, and even participated in such historical events. He asked not to tell anyone from his stories. However, I remember very well what he said then.

So the first thing is how he got there. He served urgently in Ukraine, at a military airfield, in some kind of airfield service. They were mainly involved in airfield security and simple things like maintaining the runway in proper order, fixing aircraft under the guidance of technicians, etc. One evening they were alerted, personal weapons, helmets, ammunition, etc. , loaded into transporters, and they flew. The soldiers noticed that in addition to ammunition and weapons, quite a lot of ammunition and other things were loaded on board. They didn’t know where they were flying, everyone thought that these were exercises.

They flew for a long time. As soon as they sat down, they quickly started unloading. The fact that this is already abroad was not understood immediately, only after dawn.

Paratroopers with their equipment were unloaded from other planes, who quickly left, and the soldiers of the narrator's unit behind the airfield near the forest and the stream pitched tents, equipping a tent city. There was a small town not far from the airfield, to which they sent armed patrols with officers. On the opposite side of the airfield there was a small air terminal and several other low airfield buildings. In the morning, the airfield employees came and looked with surprise at the soldiers, planes, etc. Need to say,

that our planes flew in quite often, they brought mainly paratroopers with equipment and other things, who quickly left.

The brought ammunition was stored right next to the runway. There were also tents in which our army airfield authorities, a communications center, etc. were located. Everything was mine.

By the middle of the day, the first signs of rejection and unfriendliness of the local population began to appear. The youth especially tried.

They shouted curses, showed all sorts of obscene gestures.

By evening, two motorcyclists drove onto the runway, rushing along the runway, approaching the planes, throwing stones and bottles at the air intakes, windows of the aircraft cabins, etc. .. The soldiers were ordered to force them out of the strip without using weapons and force. This was done with difficulty.

Another problem is water. At first, water was collected for the kitchen and other household needs from a fairly clean stream, but soon this could not be done, because. the local population began to go and deliberately shit in the stream upstream, throw sewage, dead dogs, etc. there. Trips to the town for water were also unsuccessful - if they started to draw water somewhere, it quickly ended. Moved to another place and there the same picture. The water was turned off very quickly and in a coordinated manner. In general, water was already going to be transported by aircraft. It was also tight with firewood for the kitchen - they mostly drowned in broken boxes of cartridges, and zinc with cartridges was stacked. Airport employees did not let soldiers into the airport, use the toilet, etc. , and the soldiers had to run into the bushes on the other side of the lanes, which caused laughter from local residents and airport employees. They tried to dig a hole for a toilet for military personnel, but some local chief came from the airport and did not allow this. Say, you can’t dig anything and that’s it. It was difficult to patrol the area around, and the town. The local population very quickly became impudent in expressing their hostility, especially the youth. They threw stones, sticks, shouted. But there was a strict order: not to use weapons and physical force, to endure everything, to show friendliness.

The situation was heating up, and this, of course, would eventually lead to bad consequences. Our soldiers would run out of patience.

Moreover, many patrols were sent and there were not enough officers for all, and often two soldiers walked without an officer. On the second day, two patrol soldiers disappeared altogether and were never found. Everyone understood that they were most likely killed and buried somewhere.

And then the Germans showed up. And the situation began to change radically. By the afternoon of the third day, a column of the German army arrived. As Volodya, who was on patrol and was just in the center of this town on the square, said, it was like in a movie about the Great Patriotic War. First motorcyclists with machine guns, then a column. Ahead and behind armored personnel carriers with machine gunners at the ready. In the center of the column is a senior officer in a car, accompanied by other officers. The column entered the square, parts of it dispersed along the streets near the square. A senior officer and his entourage got out of the car.

The elder looked around the square and its surroundings, consulted the map. Then he indicates where the headquarters will be, next to the future headquarters - a house for himself. Immediately he gives a command to his officers, showing where the units will be placed. Before that, the soldiers were sitting in cars, there was no movement, everyone was waiting. As soon as the commands were received, the work began to boil. The soldiers quickly vacated houses for headquarters and for housing for a senior officer, the rest were also engaged in accommodation under the guidance of their commanders. How were they liberated at home? It's very simple - they expelled local residents from there.

A respectable man was quickly brought to the elder, presumably the local mayor, and some other representative personalities. The eldest of the Germans briefly explained to them, or rather indicated what should be done. Since there was no smell of discussion, the local authorities did not even think of objecting, but only dragged on in front of the Germans. Moreover, the Germans all spoke German to the locals, without bothering to translate, and they understood them perfectly. The Germans behaved in a very businesslike way.

A German officer approached our patrols, saluted, and asked in Russian who they were and where their unit was located. He explained that they needed to contact the leadership of our unit. The soldiers answered, after which the officer saluted and went to report to the elder. The senior officer, accompanied by motorcyclists with machine guns, went to the location of our unit. The soldiers do not know what the senior officers were talking about, but, apparently, our commander complained about the water situation. Somewhere in the evening, two or three hours later, such a picture was visible. The Czechs quickly pulled the water supply to the location of the unit, metal pipes were laid directly on the ground or slightly dug. They also made wiring for several cranes, where they were indicated, they worked very quickly. Since then, clean water has always been in abundance. In addition, the Czechs began to regularly bring chopped ready-made firewood in the required quantity, i.e. and this problem was also quickly resolved.

By evening, events took place at the airfield that radically changed the attitude of the locals towards our presence. The fact is that it was possible to call at the airfield from different sides, it was not fenced. Only on one side, in the direction from the airport to the city, there was a fence. And that one is from cattle, because there was pasture. And that same local youth used it. They flew in on motorcycles, threw bottles, stones and other things at the planes, laughed at the soldiers who tried to force them out of the runways. They threw the same thing at the soldiers, and they received injuries and bruises, but they could not do anything. And on the evening of the third day after the appearance of the Germans, a car drove into the runways, in which four youths rushed around the runway, drove up to the planes, etc. .. The order to force them out did not give anything. However, this time the hooligans went far - they hit two soldiers with a car, seriously injuring them. The Czech airfield staff watched with laughter what was happening, with great joy meeting every successful feint of the youths and especially their run over the soldiers. And soldiers with weapons could not do anything with these youths - after all, they were not allowed to shoot.

But then, unfortunately for these youths, a German patrol drove up to the airfield on two motorcycles with machine guns. The Germans quickly understood everything. The youths, seeing the German patrol, rushed to flee along the outer lane. Behind them, or rather along a parallel strip, one motorcycle rushed. Having driven away, so that it was impossible to catch someone random, the machine gunner knocked out the car with one burst. He immediately shot two fellows sitting in the front seats. The car stopped. Two sitting behind jumped out and rushed to run.

The machine gunner fired two short bursts along the ground to the left and right of the runners. One stopped, raised his hands and walked back, the second continued to run away, trying to dodge. This caused the machine gunner to laugh, and he cut him off with a short burst, then walked from the machine gun over the already lying one with two more bursts. The second, standing with raised hands, the German beckoned to him shouting "com, com." He went like a drunk, sobbing loudly. Our officer sent soldiers, and they pulled out of the burning car two dead people who were sitting in front. Walking with raised hands and sobbing youth, the German showed where to go.

Having brought him closer to the airport, he put him on his knees, hands behind his head and stood nearby with a machine gun at the ready. The youth sobbed loudly all the time and asked for something. But the German did not pay any attention to this.

From the second patrol motorcycle they reported on what was happening to their superiors. The Czech airport staff no longer laughed and silently watched what was happening. Soon a car arrived with a German officer and two soldiers. The officer got out of the car, listened to the report of the senior patrolman, turned around and went to the nearest downed our soldier, lying on the landing strip in blood, in the place where he was shot down. He was already being treated, bandaged, put on splints, and he was moaning loudly. The officer approached, looked, saluted our officer who approached and said, pointing at the soldiers’ machine guns: “you need to shoot.” He obviously did not understand why weapons were not used in such an obvious situation. He turned and walked towards the kneeling youth. As he approached, he unfastened his holster on the move. Approaching about three meters, he shot him in the forehead, after which he calmly put the pistol back and gave a command to his soldiers.

His soldiers ran to the airport and hid there. It soon became clear why. They literally kicked everyone who was there to the site in front of the airport. When an officer approached there, the soldiers were already driving the last ones out.

On the side and behind the officer, one of the patrol motorcycles with a machine gun drove up, and the machine gunner held the whole crowd at gunpoint, silently and very cautiously looking at the officer and the machine gunner. It also seemed to us that now they would put down from a machine gun those standing in front of them. But the officer made a short speech in German, which those rounded up in front of him sullenly accepted. He probably explained to them who is the boss here, and how to behave.

After that, they ran very quickly to the airport, and everything began to stir. A fire engine rushed in, putting out the tanned car, and then dragged it from the landing. Soon a tow truck took her away. Then three local policemen arrived, with whom the German officer also had a brief conversation. The junior policemen loaded the corpses into a truck and left, while the senior policeman was taken with him by a German officer. In general, the Germans acted with such absolute confidence in their rightness and the correctness of what they were doing that all the locals involuntarily obeyed them implicitly.

After all that had happened, no one from the locals had ever come close to the airfield, except for those who worked there. In addition, an excavator arrived two hours later, and an elderly excavator asked where the Russians should dig. So the side roads and paths leading to the airport were blocked, after which a large pit was dug for a soldier's toilet, which the Czechs had not allowed to do before. Now none of the locals objected. I must also say that after that our soldiers and officers were allowed to freely enter the airport and generally everywhere. At the same time, they tried ... as if not to notice. Attempts to somehow misbehave at the airport, etc. was also no more.

And one more consequence. The next day, a team of Czech carpenters arrived and, under the leadership of a German non-commissioned officer, quickly built a rather high and solid tower on the road leading from the town to the airport. Convenient staircase, roof, double walls on the tower itself, overlapping boards, sandbags between the walls - protection from bullets.

Mounts for machine guns, a powerful searchlight on the turret. Convenient, everything is visible and everything is shot through. A barrier was also installed there and next to it a booth made of boards with glass windows, which was very convenient, especially in bad weather. Our soldiers hardly used the tower, but it was visible far away and had a very disciplining effect on the locals. Such a classic German tower.

About a week later, a group of young people, 20-30 people, came to the airfield from the grazing side, with posters “Russians go home”, with a loudspeaker into which they shouted all sorts of calls to “get out to the invaders”. We approached from the side, from the side of the airport, but not very close to the runway, and did not approach the tents. The duty officer at the checkpoint sent a soldier to the tower to see if there were many of them, if there was anyone else behind them, in general, to look around.

So, as soon as the protesters saw that the soldier began to climb the tower, they immediately ran away, leaving part of the posters on the spot. Maybe they thought they were going to shoot.

Another episode I remember, which Volodya Anikin told about. With the arrival of the Germans, the situation changed dramatically. The local population was very respectful of the Germans and German patrols, fulfilled their slightest requirements. In general, it never occurred to the Czechs that one could argue or disagree with the Germans. Especially if you treat them with disrespect. And the German patrols spared no cartridges. No one dared to throw a stone at them or pour mud over them, etc. In response - instantaneous fire to kill, indiscriminately why this happened. Therefore, our patrols tried to get a German soldier in the company or even go along with the German patrol. The Germans treated this favorably. They clearly enjoyed the role of law enforcement officers.

And then one day a patrol, in which Volodya and a Russian sergeant, senior patrol, were sent to patrol the streets on the outskirts of the town. Going there, they made a detour and passed through the streets where the Germans lodged. There, near one of the houses, German soldiers were clustered, cackling merrily.

It must be said that the German soldiers, despite their discipline, had many more freedoms than our soldiers. They had more free time, they could go somewhere on their own time, etc.

Approaching our German colleagues, ours tried to somehow communicate, say or understand something. The Germans knew that Russian soldiers were often offended

local, and they were clearly flattered by the role of some sort of protector. At least the German soldiers immediately realized that our soldiers had to patrol the outskirts on foot and wanted to have a German in the company for cover. I must say that the Germans usually patrolled on two motorcycles with sidecars with machine guns. Machine gunners were always at the ready...

One young soldier volunteered with ours, who immediately ran away and reported this to his non-commissioned officer, who, smiling knowingly, released the soldier. And here they are, three of them, trying to communicate. The German knows some Russian words, a lot of gestures of facial expressions, all three are fun and interesting. They are already walking along the very outskirts, along the suburbs, where everything already looks more like summer cottages. On the left is a solid fence, and then a mesh one. The German turned to a solid fence and began to relieve himself. (In general, German soldiers did not hesitate to celebrate their needs, especially small ones, almost everywhere in the city). Well, Volodya and the sergeant went a little further ahead, where the mesh fence already began. Here, from behind the fence, from the bushes, a stone flies and hits the back of our sergeant. Our patrols did not pay attention to such stones, and getting a stone on the back was a common thing. But now the German sees it, the Russian soldiers are already catching up. And the one who threw, did not see the German because of the solid fence. The reaction of a soldier of the GDR is instantaneous - he rips off the machine gun and releases the entire horn from the belt like a fan through the bushes.

Volodya says that we are standing dumbfounded with the sergeant. The German reloads his machine gun and is about to shoot some more. Volodya said that, without agreeing with the sergeant, they ran up to the German and took the machine gun from him. He resignedly gave it away, but fervently said something to them and pointed to the bushes from where the stone had flown. He clearly did not understand why the Russians did not shoot and behave so strangely.

Behind the bushes are some summer buildings, such as a plywood gazebo or something else.

From there, weeping is heard. The German shows with the passion of a hunter that, they say, where the game is sitting, and it must now be punished. And our soldiers are dragging an ally away. He tries to explain something, but he is taken away and quickly. And only when the German calmed down, and moved far enough away, did ours give the German a machine gun. For us, it was wild, said Volodya Anikin, to shoot combat in the village. And besides, giving out two horns of live ammunition, we were strictly warned that it was impossible to shoot under any circumstances. Die, but don't shoot. Why then give live ammunition, why send it somewhere? And the Germans, apparently, did not report for cartridges, and therefore they were not spared.

And some more observations of Vladimir Anikin:

“The Germans ate in restaurants that were turned into soldiers' canteens for lunchtime. The Czechs brought fresh vegetables, fruits, fresh meat, greens, etc. for them. .. Our patrols saw it well. Whether the Germans paid for this we did not know, but they ate much better against us. We are mostly porridge and stew.

Soup borsch - also with stew. There was no variety or variety. But here's what we've learned to do. There, they had quite a lot of deer and roe deer roaming through the fields and forests, which were little afraid of people. Once they saw how a German truck stopped and an officer sitting in the cab, taking a machine gun from a soldier, shot a deer, which the German soldiers dragged into the back and left. An example has been provided.

We asked the German soldiers for cartridges and shot deer. They quickly butchered, took away the meat. The machine gun from which they shot was quickly cleaned. If they asked who failed, they said that the Germans. What will you take from the Germans? They do what they want. Of course, many of the officers guessed, or maybe they knew, that we were shooting, but such welding and such explanations suited everyone. So we ate venison.

Another reason why it was beneficial to be friends with the Germans is that they went to any pubs, where a separate table was always immediately provided for them, even if the pub was overcrowded. They ordered beer, and the beer there was very good, and after drinking, they left without paying. We didn’t have Czech money, but the Germans may have had it, but they didn’t pay. And why - in front of them the Czechs already bent.

About the German organization of business. Again, our patrols, which stuck out in the center of the city, saw that every morning the local mayor was stretched out waiting for a senior German officer in front of his house. He went to his headquarters in the morning. Sometimes he gave instructions to this mayor, sometimes he led him and someone else to his headquarters. Those. there was a clear vertical of power, and everyone knew what he had to do. First, everything that the Germans need, and then mind your own business. Therefore, in Prague, of course, it was necessary to let the Germans in first. Firstly,

the Czechs would not strongly oppose and provoke them. And if someone had twitched, the Germans would have explained with great pleasure that this was not necessary, it would be worse for themselves.

For a police mission, the Germans are perfect. They know how to occupy and what to do with the occupied. Our army is not ready for this. Fight, yes. Win - yes. And to occupy and bend the occupied is not for us. So if the Germans were the first to be allowed into Prague, this would only strengthen the friendship of the peoples. Everyone would be fine. And the Czechs would be happy to remember now the Germans in Prague and their "European Ordnung".

In November it became very cold in the tents. Soldiers caught cold. A senior German came with his officer, who spoke Russian well,

and, talking with our commander, he said that it was impossible to live in tents. If he wants everyone to live together and be always at hand, he must take a local school. When our commander began to say that where the children would study, the German replied that let the local authorities deal with the problem of teaching local children, this is their business, and he must take care of his soldiers. This is all our signalman, who was present there, told. But our people still continued to live in tents, many were sick.”

At the end of November, Volodya was transferred to the Union and, in speed, was fired into the reserve. He already served for several months, but he understood that the situation was very difficult, he pulled the strap resignedly.

Volodya also told what the "soldier's" radio brought. But I convey only what he saw personally, with his own eyes. But what the "soldier's" radio brought in largely coincided with what he personally saw. The Czechs treat our soldiers badly, there are many provocations, sometimes with grave consequences for our soldiers, with injuries and even death. And the nobility of our soldiers only made them laugh. And the Czechs fear and respect the Germans. Although for the Germans they are second rate.

The German occupation is familiar to them, understandable, etc. And no matter how anyone bent and raped them, the “Russians” are still to blame for everything.

In 1970 I finished school and left to study. I haven't seen Vladimir since then and I don't know where he is. Almost half a century has passed, and much has changed in our lives. If he is alive - good health to him, but if he has already left - rest in peace. Surely you can find other participants in these events. Their memories would help to complete the picture of what was happening then in Czechoslovakia. A film would be good and truthful to shoot about it. Now, after all, few people remember these events.

Viktor Dmitrievich Bychkov

I am posting these memoirs of a participant and an eyewitness of those events in the order of medical assistance to Russophobes, anti-Soviet and other scum.

How the Soviet Army starved and committed atrocities in Czechoslovakia in 1968

Operation Vltava through the eyes of a participant

In August 1968, Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia.

In early May 1968, the spring verification of the 14th Guards Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany ended, and a meeting was scheduled for May 6, at 18:00, to sum up the results of the verification. The meeting was to be held by a new commander - Lieutenant General I.L. Velichko.

The regimental commanders of the division stood at the main checkpoint and waited for both the commander and the division commander. Exactly at 17.55 ZiM and Volga appeared. Tank Regiment Commander Colonel V.P. Bobkov began his report when the sirens began to howl. Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment: what could be the alarm? Verification is over! Yes, the generals are here. Bewilderment was dispelled by operational duty Major Fomichev, who jumped out onto the porch of the headquarters: “What are you waiting for? Anxiety! Moscow!" The generals were blown away by the wind.

It must be said that back in January in the shops of the Voentorg there was talk among women that something was not right in Czechoslovakia ... By April, the talk had subsided. The only thing we knew then was that the Czechoslovaks were our number one friends and allies. Therefore, we laughed at the wives and these gossips. But in vain.

AHEAD - CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The order of the battalion commander, Major D.Kh. Burlyaev was brief: “We are making a march. The first control point is the city of Herzberg, the last one is the city of Freiberg.” Everyone understood correctly - ahead of Czechoslovakia. The night passed in preparation for the march, and by the evening of May 7, the division was stopped in a forest a little south of Freiberg. Everything was frozen in anticipation. So three days passed.

Later it became known that, taking advantage of the favorable situation for the revenge-seizure of Czechoslovakia, the government of West Germany moved its tanks to the Czechoslovak border, without informing its allies - the Americans. After the events in Berlin in 1961 and the Caribbean crisis in 1963, the danger of a new world war arose again. But the Americans, having heard the rumble of our tanks, rushing to the border of Czechoslovakia right from near Berlin, came to their senses and blocked all the roads with their tanks. As soon as this happened, the 14th division, which made a throw from its location (the city of Yuterbog) to the Czechoslovak border, was stopped in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe settlements of Mulda-Ederan-Brand-Erbisdorf. There were 20 kilometers to the border. The world turned out to be so close to a new war that the American president summoned German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger to himself for an explanation, and a little later, a German student Beata Krosfeld publicly slapped him for having once served the fascist regime, and for what could have happened.

Victor Aleksndrovich BORISOV - retired lieutenant colonel.

At that time, none of us even thought that the division would stand in this forest for four whole months.

We read newspapers to holes, looking for information about Czechoslovakia. There was information, but it was very scarce. Only one thing was clear: the situation in the country was very serious.

In May, the transfer to the reserve of conscripts who had served the prescribed three-year term was canceled. There were no signs of discontent - everyone understood the seriousness of the situation. Graduates of a training tank regiment for the training of driver-mechanics were brought in, and the task was set to prepare loaders from them as soon as possible, and to transfer full-time loaders to the reserve. Apparently, a long march was ahead and replacement drivers were needed. Stealth and secrecy measures began to be taken: they covered the numbers of cars on the towers with scarves, sealed the radio stations. Each car driver was given several numbers: he left the forest with one, drove in with another.

White circles were smeared on the rear sides of the trucks - the designation of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, and squares or other geometric shapes were drawn. The command knew: the enemy's reconnaissance was not sleeping, we were under continuous covert surveillance.

At the end of June, like a bolt from the blue, the news - the dismissal of old-timers to the reserve begins. Joy knew no bounds. The command of the division decided to send all those dismissed centrally, in one column. I was appointed commander of a consolidated company from a tank regiment. A rally was held, music was played, certificates were presented. A column of ninety-eight vehicles was led by the division's deputy commander for combat operations, Colonel Roshchupkin. The cars were open, the weather was sunny, everyone was in a great mood. By the evening we were at the place - in Yuterbog. Captain Khomyakov, assistant chief of staff of the regiment for combat units, was waiting for us there. He handed me a package, which surprised me a lot. The contents of the package stunned me - the dismissal was canceled, it was ordered to continue the construction of the third tank box. I remember the dead silence in the ranks when I read out the order, but no discontent followed.

A month later, at the end of July, Khomyakov immediately after dinner said: "Come in." I went. Another package. In it - the time of departure back to the forest. The time and place of departure were ordered not to advertise. We drove into the night, in closed trucks, trying not to attract anyone's attention. Understanding of what happened came later. The command did not even think of carrying out the dismissal and, in modern terms, "threw" the American and West German intelligence services, secretly returning back the main strike force of the regiment - a soldier now in his fourth year of service.

Innovations were waiting for us in the regiment. Wide vertical white stripes were painted on the frontal armor and on both sides of the tank turrets to distinguish our tanks from the Czechoslovak ones. And most importantly: a white hexagon divided into three parts with some numbers appeared on the front of the towers. And only in Czechoslovakia did we appreciate this “picture”, when local residents, at the direction of their leadership, began to change the signs of settlements in order to create confusion and confusion in our units during the march. Did not work out. We were greatly helped by our helicopter pilots, who, having examined the "pictures" on the towers, led our tanks to the right direction. The hexagon was the symbol of the 14th division. Other divisions had other geometric shapes: circles, rectangles, rhombuses. In the upper part of the figure was placed the serial number of the tank in the battalion, in the lower left - the conditional number of the regiment in the division, in the right - the company number. Having on their maps the routes of our units, the helicopter pilots "corrected" the landmen who had gone astray.

"IN A WELL, THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND"

The division had been standing on the border for the fourth month. First of all, people were tired of doing nothing - the work of servicing equipment was now a joy for us.

On August 10, information was leaked that it was necessary to wait for distinguished guests: the commander-in-chief of the Warsaw Pact troops, Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Yakubovsky. But unexpectedly, on August 13, the battalion was visited by the Minister of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrey Grechko.

It just so happened that the marshal and the generals accompanying him made their first stop near the ZSU-57-2 anti-aircraft guns - anti-aircraft gunners closed our battalion column. Grechko was terribly surprised that only four anti-aircraft installations cover the tank regiment from air strikes, and there are no anti-aircraft machine guns on the tanks. Grechko turned to the general who was standing next to him and he made some kind of entry in his folder. Much later, the ZSU-57-2 battery was introduced into the structure of the tank regiment to strengthen the air defense.

Victor Borisov - cadet of the Tashkent Higher Tank Command School named after. Marshal of the armored forces P.S. Rybalko.

Then the minister and the generals went to the place of formation of the battalion. We look at the guests, we recognized many from photographs in the Lenin Rooms: USSR Minister of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrey Grechko, Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Yakubovsky, Head of the Main Political Directorate of the SA and Navy, General of the Army Alexei Epishev, Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany Marshal Sovetsko Union Peter Koshevoy. A chill runs through the skin. But then it “let go” – the military leaders are benevolently, but also with curiosity, examining us.

Grechko greeted the personnel, they answered relatively amicably. The generals behind the minister smiled. The minister, addressing the entire battalion, said: “I know what you want to ask me. This is how long you have to wait, here in the forest. I cannot answer directly. Maybe a week, maybe more, ten days. But you have to go there, in a good way they do not understand. We will not give Czechoslovakia to them. In 1945, we got it dearly, and besides, we cannot allow the West Germans to come to our border. Here the West Germans planned and plan to capture Czechoslovakia in forty-eight hours. For us, this is a lot. We can do it in twelve hours. In May, they wanted to do it, but they couldn't - you interfered. Thank you all. Here in Romania everyone was alarmed, they raised their army in alarm, they want to show their independence. Ceausescu, their ruler, started talking something. Like, if in the forty-fourth Romania had not gone over to the side of the Soviet Union, it is not known how long the war would have continued. He wants to show himself as a leader of world significance. But in vain. If necessary, we can slam him too, but only in six hours. So we need to be friends with each other.”

Everything became clear and understandable. Autumn is coming soon - you need to hurry.

Exactly a week later, an operation began to send troops into Czechoslovakia. For us - "Vltava", for those who are from the Union - "Danube".

We had a march of about two hundred kilometers ahead of us. Twenty - on the territory of the GDR, the rest - in Czechoslovakia, to the city of Nepomuk in the Pilsen region. There we had to neutralize the anti-aircraft regiment of the Czechoslovak army, that is, to prevent equipment and artillery systems from entering the city.

The presence of additional barrels of diesel fuel, external tanks unprotected by armor, indicated that we were not preparing for combat operations. And at the same time we were warned: provocations are possible, but do not shoot first. In short, act according to the situation, but do not uncover the guns. Understand as you wish! After thinking, many, when it got dark, removed the covers from the ejectors of the guns, leaving the muzzles. And then they opened zinc with fuses for F-1 grenades.

"IRON PIPES"

The commissioning was scheduled for August 19, then moved to the 20th. Exactly at 22 o'clock in the headphones it was heard: “Howl, everyone, everyone! Cast iron pipes, cast iron pipes, cast iron pipes. OK it's all over Now. Go.

A total of 36 divisions were involved in the operation. The troops were built in three echelons. The first, the main one, was part of Czechoslovakia, the second was pulled up to the place of permanent deployment of the division of the first echelon, the third remained in its place, but was in constant readiness for loading onto rail transport or moving out on its own.

place, but was in constant readiness for loading onto rail transport or moving out on its own.

Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko at the location of the 2ndbattalion of the 330th tank regiment of the 14th Guards motorized rifle division

By that time, we knew that we could be resisted by the internal affairs bodies and military pilots. But everything turned out exactly the opposite. The police on the ground turned out to be our ally, and the Czechoslovak Air Force pilots rejoiced at the forced additional leave. Our regiment crossed the border in the area of ​​​​the town of Deutschesiedel-Mnishek. Ahead were the Ore Mountains, the height of which in some places was over 1000 meters above sea level. It stuck in my memory: everything around was illuminated by illuminating bombs hanging on parachutes. The light was a blindingly bright orange. The shadows are jet black. Airplanes whistle overhead. To the left and below are chains of lights, troops were also marching there. The mountain road was very narrow, when turning, the tank hit the rock with its right side, the crew had to sit on top - just in case.

We passed the cities of Litvinov, Most and headed for Pilsen, a large industrial center of Czechoslovakia. It was in this city that all Skoda factories were concentrated. We were moving along the highway, it was still dark, the headlights were working in the “semi-darkening” position. Nevertheless, the mechanics drove their T-54b tanks very carefully and gave way to oncoming traffic in a non-occupier way. But the Czechoslovaks did not appreciate this and began to behave simply in a boorish way, insolently occupying the middle of the road and even driving into the oncoming lane. We accepted the challenge and began to go straight to the headlights that blinded us, throwing Skodas, Tatras, Mercedes off the road with the left fender liner. We were understood, but not all. And, no matter how trite it sounds, our mechanics were very sorry for the fender liner of their tanks - after all, they would have to be leveled, waved with a sledgehammer. And at the next stop, the exit was found. They began to remove the infrared filter from the commander's target designators. When another insolent person appeared on two or three tanks, the searchlights suddenly turned on and the blinded driver, without our help, found himself in a ditch or crashed into a tree on the side of the road.

At about 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the battalion approached the city of Nepomuk. The general task of our regiment was to block all entrances and exits from the city and take under guard all vital objects. It was allowed to conduct a dialogue with local residents, explaining to them the reasons for the introduction of troops, it was forbidden to detain or arrest anyone.

The attraction of the city was an ancient castle built on a high rock. In the castle area there was a military camp of an anti-aircraft regiment. We had to block it with the forces of the 2nd battalion. All the streets of the city stretched up to the castle. Here on such a narrow street I had to climb in first gear. Literally nearby, on a narrow sidewalk, people were silently standing. I didn't see any hostility in them. Suddenly, a small truck appeared at the top of the street. Strange - on three wheels. It was impossible to part with him, and the driver was well aware of this. He stopped his jalopy, got out of the cab and began to observe what would happen next.

"Frontline" Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia.

They began to squeeze out this vehicle, its front wheel turned out, cans fell out of the body, and milk flowed like a river down the paving stones. The driver ran along the sidewalk, began shaking his fists at us. Another “dared man” appeared, but when he saw what happened to the first car, he immediately retreated.

Having made a left turn, we ended up at the checkpoint. As it was decided in advance, one tank stood up with a cannon in the direction of the military camp, the other two - in the direction of the city. No one went through the checkpoint, the outfit didn’t come out to us, or maybe it just wasn’t there. But opposite was a small restaurant. The sober crowded at the entrance, prudently did not cross the street 8-10 meters wide. It was worse with the drunk, they were eager to find out, but they were held back. There were more and more people. This was starting to worry. Reported the situation on the radio. The answer was: "Ignore it, mind your own business."

The crowd grew by leaps and bounds. I had to keep the drivers at the levers, and the gunners at the control panel of the gun stabilizer, in which case, by rotating the turret, shoot down the attackers with the gun barrel. Well, then - the first turn over the heads, then - according to the situation. We could not allow the capture of tanks.

The first day was tense, but without any excesses. The second day, August 22, was remembered for three moments. At about 11 o'clock, some Czechoslovak officer wanted to leave the checkpoint for the city, but after being hit on the neck with a metal butt of a machine gun, he ran back screaming. The sentinel was my gunner, Corporal Grisha Kechaev. By nature, he was very calm, but this officer "got" him. In the evening, the commander of the regiment, Colonel Bobkov, arrived with this officer, who had his neck tied. Grisha noticeably wilted. But Bobkov, before the formation, announced to my corporal a leave for the Motherland for a period of 10 days, but only upon returning to the GDR, and, smiling, remarked that one should not hit an officer of a friendly army so hard in the neck.

This Czech, lieutenant colonel, was the commander of an anti-aircraft regiment. While our command was negotiating with the Czechoslovak command, our scouts looked around the entire military camp and found that the regiment consisted of three divisions: two missile and one barrel. The missile ones were somewhere on the points, and the receiver was here, under our noses and armed with ZSU-57-2 self-propelled guns. This came as an unpleasant surprise to us. And who knows what would have happened if the anti-aircraft gunners decided to ambush. After all, these "knots" - ZSU-57-2 are the strongest enemy for tanks.

At one time, we had so much confidence in our best ally, which we then considered Czechoslovakia, that we did not conduct any intelligence and counterintelligence activities on its territory. And it happened like this: ours went into some settlement to neutralize a military unit, but there was no trace of that one - it had already moved out a long time ago.

Second moment. At about two o'clock in the afternoon, young people began to gather near the restaurant, and, apparently, with unfriendly moods. Mechanics and gunners sat down in their places. Just in case, I order: "The first turn over the heads." Moreover, it would fall on the second floor, from the windows of which the curious looked out. No other was given. We did not manage to talk with this audience - the language barrier interfered. It was another miscalculation of our command. They thought that Ukrainians, especially Western ones, would understand the Czechs. Did not understand. The situation was tense, and alcohol helped.

Then a girl caught my attention. White trousers, red shirt, it was felt that young people were listening to her. I motioned her to my tank. It turns out that she is a local, studying in the Soviet Union and speaks good Russian. Her main question to me was: “Why did we occupy Czechoslovakia?” I laughed, and my guys laughed too.

- If we were occupiers, then I would not talk to you so friendly. We have come to you to lend a helping hand and prevent our common enemies from seizing your country. Reassure your countrymen. I have an order: do not let anyone in and do not let anyone out of this military camp. In the military, orders are laws. We do not scare anyone, but we do not intend to play children's games with you either.

She considered. Then she asked:

- And can I call my brother to me, he is interested in visiting the tank, he is only fourteen years old.

I allowed. The boy looked into the hatch, saw shells, a loaded coaxial machine gun, shiny cartridges, a seated crew. Then they jumped off the tank and approached the crowd. They were surrounded, they began to tell something. Just in case, he gave the command: “Start it up.” But the crowd began to disperse, and my interpreter also disappeared.

And the last moment. They began to leave the city. All companies were to gather below, on the outskirts of this medieval city.

There we had to cross a stream about four meters wide along an old bridge. The bridge is made of granite boulders, hemisphere up, extraordinary beauty, as if from a fairy tale. But it became a pity - after all, we will destroy this miracle with our tanks and decided to force the river in another place. So they did. And at the bridge, it turned out, regimental scouts were waiting for us to warn us that the bridge was mined and we had to go around. What can I say? It was a pity for us to disfigure their antiquity, but they, apparently, were preparing for resistance and did not regret such a miracle. What an important strategic object that needs to be destroyed!

Now we had to march about sixty kilometers to the west. The end point of the route is the Horšovský-Semošice area of ​​the Pilsen region. Here we had to go to the road number 26, which connected Pilsen with the Folmava border crossing. By the evening of August 23, we were in place.

STATE ON THE ROAD

After the “democratization”, the border of Czechoslovakia with the FRG and Austria was practically not guarded, two battalions of the border guards were inactive, the personnel were demoralized. It was necessary to suddenly and simultaneously close the borders, thereby isolating the enemy's accomplices, blocking all roads leading from the border. For us, this meant stopping all transport, checking documents, inspecting cars in search of weapons, counter-revolutionary literature and anti-Soviet leaflets. What is now called the "Prague thaw" was called "quiet counter-revolution" by us, as well as by respectable Czechs and Slovaks at that time.

September 1968. Soldiers and officers of the 2nd battalion in the forest near the town of Stankov.

On the morning of August 24, the operation began. They clarified the task for us: to stop all the cars, to take time when checking documents, asking questions to those traveling, to simulate a complete misunderstanding of the answers. If there are inscriptions on the topic of "occupation" - force them to flush and wash. And, most importantly, despite the absence of compromising evidence, send the cars back. Any car returning back ran into a suddenly appeared outpost like ours. Paralysis on the roads gave our special forces time to restore order at the border checkpoints.

Special instructions were given regarding the military personnel of the Czechoslovak army and vehicles from the capitalist countries. The military should have landed and sent to the headquarters of the battalion. In case of disobedience, physical force was allowed. We had to inspect the passengers of Western cars with special attention.

The checkpoint was a tank standing on the side of the road with a cannon lowered and directed towards the border. The crew was in their places, next to the tank - an officer on duty and five soldiers with machine guns. When the car approached, the officer went out onto the road and indicated with a red flag where to stop. Behind him, blocking the road, soldiers lined up with machine guns pointed at the car. Each shift was on duty for one hour. I got to be on duty from one o'clock in the afternoon. The weather was great, sunny.

During my watch, three cars were detained. The first was a trailer, the body of which was empty, and on the canvas awning it was written in large letters: “Russians, go home!” and "Down with the Russian occupiers!". At first the driver did not understand the Russian language, then he understood and began to wash off the inscriptions with diesel fuel.

The second car was a Skoda passenger car, driven, as it turned out, by a lieutenant colonel, the chief of staff of a tank division. He rode alone, in civilian clothes, which aroused natural suspicion. When asked to leave the car, he responded with swearing and threats. They pulled him out of the car, tied him up and took him to the battalion headquarters. A little later, the battalion commander, the chief of staff and the detained Czech came up to us. Despite the black eye and rumpled suit, the Czech was in high spirits. He warmly shook the hands of the battalion commander and the chief of staff, kept saying something, waved goodbye to us and left. The battalion commander said that the check of this Czech went well, that he was “ours”, he graduated from the Soviet Armored Academy, and when he found out that we had entered Czechoslovakia, he quarreled with the division commander and went to his family in Pilsen.

The last car on my watch was a Mercedes, judging by the numbers, from West Germany. There were three passengers in the car and a female driver, a middle-aged blonde in then fashionable large sunglasses. Everyone in the car looked straight ahead and did not answer my questions. Required to start the documents. No reaction. I turned to the soldier and began with him the usual chatter about his demobilization, about the weather and other nonsense. The indignant voices of the Germans were heard - it got through! Passports were submitted - all from the Bundes Republic Deutschland. That's the enemy! With curiosity we looked at the West Germans. I gesture to leave the car. Do not want. Other soldiers approach, someone kicked the bumper. They started to get out. Everyone was looking at the German. At that time, the fashion for the "mini" began, so the soldiers stared with interest at the gray dress, which bared her legs in an unusual way. Jokes were heard.

We searched them and the car. They were lucky they didn't find anything. One of the passengers began to resent, but a slight crack forced him to close his mouth. We kept them for about an hour, and then let them go, knowing that after two or three kilometers they would be stopped again.

Now all our actions may seem inhumane, violating human rights and the like. But these events took place only a little over twenty years after the end of the Second World War, and the same West Germany already had 12 divisions commanded by former fascist officers and generals. It was the time of the "cold war", which at any moment could turn into a "hot".

The next day, the battalion was transferred closer to the city of Stankov. And we've been here for a long time.

At the very first meeting of officers, battalion commander Burlyaev brought to us the results of the operation to restore order at the border. In the zone of action of our division, a truck with anti-Soviet leaflets was detained, weapons were found and, which caused laughter from those present, several groups of prostitutes infected with venereal diseases sent from West Germany. Even before the start of the operation, the officers were warned that it was possible to transfer these “priestesses of love” to the territory of Czechoslovakia to “serve” our troops. The approximate number is ten thousand people. Oddly enough, they even gave an orientation to this audience: they are all dressed in blue skirts, jackets and white blouses. Under the lapel of the jacket is a badge with the inscription: "We love you!". Somewhat later, special officer Captain Moshkov showed us such a badge: a piece of white metal measuring fifteen by twenty millimeters and a red inscription. Why they were dressed uniformly and had badges, history is silent.

Near the city of Stankov, we stood in company columns in the clearings of the forest. The head guard was located near the dilapidated church, as we later learned, of St. Barbara. They began to settle in a new place, at the same time servicing equipment and setting up tents.

WATER TREATMENTS IN GERMAN

At the end of August, at one of the meetings, the battalion commander informed us that, together with the Soviet troops, our allies under the Warsaw Pact entered Czechoslovakia: one division each from the Polish People's Republic, the Hungarian People's Republic, the German Democratic Republic and two regiments of the army People's Republic of Bulgaria.

We in Czechoslovakia did not encounter allies. Nevertheless, communications officers, other officers who appeared with us in the battalion on business, did receive some information about the actions of the allies. In particular, the case of a German traffic controller became known.

It so happened that during the introduction of troops in pitch darkness, a column of our vehicles exploded with dust, in which Marshal Koshevoy was also riding. The car with the guards lagged behind, and at dawn in some settlement the lonely car of the commander-in-chief was surrounded by a crowd with shouts and threats. The situation became critical. Local punks tore the door handles of the car, demanding that the passengers get out.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a German traffic controller appeared at the car, who, having instantly oriented himself, fired a burst from a machine gun over the heads of the attackers. The crowd backed away from the car. Then the soldier stood in front of the car, gestured to the driver to follow him, and went ahead himself, occasionally shooting at the ground in front of the retreating crowd as a warning. So he brought the marshal's car to the intersection, waved his hand with a machine gun - come on, they say, comrade, go ahead! Then Koshevoy searched for this traffic controller for a long time, wanting to thank him, but he never found him.

They talked about the German traffic controllers and other things. If the traffic controller was posted in a settlement, he would draw a circle with a diameter of about two or three meters on the pavement with chalk, warn the zealous local residents with a gesture and voice that if anyone crossed this circle, he would shoot. As far as I remember, there were no volunteers.

Peacekeeping conversation with Lieutenant Oldřich and Lieutenant Witt from the 2nd Battalion of the 23rd Tank Regiment of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

Another case. One of the battalions of the German people's army was encamped, like us, in a forest. Unlike us, the Germans did not have their own water supply point - a well, and they were forced to send their tank truck for water to the nearest settlement. Often the cistern returned half-empty - some local "jokers-democrats", having waited for the soldiers to fill the tank with water from the pump and sit in the cab, sneaked up from behind, opened the tap and the water slowly flowed out during the movement. This went on several times. Negotiations with the local administration did not lead to anything, and then the German commanders took their own measures.

Suddenly, in the early morning, the Germans surrounded the village, drove all the inhabitants to the central square, where the commander of the German military unit made a speech before them. The meaning of his speech boiled down to the fact that the locals did not understand the importance of bringing in allied troops, that they were pushing aside a helping hand from their friends in the socialist camp, and so on. I think that the speech was delivered in a broken language, and for some it reminded the events of twenty-five years ago, that is, the Second World War. Then the Gedeer soldiers distributed a mug to each adult, put a water-cart on the outskirts of the village, and the inhabitants, under the “guard” of machine gunners, began to ply between the column and the water-cart, filling the latter with water from mugs. After filling the tank, the commander of the unit summed up their work and made a summary - if the pranks with the crane are repeated, then they will fill the tank with teaspoons. All this "water" event was carried out without insults and facts of physical violence - very tactfully.

We heard nothing more about the German allies. We have no doubts about the authenticity of these stories. There was no need for officers from large headquarters to invent all this.

GRIMACES OF PROPAGANDA

In early September, a sentry at the barrier located near the church detained a local resident with a duffel bag on his back. It was lunch time. The companies were built to eat. Staff officers were standing outside our field canteen when the detainee was brought to them. He was a man above average height, thin, neatly dressed and did not understand anything in Russian. He was saying something heatedly, then he took two loaves of bread out of his duffel bag and began to thrust them into the hands of the battalion commander. Nobody understood anything. The officers, forgetting about lunch, tried to understand this Czech, the first one who came to us and, apparently, with friendly intentions. And when they understood, they fell silent at once from amazement. He brought us bread, because we are hungry, we have no food, and we secretly bury those who died of hunger or send them to Russia. He was waiting for our arrival, and now he secretly made his way to us, then he will bring us more bread. He himself is a teacher at a local school and, after hesitating, asked to show him the bodies of soldiers who had died of starvation.

For us it was a shock. It turns out that all the Czechoslovak newspapers, radio, television, leaflets on the walls of houses were trumpeting that the Russians had nothing to eat, that there could be attacks on food stores, houses of local residents in search of food.

The teachers were taken to the dining room, led past the soldiers' tables. He then dined with the staff officers. I visited the medical unit, where, naturally, I did not see the bodies of soldiers who had died of starvation. When parting, he was handed his duffel bag stuffed with Soviet products: cans of stew, sausage, canned fish, cigarettes and cigarettes. He came to us two more times, and then disappeared somewhere. Much later, at the police station, we were informed that he had been found hanged in the woods. A sign hung on his chest: "He helped the Russians." At the bottom was a swastika.

By the way, in all the slogans, inscriptions on the walls, I never saw the word “Soviet”, but only “Russian”, “Ivan”, “Mashka”, “occupier”.

There is a book about the events in Czechoslovakia called "The Liberator". Its author is a traitor, a former officer of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet Army, a certain Vladimir Rezun, a literary pseudonym Viktor Suvorov. In The Liberator, Rezun writes: "... the constant hunger of soldiers who are fed worse than any other soldier in the world." Or: “I climbed onto a box marked “Made in the USA”, raised a can of stew over my head ... shouted “hooray!”. A powerful and joyful "hurrah" that escaped from a hundred throats was my answer. Mentions "endemic drunkenness", etc.

I'm answering this crap. Our 14th division received food directly from our An-12 military transport aircraft at the airport in Pilsen. In addition to the notorious stew, Semipalatinsk and Armavir, the diet included the usual smoked sausage "Krakowska", Chinese sausage in jars called "Great Wall" (jars with a capacity of 525 and 338 g). Two or three times they brought sour cream - this is in the field, then! Cheese was delivered once a week. In short, the appetizer was not bad, there was no vodka. True, those whose wives remained in the GDR, they sent their husbands a bottle of alcohol with an opportunity. This happened about once every two weeks. And many of the wives were in the Union, so that alcohol was shared fraternally.

Voentorg did not spoil us: collars, threads, envelopes, buttons, hooks. Once brought chrome German boots, fur.

Tobacco allowance, as well as food, was at its best: Fragrant cigarettes, Novost cigarettes - with a filter, they had just begun to be produced in the USSR.

In a letter to my mother dated October 6, 1968, I still mention biscuits. Unfortunately, I did not write how many grams of it we were given for tea for breakfast, but another figure deserves attention. According to the head of the regiment's food service, our division daily ate 1.5 tons of sausage: "Krakow", and Chinese, and Armavir, and even "Hunting" sausages. A simple calculation shows that a soldier of the thirteen thousandth 14th division received 115 g of sausage daily.

Nowhere is it mentioned that at the beginning of September the USSR Minister of Defense issued an order to pay us, in Czechoslovakia, travel money at the rate of 2 rubles 50 kopecks per day. It was good money for that time, considering that we did not pay for food, laundry and medical services. The finance officials called this money “intermediate”, and we called it “front-line”. The fact was that in the event of the start of large-scale actions, our grouping immediately turned into the Central Front and the commander, General Pavlovsky, gave way to a new commander, but already a front - Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev.

Soviet money was still credited to our deposit book, and in stamps of the GDR they accumulated in the financial documents of the regiment. But the “front-line” ones were issued certificates, which, with someone’s light hand, we all began to call “dubcheks” - in honor of the ideologist of the “Prague Spring” Alexander Dubcek. "Dubcheks" were of various denominations, starting from one penny. Our regiment was in Czechoslovakia for 78 days, thus, each soldier received an additional 195 rubles in the form of travel allowances - "front".

I would like to end the theme of the "Holodomor" in the Soviet troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia with the following episode. Somewhere on October 10, at about 12 noon, shooting suddenly began from the edge of the forest. The command “To battle!” Followed, and a little later - “Hang up”. Go to the sounds of gunfire. The battalion commander and his deputies were already standing at the edge of the forest, looking into the field. A line of brightly dressed peasants with guns moved across the field from left to right, who, on command, from time to time fired in front of them. There were about 70 of them. They were picturesquely dressed: short-brimmed Tyrolean hats with bright green feathers, plaid vests, high boots, leather bandoliers, some kind of nets at the belts. So, firing their guns, they passed us.

It turns out that the day before, a delegation from the local society of hunters came to the headquarters of the regiment and informed the command that hunting would be carried out - shooting pheasants and wild goats. The command took note of this, but asked: why, they say, in such numbers, and the season seemed to be over. The answer was stunning: “So that you don’t get it. You have nothing to eat. And this, they say, is our protest, sort of like even a “partisan action” - not to give the invaders any provisions, but to starve them.”

It was useless to tell the hunters that we were not occupiers, and if we were, then our tanks would not be in the forest, but on the square, in the center of the city, and if at least someone shot at us, then this town we would so rolled out with their tanks that later it would be easier to rebuild it in another place.

ESCAPE REGIMENT

We knew about the events in Czechoslovakia only from the newspapers or from the lips of the political officer of the battalion, Major Vladimir Vasilyevich Sovik. With soldierly straightforwardness, we expressed our thoughts: “What are they talking about with this counter-revolution, they would disperse it, and explain to ordinary people what would be the order.” But not everything was so simple. A few hours before the introduction of troops, Moscow convincingly asked the President of Czechoslovakia, Hero of the Soviet Union Ludwig Svoboda, who has tremendous authority among the population of the republic, to order the army not to resist the Warsaw Pact troops, to close all weapons and ammunition depots, to seal the weapons rooms, not succumb to provocations.

In general, an atmosphere of neutrality reigned in the Czechoslovak army, with a few exceptions. Some military units still did not obey the order and left the military camps with equipment and weapons to resist our troops. In September, some units had already returned - the commanders changed their minds, and the personnel began to scatter. Many military units were simply demoralized. In the zone of operations of our division, not far from our battalion, there was such an "escaped" 23rd tank regiment.

It was known that the regiment consisted of three battalions: one training and two combat. The training one remained at the place of deployment, and the combat battalions went on alert to an area unknown to us. It took our reconnaissance three days to find them and not frighten them away ahead of time.

The commander of the 1st battalion was Colonel Fisher. At that time he was at home, had a high temperature. And yet he found the courage in himself, went to the service, found his battalion, returned it back, drove the tanks into the pits, hung locks and sent most of the soldiers on vacation.

Things were worse with the 2nd Battalion. They were commanded by an ardent anti-Soviet and anti-communist major Bobak, which he never hid and was ready to start hostilities against us. This could not be allowed. It was necessary to find a common language with the officers of the battalion. We already knew the structure of the unit, we knew that the regiment was armed with T-54 tanks of the first releases. From among the volunteer officers, a group was created, which included me, to establish contacts with the officers of this Czechoslovak battalion. Our scouts took us to the checkpoint, where we were met by a shabby-looking officer on duty and taken to his commander.

Bobak greeted us with a curse bordering on rage: drool flew from his mouth so that we retreated. A huge stomach from under an unbuttoned shirt swayed uncomfortably to the beat of waving arms. Then he ran away, leaving two officers: Lieutenant Oldřich, the Komsomol organizer of the regiment, and Lieutenant Witt, a propagandist. They didn't have any power. We left. And yet, we benefited from this trip: we saw a few soldiers, dirty, unshaven, who did not observe any subordination, we learned that there were almost no regular officers of the company-platoon level in the battalion, most were officers called up after graduating from civilian universities.

The next day brought us news: the battalion had returned to the barracks.

RETURN TO GDR

At the end of September, an instruction was received to establish contacts with local authorities and the population. We went with the same group of volunteers, the senior was Major Sovik. We decided to go first to Stankov, and then to Golishev. We were driving in an UAZ-452 ambulance, it was raining, it was overcast, we did not meet anyone on the way, which alerted us. We entered the central square - it was empty. The blinds were down in the houses, but it felt like we were being watched. All signs were removed from the houses - it is not clear where everything is located. We went into one house - the police station. Two captains stood up to meet us: tall, middle-aged, with small holsters on their belts. As it turned out, during the war years, both were in the resistance. They said that before the introduction of troops in the city there were many strangers, apparently from the other side, and then they disappeared. Together, they tore leaflets from houses calling for rebuffing the Russians, killing them, starving them, washed off the swastikas. From them we learned about our teacher. They asked: "Have the killers been found?" They said no, because there were only two of them left in the entire area.

We returned to the GDR by rail. We arrived at Jüterbog at four o'clock in the morning on November 7th. Wet snow was falling, a few women met us - not all the officers' wives had yet returned from the Union. There were also representatives of the German administration. It turned out to be a rally, small, but touching. Until twelve o'clock we were allowed to go home, and then - maintenance of equipment, transfer to the reserve, home leave, and so on.

Why did the crisis in Czechoslovakia become possible? I think that at that time we paid too much attention to the problems of West Berlin, revanchism and the militarization of West Germany and missed the quiet counter-revolution in Czechoslovakia, which was being prepared very carefully, on the sly.

By 1961, the extensive methods of developing the economy of Czechoslovakia had become obsolete, and there was a lag. There were already tendencies to abandon the planned economy. The population was processed by the radio stations Voice of America, Free Europe, BBC, and local media did not lag behind. Envious people became easy prey for Western subversive centers.

Nevertheless, then, in 1968, the dream of the West German revanchists to see "their Sudetenland", and then the border with the Soviet Union, remained a dream.

At that time we defended the conquests of our fathers and grandfathers, we were already against redrawing the borders of the states that were formed as a result of the Second World War. We defended ourselves, our system, defended all working people, including the Czechoslovaks. And they protected.

Viktor Alexandrovich BORISOV - retired lieutenant colonel

On October 1, 1938, the armed forces of the German Wehrmacht crossed the borders of what was then Czechoslovakia and began to occupy the border areas called the Sudetenland. The first units penetrated the territory of the Czech Republic along the line Karlovy Vary - Decin - Liberec. The Czechoslovak army offered no resistance. Exactly the same thing happened 30 years later on August 21, 1968: the armed forces of the GDR crossed the borders and began to occupy the border territories of Czechoslovakia. So, as then the Wehrmacht, parts of the GDR penetrated into the territory of Czechoslovakia along the Karlovy Vary - Marianske Lazne line as part of one division and along the Decin - Liberec line as part of almost two divisions. Just like 30 years before, the Czechoslovak army offered no resistance...

Between the events of 1938 and 1968 there is, however, a significant difference: Adolf Hitler was guided by an official, albeit somewhat dubious document - the so-called. "Munich Agreement", which allowed him to occupy the border area of ​​the then Czechoslovakia. In addition, the leader of the Nazi Reich regarded Czechoslovak democracy as his sworn enemy...

Compared to this, Walter Ulbricht (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in 1950-1971 - approx. per.) in 1968, he did not have any document allowing him to attack his eastern neighbor. The leader of the East German communists also did not appeal to any agreement during his invasion of Czechoslovakia. Such a document simply did not exist. On the contrary, five months earlier, on March 23, 1968, during a conference in Dresden, he assured Alexander Dubcek (as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in January 1968 - April 1969 - the main initiator of the course of reforms known as the Prague Spring - approx. Per.) in its support for the new political course in Czechoslovakia.

In addition, it is worth adding that the military intervention of the GDR was not directed against the “enemy”, as in the case of Nazi Germany, but against its own ally in the Warsaw Pact. Both countries were linked by a number of political, economic and friendly agreements...

After penetrating the territory of Czechoslovakia, parts of the GDR began to develop amazing activity. One of the witnesses, a member of the German minority, Otto Klaus, a member of the People's Committee, relates this:

... On August 21, 1968, I turned on the radio and began to shave. Suddenly, I heard the first phrase on the Prague radio station: "...do not provoke the Soviet occupiers, prevent bloodshed." I dropped everything and ran out into the street like lightning. In Liberec, on the streets, I saw German units in combat readiness. One column after another, only the Germans. I only heard German commands. In Prague, probably crazy. It's not Russian at all. These are Germans.

When I entered my office, there were already three officers of the GDR army sitting there. Without any ceremony, they informed me that they had come to liberate us from Czech oppression. They strongly demanded my cooperation...

Two other Czechoslovak citizens of German origin, Otmar Simek and his friend Karel Haupt from Kadani, described their two encounters with the East German occupying army as follows:

... we were riding a motorcycle. A group of German soldiers stopped us and wanted to know if we had leaflets with us. They searched us but didn't find anything. We were asked if we belonged to the German minority. When we confirmed, they told us that we should build a “revolutionary people's militia” (Revolutionäre Volkswehr), since this territory would probably be annexed to the GDR. We thought it was a stupid joke. However, later, when we heard from other members of the German Cultural Association (Deutscher Kulturverband) that they were called for such activities, we announced to Prague ...

The Czechoslovak intelligence service - led by Josef Pavel - received hundreds of such reports. Members of national minorities - Germans, Poles, Hungarians, who lived in Czechoslovakia, received an invitation to cooperate from the occupying units. On August 21, the Prague radio station addressed representatives of national minorities with a warning that they were citizens of Czechoslovakia and that they should not cooperate with the occupiers.

Until today, it is completely unclear whether the officers of the GDR army in Karlovy Vary, Asch, Marianske Lazne and Liberec said what they really thought, or whether there were only attempts to cause anxiety and uncertainty in order to thereby break the determination of national minorities to actively or passive resistance.

Without a doubt, the German minority in Czechoslovakia before 1968 was in fact oppressed. The Czechoslovak constitution of July 11, 1960, in Article 25 on national minorities does not even mention a word about them and in fact considers them non-existent. When, in 1963, representatives of the German minority in Czechoslovakia complained to President Antonin Novotny about this circumstance, they received a negative answer from him: “The problem of the Germans in our republic was solved by eviction in 1945-47.”

Almost 200,000 Germans who at that time lived on the territory of Czechoslovakia were not Germans for Novotny!

Whether Walter Ulbricht thought that, just like in 1938, Adolf Hitler, he would find his Henleins and Franks, who would mobilize the Germans for him in Czechoslovakia, one can only guess.

Vice versa! A leaflet was printed in České Lipa, which was later published by the German minority press organ "Prager Volkszeitung" in its newspaper. It said:

THANK YOU DUBCHEK!

After 22 years of ignoring our aspirations and lacking interest in what torments and worries us German citizens, now we hear about the program of the new Cultural Union (Kulturverband) ... Therefore, we want to express a just faith in Alexander Dubcek and his sound national policy ...(Original in German).

Instead of cooperating with the occupying forces, the reaction to the propaganda aspirations of East German politicians was the founding of an organization called the Democratic Union of Germans in Czechoslovakia (Demokratischer Bund der Deutschen in der ?SSR). The committees and coordinating cells of this union operated in Novy Bor, Kamenice, Ceske Lipa and in Most. On August 26, 1968, the Inaugural Congress in Novy Bor addressed a statement to all Germans on the territory of Czechoslovakia, which stated:

GO TO THE POINT! Alexander Dubcek enjoys a degree of sympathy that no other politician could boast of before. However, by mere expression of sympathy, neither our new politicians nor we will achieve anything. The foundation stone of success for both sides is close cooperation and support for the new course. The great sympathy that we have recently been addressing to our new leadership of the country should be expressed by all of us at workplaces, in shops, on the streets, during festivities, simply everywhere. We evaluate a person by his character, and not by nationality, property, religion or race!

Such a position caused those "Red Prussians" - as the German population of Czechoslovakia began to call them - insurmountable anxiety. It was quite obvious that 1938 on August 21 would not happen again!

It came to several acts of violence: in front of the Liberec town hall, GDR soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians. One man was shot and 17 people were wounded.

On the Old Town Square in Liberec, the armed forces of the GDR shot and destroyed a residential building ...

On August 25, 1968, the armed forces of the GDR pulled out of the city to the surrounding forests, where they waited for further orders from Berlin. However, it should be emphasized that it was a question of a single occupying force of the Warsaw Pact, which was governed by Article 3, the so-called "Moscow Secret Protocol", which prescribed that after 6-10 days of the so-called. “normalization” it is necessary to assess whether it makes sense, within the framework of Article 5, to start withdrawing the occupying units from the territory of Czechoslovakia.

On August 30 and 31, 1938, the armed forces of the GDR quietly and imperceptibly left Czechoslovakia, as if they had never been here at all. The German minority on the territory of Czechoslovakia, which they had previously tried to persuade to cooperate with the statement that “this territory will be annexed to the GDR”, was not even mentioned a word about this.

This text was first broadcast on the radio on August 18, 1978 in the "Ost-West-Journal" program of the West Berlin radio station SFB (Sender Freies Berlin) in German.

About the author: Jan Berwid-Buquoy is a political scientist and historian working in the Czech Republic and Germany. Born on March 26, 1946 in Prague. Author of eleven books. Winner of several international awards. Since 2002 President of the Czech Institute of International Relations in Tabor.

Some comments:

Kolemjedouci:

Germans will always be Germans! And no matter brown, or red, or EU, they will always strive to dominate the Central European space and all of Europe! As one classic said through the mouth of his hero: these are such bastards that they have no equal in the world .....

I don’t understand why they should strive to additionally provoke some kind of anti-German sentiment. After all, this is a complete absurdity. The communist leadership in the GDR was in the same position as in the other "satellites" and, therefore, did everything as Moscow ordered it to.

Another long debunked tale, Herr DRDR? Initially, although it was planned to use two NVA divisions (National People's Army of the GDR - approx. per.), however, it was precisely because of the connotation with 1938-39 that they were not used - there were several dozen German observers here and on the borders (on the German side !!) in case of need and Soviet need, there were the 7th tank and 11th motorized rifle motto NVA! Please stop fooling around already!

In Liberec, Soviet tanks drove around the square, Soviet soldiers fired. In addition to what I know from my Liberec relatives, a few days ago I watched a long documentary (it lasted about an hour, maybe longer) about Liberec, where both the then wounded, and then journalists and other witnesses spoke, showed photographs of that period and video frames. Those soldiers didn't really wear Volksarmee uniforms. (People's Army of the GDR - approx. per.).

Recently, documents found in the archives of the GDR were also published that, to the great disappointment of the leaders of the GDR, the Russians (Soviets) did not allow the active participation of parts of the People's Army of the GDR in the intervention, because they rightfully feared the memories of the World War and the protectorate. Only a rather symbolic participation was allowed, which was then exaggerated by the newspapers of the GDR through framed photographs.

Josef Pavel was not the head of the intelligence service. He was the Minister of the Interior.

By the way, this Liberec square is not called the Old Town Square, as it was called during the German colonization of the city (Altstadtplatz), after 1945 it was called Dr. E. Benes Square, during the communist period - Peace Fighters Square, and after 1989 - again Square Dr. E. Benes. Being a native of Liberec, I would prefer the politically neutral name Old Town Square, but this is just a wish, the facts are completely different.

To Dr. Dr. Jan Berwid-Buquoy

Thank you for your comment, to tell you the truth, it scared me. I have no reason to suspect you of incorrect information, but in August of this year our television showed a documentary about the events in Liberec in August 1968, and there was not a single mention of soldiers from the GDR. Question: Why are lies being told even after 40 years?

article read: 12208 people

“Where are the NPA units?” asked the newspaper Die Welt after the Warsaw Pact troops entered Prague. Didn't the newspaper Neues Deutschland write on August 24 about "joint measures" and quote "Comrade Krenz on the Oberspree": "We couldn't wait any longer, and we intervened"? But Neues Deutschland kept silent about the details. It seems that only one Bohemian priest, who was quoted by "Welt" in her article, knew the answer to this question: "They are somewhere out there in the woods and only dare to come out at night, when we have a curfew." Other sources claimed that the soldiers of the NNA - the National People's Army of the GDR - allegedly wore Soviet military uniforms to camouflage. Neither has been confirmed. It was only after the end of the GDR and the Warsaw Pact that it became clear that the 20,000 NPA soldiers planned for the operation had reached the "places of concentration" on the border with Czechoslovakia, but never entered the country. Maybe Ulbricht, who, although he was an ardent supporter of the invasion, nevertheless realized that the German soldiers in Prague would evoke unwanted memories, or did Moscow decide everything through his head?

The truthful information was provided 50 years later by Rüdiger Wenzke in his research on the topic. In it, he published a transcript of conversations between the Soviet leadership and Czechoslovakia President Ludwig Svoboda, deported to Moscow, taken from the Russian State Archives. According to it, the head of the CPSU, Leonid Brezhnev, stated that “there were no German soldiers on the state territory of Czechoslovakia. We held them back ... Speaking between us, the German comrades were offended by us that we didn’t seem to trust them. ” But even more indicative were the statements of the Soviet chairman of the Supreme Council Podgorny that this allegedly happened at "your", that is, Czechoslovak, request, although the Germans "should have entered along with everyone."

Context

Prague Spring haunts Europe

Financial Times 14.08.2018

Guardian: "Prague Spring" was suppressed by the Ukrainians

The Guardian 08/14/2018

Prague Spring: Anti-Russian hysteria

Halo noviny 07/22/2018 The answer is cunning, because, as it became known from another source - from the head of the Polish Communist Party, Wladyslaw Gomulka, "your" meant not members of the Czech government, but collaborators Vasil Bilak and Alois Indra. This sounds convincing, if only because the invasion came as a complete surprise to the Dubcek government, and therefore it could not, of course, participate in its preparation.

But Brezhnev's statements were at least incomplete, because although he ordered his military to hold back the NPA, some of its parts were still used for radio intelligence, transportation of supplies and targeted operations on the ground. So, the second reconnaissance regiment of the NPA was stationed in Mitrovica near Prague - this is proved, because the Soviets allowed to make a report there. According to unconfirmed reports, GDR tanks were allegedly seen on the march in North Bohemia, but the 7th Panzer Division provided for this definitely remained in a waiting position. In fact, the invasion went so smoothly that the Soviets were quite able to do without the involvement of the NPA on the ground.

All this information can not only be read in the book, they are confirmed by authentic documents in a 300-page appendix. It contains not only documents from the NPA and its allies, but also reports from places on both sides of the Iron Curtain - from the GDR army and the Bundeswehr. There are even two analytical reports from the CIA on the balance of forces between NATO and the Warsaw Pact and on the costs of the Soviet invasion.

But all the same, more interesting than the dry daily reports of the Bundeswehr are the politically colored "messages" of the party and state leadership of the GDR, which surprisingly contradict even their own state propaganda of 1968. According to them, on August 20, the Bundeswehr took positions near the borders of Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the NNA was well aware that NATO had declared “high alert” only on August 22.

The West believed the Soviet assurances given to Washington and Bonn that the intervention "in no way would affect the state interests of the United States and other states." For French Foreign Minister Michel Debré, it was just "a traffic accident on the road to détente."

A peculiar monument was erected by the "Journal of Rewards and Penalties of the NPA Military Commandant's Office" on August 20 to Captain Manfred Schmidt, who spoke out against the invasion during the preparatory courses in Dresden. On August 23, he was demoted, expelled from the SED, and even dismissed from the army. He probably wasn't the only one. One non-commissioned officer in the Leipzig military district declared: "I will not shoot even once, because I do not want to be hanged as a war criminal, as happened to others after the Second World War." Both of them passed him by.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

I think that Starikov got into politics in vain, but this does not negate the fact that I always read it with pleasure.

Eyewitness account:

We Russians are different from Europeans. We are a different civilization. And it becomes noticeable in everything. Including how we…occupy.

The entry of troops of the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact into Czechoslovakia in 1968 is an absolutely justified operation. We did not allow chaos in a friendly country and the destruction of our defensive belt. This is the first. Secondly, the same thing happened in Czechoslovakia (with a slight amendment) as in Ukraine in 2014. And thirdly, order and security in Czechoslovakia were provided not only by Soviet troops, but also by the military contingents of some countries of the Warsaw Pact. Including - the troops of the GDR.

How did the Germans and Russians behave? What was the difference?

About this material, which was sent to me by a reader of the resource nstarikov.ru Viktor Dmitrievich Bychkov. These are the stories of one direct participant in these events. He continues the theme that was opened by my story about the book I read by Yuri Galushko “Czechoslovakia-68. View of a Soviet officer from the past to the future.

Regarding Czechoslovakia and the events of 1968 that took place there.

These are my youthful memories. In 1968 I was in the 8th grade. And I remember well how we acutely experienced the events taking place there with our friends, how we felt sorry for the deceived Czechs, and were ready at any moment to move there to help. Already at the beginning of winter, somewhere in December, the elder brother of my comrade, Anikin Vladimir, returned from the army, who participated in the events that took place in Czechoslovakia.

At first, he said almost nothing, but gradually we started talking to him. A small company of young men gathered, mostly they were close friends of the one who had returned from the army, I sometimes got there as a friend of my younger brother. There was home-made light wine, but most importantly, we all eagerly listened to the stories of an eyewitness who had already been abroad, and even participated in such historical events. He asked not to tell anyone from his stories. However, I remember very well what he said then.

So the first thing is how he got there. He served urgently in Ukraine, at a military airfield, in some kind of airfield service. They were mainly involved in airfield security and simple things like maintaining the runway in proper order, fixing aircraft under the guidance of technicians, etc. One evening they were alerted, personal weapons, helmets, ammunition, etc. , loaded into transporters, and they flew. The soldiers noticed that in addition to ammunition and weapons, quite a lot of ammunition and other things were loaded on board. They didn’t know where they were flying, everyone thought that these were exercises.

They flew for a long time. As soon as they sat down, they quickly started unloading. The fact that this is already abroad was not understood immediately, only after dawn.

Paratroopers with their equipment were unloaded from other planes, who quickly left, and the soldiers of the narrator's unit behind the airfield near the forest and the stream pitched tents, equipping a tent city. There was a small town not far from the airfield, to which they sent armed patrols with officers. On the opposite side of the airfield there was a small air terminal and several other low airfield buildings. In the morning, the airfield employees came and looked with surprise at the soldiers, planes, etc. Need to say,

that our planes flew in quite often, they brought mainly paratroopers with equipment and other things, who quickly left.

The brought ammunition was stored right next to the runway. There were also tents in which our army airfield authorities, a communications center, etc. were located. Everything was mine.

By the middle of the day, the first signs of rejection and unfriendliness of the local population began to appear. The youth especially tried.

They shouted curses, showed all sorts of obscene gestures.

By evening, two motorcyclists drove onto the runway, rushing along the runway, approaching the planes, throwing stones and bottles at the air intakes, windows of the aircraft cabins, etc. .. The soldiers were ordered to force them out of the strip without using weapons and force. This was done with difficulty.

Another problem is water. At first, water was collected for the kitchen and other household needs from a fairly clean stream, but soon this could not be done, because. the local population began to go and deliberately shit in the stream upstream, throw sewage, dead dogs, etc. there. Trips to the town for water were also unsuccessful - if they started to draw water somewhere, it quickly ended. Moved to another place and there the same picture. The water was turned off very quickly and in a coordinated manner. In general, water was already going to be transported by aircraft. It was also tight with firewood for the kitchen - they mostly drowned in broken boxes of cartridges, and zinc with cartridges was stacked. Airport employees did not let soldiers into the airport, use the toilet, etc. , and the soldiers had to run into the bushes on the other side of the lanes, which caused laughter from local residents and airport employees. They tried to dig a hole for a toilet for military personnel, but some local chief came from the airport and did not allow this. Say, you can’t dig anything and that’s it. It was difficult to patrol the area around, and the town. The local population very quickly became impudent in expressing their hostility, especially the youth. They threw stones, sticks, shouted. But there was a strict order: not to use weapons and physical force, to endure everything, to show friendliness.

The situation was heating up, and this, of course, would eventually lead to bad consequences. Our soldiers would run out of patience.

Moreover, many patrols were sent and there were not enough officers for all, and often two soldiers walked without an officer. On the second day, two patrol soldiers disappeared altogether and were never found. Everyone understood that they were most likely killed and buried somewhere.

And then the Germans showed up. And the situation began to change radically. By the afternoon of the third day, a column of the German army arrived. As Volodya, who was on patrol and was just in the center of this town on the square, said, it was like in a movie about the Great Patriotic War. First motorcyclists with machine guns, then a column. Ahead and behind armored personnel carriers with machine gunners at the ready. In the center of the column is a senior officer in a car, accompanied by other officers. The column entered the square, parts of it dispersed along the streets near the square. A senior officer and his entourage got out of the car.

The elder looked around the square and its surroundings, consulted the map. Then he indicates where the headquarters will be, next to the future headquarters - a house for himself. Immediately he gives a command to his officers, showing where the units will be placed. Before that, the soldiers were sitting in cars, there was no movement, everyone was waiting. As soon as the commands were received, the work began to boil. The soldiers quickly vacated houses for headquarters and for housing for a senior officer, the rest were also engaged in accommodation under the guidance of their commanders. How were they liberated at home? It's very simple - they expelled local residents from there.

A respectable man was quickly brought to the elder, presumably the local mayor, and some other representative personalities. The eldest of the Germans briefly explained to them, or rather indicated what should be done. Since there was no smell of discussion, the local authorities did not even think of objecting, but only dragged on in front of the Germans. Moreover, the Germans all spoke German to the locals, without bothering to translate, and they understood them perfectly. The Germans behaved in a very businesslike way.

A German officer approached our patrols, saluted, and asked in Russian who they were and where their unit was located. He explained that they needed to contact the leadership of our unit. The soldiers answered, after which the officer saluted and went to report to the elder. The senior officer, accompanied by motorcyclists with machine guns, went to the location of our unit. The soldiers do not know what the senior officers were talking about, but, apparently, our commander complained about the water situation. Somewhere in the evening, two or three hours later, such a picture was visible. The Czechs quickly pulled the water supply to the location of the unit, metal pipes were laid directly on the ground or slightly dug. They also made wiring for several cranes, where they were indicated, they worked very quickly. Since then, clean water has always been in abundance. In addition, the Czechs began to regularly bring chopped ready-made firewood in the required quantity, i.e. and this problem was also quickly resolved.

By evening, events took place at the airfield that radically changed the attitude of the locals towards our presence. The fact is that it was possible to call at the airfield from different sides, it was not fenced. Only on one side, in the direction from the airport to the city, there was a fence. And that one is from cattle, because there was pasture. And that same local youth used it. They flew in on motorcycles, threw bottles, stones and other things at the planes, laughed at the soldiers who tried to force them out of the runways. They threw the same thing at the soldiers, and they received injuries and bruises, but they could not do anything. And on the evening of the third day after the appearance of the Germans, a car drove into the runways, in which four youths rushed around the runway, drove up to the planes, etc. .. The order to force them out did not give anything. However, this time the hooligans went far - they hit two soldiers with a car, seriously injuring them. The Czech airfield staff watched with laughter what was happening, with great joy meeting every successful feint of the youths and especially their run over the soldiers. And soldiers with weapons could not do anything with these youths - after all, they were not allowed to shoot.

But then, unfortunately for these youths, a German patrol drove up to the airfield on two motorcycles with machine guns. The Germans quickly understood everything. The youths, seeing the German patrol, rushed to flee along the outer lane. Behind them, or rather along a parallel strip, one motorcycle rushed. Having driven away, so that it was impossible to catch someone random, the machine gunner knocked out the car with one burst. He immediately shot two fellows sitting in the front seats. The car stopped. Two sitting behind jumped out and rushed to run.

The machine gunner fired two short bursts along the ground to the left and right of the runners. One stopped, raised his hands and walked back, the second continued to run away, trying to dodge. This caused the machine gunner to laugh, and he cut him off with a short burst, then walked from the machine gun over the already lying one with two more bursts. The second, standing with raised hands, the German beckoned to him shouting "com, com." He went like a drunk, sobbing loudly. Our officer sent soldiers, and they pulled out of the burning car two dead people who were sitting in front. Walking with raised hands and sobbing youth, the German showed where to go.

Having brought him closer to the airport, he put him on his knees, hands behind his head and stood nearby with a machine gun at the ready. The youth sobbed loudly all the time and asked for something. But the German did not pay any attention to this.

From the second patrol motorcycle they reported on what was happening to their superiors. The Czech airport staff no longer laughed and silently watched what was happening. Soon a car arrived with a German officer and two soldiers. The officer got out of the car, listened to the report of the senior patrolman, turned around and went to the nearest downed our soldier, lying on the landing strip in blood, in the place where he was shot down. He was already being treated, bandaged, put on splints, and he was moaning loudly. The officer approached, looked, saluted our officer who approached and said, pointing at the soldiers’ machine guns: “you need to shoot.” He obviously did not understand why weapons were not used in such an obvious situation. He turned and walked towards the kneeling youth. As he approached, he unfastened his holster on the move. Approaching about three meters, he shot him in the forehead, after which he calmly put the pistol back and gave a command to his soldiers.

His soldiers ran to the airport and hid there. It soon became clear why. They literally kicked everyone who was there to the site in front of the airport. When an officer approached there, the soldiers were already driving the last ones out.

On the side and behind the officer, one of the patrol motorcycles with a machine gun drove up, and the machine gunner held the whole crowd at gunpoint, silently and very cautiously looking at the officer and the machine gunner. It also seemed to us that now they would put down from a machine gun those standing in front of them. But the officer made a short speech in German, which those rounded up in front of him sullenly accepted. He probably explained to them who is the boss here, and how to behave.

After that, they ran very quickly to the airport, and everything began to stir. A fire engine rushed in, putting out the tanned car, and then dragged it from the landing. Soon a tow truck took her away. Then three local policemen arrived, with whom the German officer also had a brief conversation. The junior policemen loaded the corpses into a truck and left, while the senior policeman was taken with him by a German officer. In general, the Germans acted with such absolute confidence in their rightness and the correctness of what they were doing that all the locals involuntarily obeyed them implicitly.

After all that had happened, no one from the locals had ever come close to the airfield, except for those who worked there. In addition, an excavator arrived two hours later, and an elderly excavator asked where the Russians should dig. So the side roads and paths leading to the airport were blocked, after which a large pit was dug for a soldier's toilet, which the Czechs had not allowed to do before. Now none of the locals objected. I must also say that after that our soldiers and officers were allowed to freely enter the airport and generally everywhere. At the same time, they tried ... as if not to notice. Attempts to somehow misbehave at the airport, etc. was also no more.

And one more consequence. The next day, a team of Czech carpenters arrived and, under the leadership of a German non-commissioned officer, quickly built a rather high and solid tower on the road leading from the town to the airport. Convenient staircase, roof, double walls on the tower itself, overlapping boards, sandbags between the walls - protection from bullets.

Mounts for machine guns, a powerful searchlight on the turret. Convenient, everything is visible and everything is shot through. A barrier was also installed there and next to it a booth made of boards with glass windows, which was very convenient, especially in bad weather. Our soldiers hardly used the tower, but it was visible far away and had a very disciplining effect on the locals. Such a classic German tower.

About a week later, a group of young people, 20-30 people, came to the airfield from the grazing side, with posters “Russians go home”, with a loudspeaker into which they shouted all sorts of calls to “get out to the invaders”. We approached from the side, from the side of the airport, but not very close to the runway, and did not approach the tents. The duty officer at the checkpoint sent a soldier to the tower to see if there were many of them, if there was anyone else behind them, in general, to look around.

So, as soon as the protesters saw that the soldier began to climb the tower, they immediately ran away, leaving part of the posters on the spot. Maybe they thought they were going to shoot.

Another episode I remember, which Volodya Anikin told about. With the arrival of the Germans, the situation changed dramatically. The local population was very respectful of the Germans and German patrols, fulfilled their slightest requirements. In general, it never occurred to the Czechs that one could argue or disagree with the Germans. Especially if you treat them with disrespect. And the German patrols spared no cartridges. No one dared to throw a stone at them or pour mud over them, etc. In response - instantaneous fire to kill, indiscriminately why this happened. Therefore, our patrols tried to get a German soldier in the company or even go along with the German patrol. The Germans treated this favorably. They clearly enjoyed the role of law enforcement officers.

And then one day a patrol, in which Volodya and a Russian sergeant, senior patrol, were sent to patrol the streets on the outskirts of the town. Going there, they made a detour and passed through the streets where the Germans lodged. There, near one of the houses, German soldiers were clustered, cackling merrily.

It must be said that the German soldiers, despite their discipline, had many more freedoms than our soldiers. They had more free time, they could go somewhere on their own time, etc.

Approaching our German colleagues, ours tried to somehow communicate, say or understand something. The Germans knew that Russian soldiers were often offended

local, and they were clearly flattered by the role of some sort of protector. At least the German soldiers immediately realized that our soldiers had to patrol the outskirts on foot and wanted to have a German in the company for cover. I must say that the Germans usually patrolled on two motorcycles with sidecars with machine guns. Machine gunners were always at the ready...

One young soldier volunteered with ours, who immediately ran away and reported this to his non-commissioned officer, who, smiling knowingly, released the soldier. And here they are, three of them, trying to communicate. The German knows some Russian words, a lot of gestures of facial expressions, all three are fun and interesting. They are already walking along the very outskirts, along the suburbs, where everything already looks more like summer cottages. On the left is a solid fence, and then a mesh one. The German turned to a solid fence and began to relieve himself. (In general, German soldiers did not hesitate to celebrate their needs, especially small ones, almost everywhere in the city). Well, Volodya and the sergeant went a little further ahead, where the mesh fence already began. Here, from behind the fence, from the bushes, a stone flies and hits the back of our sergeant. Our patrols did not pay attention to such stones, and getting a stone on the back was a common thing. But now the German sees it, the Russian soldiers are already catching up. And the one who threw, did not see the German because of the solid fence. The reaction of a soldier of the GDR is instantaneous - he rips off the machine gun and releases the entire horn from the belt like a fan through the bushes.

Volodya says that we are standing dumbfounded with the sergeant. The German reloads his machine gun and is about to shoot some more. Volodya said that, without agreeing with the sergeant, they ran up to the German and took the machine gun from him. He resignedly gave it away, but fervently said something to them and pointed to the bushes from where the stone had flown. He clearly did not understand why the Russians did not shoot and behave so strangely.

Behind the bushes are some summer buildings, such as a plywood gazebo or something else.

From there, weeping is heard. The German shows with the passion of a hunter that, they say, where the game is sitting, and it must now be punished. And our soldiers are dragging an ally away. He tries to explain something, but he is taken away and quickly. And only when the German calmed down, and moved far enough away, did ours give the German a machine gun. For us, it was wild, said Volodya Anikin, to shoot combat in the village. And besides, giving out two horns of live ammunition, we were strictly warned that it was impossible to shoot under any circumstances. Die, but don't shoot. Why then give live ammunition, why send it somewhere? And the Germans, apparently, did not report for cartridges, and therefore they were not spared.

And some more observations of Vladimir Anikin:

“The Germans ate in restaurants that were turned into soldiers' canteens for lunchtime. The Czechs brought fresh vegetables, fruits, fresh meat, greens, etc. for them. .. Our patrols saw it well. Whether the Germans paid for this we did not know, but they ate much better against us. We are mostly porridge and stew.

Soup borsch - also with stew. There was no variety or variety. But here's what we've learned to do. There, they had quite a lot of deer and roe deer roaming through the fields and forests, which were little afraid of people. Once they saw how a German truck stopped and an officer sitting in the cab, taking a machine gun from a soldier, shot a deer, which the German soldiers dragged into the back and left. An example has been provided.

We asked the German soldiers for cartridges and shot deer. They quickly butchered, took away the meat. The machine gun from which they shot was quickly cleaned. If they asked who failed, they said that the Germans. What will you take from the Germans? They do what they want. Of course, many of the officers guessed, or maybe they knew, that we were shooting, but such welding and such explanations suited everyone. So we ate venison.

Another reason why it was beneficial to be friends with the Germans is that they went to any pubs, where a separate table was always immediately provided for them, even if the pub was overcrowded. They ordered beer, and the beer there was very good, and after drinking, they left without paying. We didn’t have Czech money, but the Germans may have had it, but they didn’t pay. And why - in front of them the Czechs already bent.

About the German organization of business. Again, our patrols, which stuck out in the center of the city, saw that every morning the local mayor was stretched out waiting for a senior German officer in front of his house. He went to his headquarters in the morning. Sometimes he gave instructions to this mayor, sometimes he led him and someone else to his headquarters. Those. there was a clear vertical of power, and everyone knew what he had to do. First, everything that the Germans need, and then mind your own business. Therefore, in Prague, of course, it was necessary to let the Germans in first. Firstly,

the Czechs would not strongly oppose and provoke them. And if someone had twitched, the Germans would have explained with great pleasure that this was not necessary, it would be worse for themselves.

For a police mission, the Germans are perfect. They know how to occupy and what to do with the occupied. Our army is not ready for this. Fight, yes. Win - yes. And to occupy and bend the occupied is not for us. So if the Germans were the first to be allowed into Prague, this would only strengthen the friendship of the peoples. Everyone would be fine. And the Czechs would be happy to remember now the Germans in Prague and their "European Ordnung".

In November it became very cold in the tents. Soldiers caught cold. A senior German came with his officer, who spoke Russian well,

and, talking with our commander, he said that it was impossible to live in tents. If he wants everyone to live together and be always at hand, he must take a local school. When our commander began to say that where the children would study, the German replied that let the local authorities deal with the problem of teaching local children, this is their business, and he must take care of his soldiers. This is all our signalman, who was present there, told. But our people still continued to live in tents, many were sick.”

At the end of November, Volodya was transferred to the Union and, in speed, was fired into the reserve. He already served for several months, but he understood that the situation was very difficult, he pulled the strap resignedly.

Volodya also told what the "soldier's" radio brought. But I convey only what he saw personally, with his own eyes. But what the "soldier's" radio brought in largely coincided with what he personally saw. The Czechs treat our soldiers badly, there are many provocations, sometimes with grave consequences for our soldiers, with injuries and even death. And the nobility of our soldiers only made them laugh. And the Czechs fear and respect the Germans. Although for the Germans they are second rate.

The German occupation is familiar to them, understandable, etc. And no matter how anyone bent and raped them, the “Russians” are still to blame for everything.

In 1970 I finished school and left to study. I haven't seen Vladimir since then and I don't know where he is. Almost half a century has passed, and much has changed in our lives. If he is alive - good health to him, but if he has already left - rest in peace. Surely you can find other participants in these events. Their memories would help to complete the picture of what was happening then in Czechoslovakia. A film would be good and truthful to shoot about it. Now, after all, few people remember these events.

Viktor Dmitrievich Bychkov

Yesterday Russian tanks, today Russian banks
How Czechs treat Russia 45 years after the entry of troops into Prague

On August 21, 2013, the Czech Republic celebrated the 45th anniversary of the entry of troops from the Warsaw Pact countries to suppress the Prague Spring. The solemn events, which the correspondent of Lenta.ru watched in Prague, were rather modest - most Czechs are not interested in bygone times. Disappears in the Czech society and Russophobia characteristic of him earlier. In addition, President Milos Zeman recently came to power in the Czech Republic, who is more focused on Russia than previous leaders of the country. Czech politicians and journalists now even fear that Zeman may consider Vladimir Putin a role model.

There is no particular excitement around the 45th anniversary of the entry of Soviet troops into Prague in the Czech capital. There are no information posters or, say, "Remember 1968" graffiti. The main official event traditionally took place on August 21 near the building of the Czech Radio. Here, clashes between Soviet soldiers and protesting Czechs then ended in human casualties (in total, about a hundred people died in Czechoslovakia). The current general director of the radio, Peter Dugan, reminded the audience that the suppression of the Prague Spring was a betrayal and occupation of an independent state and turned into the fact that "the moral backbone of society was broken." “You can’t forget this,” Dugan argued.

But, according to the surviving participants in the events of 1968, the Czechs happily forget about the Soviet occupation. The great importance of those events is still attached only to the elderly who survived them, who are becoming less and less. “The events of 1968 are important for my generation, and the perception of young people is similar to my perception of the German occupation [during World War II], which is so important to my parents. My father spent two and a half years in Buchenwald, and, of course, he had a special relationship with the Germans,” Libor Dvorak, a Czech journalist and translator of Russian literature, explains to me.

Petrushka Shustrova, a former dissident who worked as deputy head of the local Interior Ministry in the early 1990s, says sadly that the Prague Spring no longer means anything to the younger generation. “They didn’t see it, and since the Soviet troops left after the Velvet Revolution, then for most of society the topic has been exhausted and over,” she says.

There are really few young people at the largest action dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the introduction of Soviet troops. On Republic Square, plastic chairs were installed under an awning - for the elderly, who make up the majority of the audience. The stage is decorated with 45-year-old slogans: “Organized tank tourists”, “Red brothers, return home”, “Without the USSR for all time”, “Russian circus is back in Prague! Do not feed, do not tease! On the stands nearby - newspaper clippings and photographs of those times; in one picture - road signs broken by the Czechs (so that the tanks would not know where to go), and also a poster "We loved you, but you betrayed us." Speeches by politicians, historians and writers are interspersed with jazz band performances and offers to try free ice cream.

The rally lasts about two hours, but it cannot gather more than 100 people at the same time. People get off the subway, stop for a moment to listen and move on. “These were very bad events that greatly affected my parents then and the modern Czech Republic. My mother had to go to the agricultural institute and wipe after the cows, although she wanted to go to the economic one,” Libor Horak, a 21-year-old student at the Architectural Institute, tells me. The 35-year-old blonde in a pink blouse echoed him, calling the restoration of the regime in Czechoslovakia "a very negative development."

When I am talking to Karel, who is distributing leaflets at the rally, an elderly woman suddenly intervenes in the conversation. “I still remember how my pen fell in 1968, and when I leaned over it, a Kalashnikov rested between my shoulder blades,” she says very emotionally and points her finger at me. - You followed us, and we just wanted freedom. That's why I have a bad relationship with you." The woman turns around and leaves, and 20-year-old Karel, as if nothing had happened, continues: “We don’t have a negative attitude, but all people should remember history - here and in Russia.”

The warmest welcome on the square is the children's choir, which, to loud applause, sings a song with a refrain: “Run home, Ivan. Natasha is waiting for you. And don’t come back… You won’t let Natasha marry Volodya.”

Dubcek is no longer a hero

The attitude towards the leaders of the Communist Party, who allowed liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring, is gradually changing. Surprisingly, in Prague there is still no street or monument to Alexander Dubcek, who was the chairman of the Czechoslovak Communist Party at that time and is considered the creator of the Prague Spring. Now he is perceived as a communist, who at first succumbed to the pressure of society, who wanted freedom, and then easily betrayed his ideals. According to the Czech journalist Dvořák, after the Velvet Revolution "there is more information about what happened 45 years ago, and the role of Dubček and the entire Politburo is a bit strange." Former dissident Shustrova explains that until 1989, for most Czechs, Dubcek was a hero and was very much loved as the first communist leader "with a human face." “Now it is almost forgotten. People feel dislike for communism, and there is no desire to erect a monument to a communist,” Shustrova adds.

On August 21, 2013, the current President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, spoke even harsher about Dubcek, calling him a "traitor." “Dubcek was unable to defend the country, and with his policy of concessions to the occupiers and conciliation, he led the country into moral insanity, which continued until the end of the communist regime,” Zeman is quoted by Radio Prague (Zeman is referring to the trip of Dubcek and other Czech leaders to Moscow, where he agreed to Brezhnev's terms).

Dvořák is confident that the Czechs now treat Dubcek with coolness. “I have always loved him very much, he is a kind and in some sense a courageous person, but when you lose in politics, it is bad for you,” the journalist states. The unequivocal hero for the Czechs is the dissident Vaclav Havel (who came to power after the Velvet Revolution), although, Dvorak admits, it took much less courage to oppose the Soviet regime in 1989 than in 1968. By the way, in Slovakia the attitude towards Dubcek is different, because he was the first Slovak who headed the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. “The Slovaks were still considered second-class people then. And besides Dubcek, Slovaks, by and large, have no one to be proud of, ”admits Libor Dvořák.

According to Shustrova, some Czech politicians now say that in 1968 there was simply "a conflict within the party between progressive and conservative communists." “But, in my opinion, it is more important that the social atmosphere during the Prague Spring changed, people felt that freedom was coming, there was a powerful social movement that rebelled against Russian tanks, which lived from the moment of occupation until the return of our delegation from Moscow,” Shustrova says.

Indeed, from the stage on the Republic Square they say that “during the period of the Prague Spring there was an internal confrontation between conservatives and liberals, and representatives of the Communist Party knew about the upcoming entry of Soviet troops.” “There are recordings of a conversation between Leonid Brezhnev and Dubcek, so Brezhnev says on them that he must enter Prague, to which Dubcek replies: “Do what you think is necessary,” Shustrova says.

Jiri Ruzicka, 84, a veteran of the Prague Spring, declares from the stage that the then communists themselves called the Warsaw Pact troops to Czechoslovakia. “On August 21, 1968, I returned to Prague, saw tanks on the squares and ran to my commander. I asked him if our army knew that there were tanks on Wenceslas Square, and he answered me: these are not enemy tanks, but ours. What else is there to say? - says Ruzicka and adds that, unlike the Nazi occupiers, the communist leaders of Czechoslovakia were never punished.

Ruzicka addresses the youth, saying that now former communists are back in power in the Czech Republic, and one must remember where the communist ideology can lead. Alexander Mitrofanov, a columnist for the newspaper Pravo, who emigrated to Czechoslovakia from the USSR in the late 1970s, tells me that his tweet about the fact that a number of Czech leaders at once, including the president and prime minister of the country, were members of the Communist Party, collected an unprecedented number of retweets.

Putin is a role model

On Wenceslas Square on the evening of August 21, several candles and a handwritten poster “Yesterday Russian tanks, today Russian banks” were installed. The reason for the play on words was given by Sberbank, which last year bought the Austrian Volksbank, which operated in the Czech Republic. Now the Czechs are pleased with the green letters that are well known to Russians. According to the former Minister of Defense and Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Russia Lubos Dobrovsky, now we are not talking about a military threat from Russia, but we need to "beware of the invasion of non-democratic methods into our politics." He also fears that the Russians might "corrupt the Czech government."

Living evidence of the new Russian expansion in the Czech Republic is the huge number of Russian tourists. “It is unpleasant for me to walk along the Old Town Square, because the Czech language is not heard. Yes, the Russians bring money and glorify Prague, but in the same Karlovy Vary on signs, the Russian language comes before the Czech language. Those new Russians who come there are unpleasant, because they are people without taste, and they feel like the masters of the world. The feeling of 1968 is returning, we feel like a colony,” complains former dissident Shustrova.

However, for most Czechs, the irritant is not the Russians, but the Roma and migrants from Moldova and Ukraine, who work here in low-paid jobs. According to the journalist Dvořák, the Czechs, unlike the Poles, do not have a very developed national identity, so there is no xenophobia in society and they are not looking for an “external enemy”. This enemy could well be Russia, since in Soviet times the Czech Republic fell from tenth place in the world to 45th in terms of GDP. “The Czech psychology is that you need to somehow stay afloat and live as best as possible, and that’s all. The national idea ended during the German occupation,” Dvořák is sure.

According to the Czechs, everyday Russophobia, characteristic of them after the suppression of the Prague Spring, has practically disappeared. “After 1989, anti-Russian sentiments were very strong; for example, as a translator from Russian, I can say that from 1990 to 1997 even Russian classics were not published. But now I have a lot of translation work, I translate Sorokin and Pelevin, ”says Dvořák.

According to the memoirs of the emigrant Mitrofanov, after the Velvet Revolution it was “fearful” to speak Russian, but then everyone forgot about Russia. They recalled a few years ago, when among the broad masses “not exactly a mainstream, but quite a strong current appeared: “Let's go back to Russia. America disappointed us, because it’s not that I’m poor, but how Frantisek’s neighbor was richer than me, it remains so, I want to be richer." All they know about Russia is that Putin is there. But they consider his methods to be correct, which is what we need, too,” the journalist says.

In Czech society, according to Shustrova, two points of view on modern Russia have been established. “One is that you have to be careful with Russia, because there are Russian imperial ways and you need to promote themes of Pussy Riot or authoritarianism in Russia. The second is that Russia is the same state as any other with which you need to trade,” says Shustrova.

The supporter of the second idea, according to the former Minister of Defense and Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Russia Dobrovsky, is the current President Milos Zeman. There are many people around Zeman who are guided by Russia, and Zeman's right hand is the director of Lukoil in the Czech Republic. The Russian Rosatom is one of the main contenders for winning the tender for the construction of the Timelin nuclear power plant. “This is a huge business worth 300 billion crowns. If the Russians get it, it will be an important indicator of Zeman's orientation,” says Dobrovsky.

But it's not just that Zeman is counting on economic cooperation with Russia. Mitrofanov calls the president an admirer of Vladimir Putin, whose political ideas he copies. “Zeman sees in Russia huge economic opportunities for us, but does not see the danger that for me and members of my generation is connected with how Putin rules in Russia not quite democratically. Some of our political practices are now associated with practices in Russia that people are protesting against,” says Dobrovsky. For example, Zeman recently refused to make historian Martin Putn a professorship just because he participated in the Prague gay pride parade in 2011.

Zeman won the Czech presidential election in March 2013. Dobrovsky and Mitrofanov are sure that the reason for this was the passivity of the educated and pro-Western part of Czech society. “Our politicians do not have any critical rebuff from citizens who, although they themselves do not go into politics, are citizens responsible for the development of society,” Dobrovsky argues. “One part of Czech society does not need democracy, they want a strong ruler who will deal with the gypsies and the rich,” says Mitrofanov. In his opinion, they are already "ready to lick Russia's ass - just let it come." “You don’t understand a damn thing, for Russia Putin is a gift from heaven. Russia needs it, and it wouldn't hurt us,” he quotes the comments of the Czechs to his articles. The pro-Western part of Czech society is divided, has no leaders and no understanding of what to do next, Mitrofanov believes. In his opinion, Westerners wear rose-colored glasses and did not assume that Zeman could win.

On August 20, the Czech parliament resigned - this was the first self-dissolution in the history of the chamber (associated with a political crisis due to a corruption scandal). Mitrofanov directly says that this is the first step towards the establishment of a "totalitarian regime" in the Czech Republic. He is sure that in two months Zeman's coalition will win the parliamentary elections, he will have the right to change the Constitution, and then the political situation in the Czech Republic will finally turn into a bad copy of what is happening in Russia.