"The Russians have come"
an eyewitness account
TESSA VAN GELDEREN
AUGUST 1967: my first glimpse of the lovely city of Prague on my way to the Tatra mountains. Young people dominate the city centre with their mini skirts and denims. Discussions with students and young workers is about music and films.
Politics is out. Marx and Lenin is compulsory in school and nobody is interested in talking about socialism. But everyone, young and old, is very friendly — except to the Germans. Memories of the war die hard. I speak a little Russian but those in our party who only speak German are not very well received.
One of the main stories in the paper is about a tobacconist who was robbed in her shop. Such a thing occurs so little that it hits the headlines here.
AUGUST 1968: I'm to spend the summer in Prague staying with a Czech friend. Her mother works for the press agency and her stepfather is a top television reporter just back from the olympic games in Mexico.
I am hoping to get some work checking translations. In the meantime I explore the city, often by myself, while my friend works. In the evenings I meet her friends who are at Prague university with her.
There is much discussion about what is going on in Czechoslovakia and Dubcek's spring. Everyone I meet supports the reforms. They say
they are opposed to marxism but on further discussion this seems to be opposition to the sterile teachings forced down their throats in school. No one seems in favour of a return to capitalism.
There is little or no interest in the 'May events' in France. In fact, they seem to know very little about it.
Every evening as we walk the streets groups of people are talking. There is a buzz in the city centre. People seem free, able to openly discuss ideas and opinions for the first time. It is in sharp contrast to last year where no one discussed 'politics'. Now young and old mix on the streets, in the squares and cafes. Prague is alive.
21 AUGUST: my friend and I go to see the mime group, 'the black theatre of Prague'. On our way home we see the familiar groups talking, talking, talking. Many will be up most of the night...
...I am woken up at two o'clock am by the sound of low flying aircraft. "The Russians have come', says my friend's mother.
Her husband is off at the television studio and over the next few days will help transmit illegal broadcasts.
Why didn't we know the Russians were coming? Border movements were thought to be just that. What was happening in Czechoslovakia was not seen as a threat to the
Soviets
Early next morning we are all on the streets. Many are trying to speak to the young Russian soldiers who seem distressed to find themselves an army of occupation in a 'friendly' country. The next day we learn of a soldier who committed suicide when he learnt where he was.
Fraternisation with the troops is stopped.
The days become one long demonstration; one long queue for food, as people panic; one long minute at noon as car horns and factory sirens are sounded and everything else stops.
The streets no longer have groups of animated people; everyone is afraid to speak. Some resistance is organised through the illegal broadcasts, and cars speed through the streets throwing out leaflets. But always there are troops and tanks.
On the day I left, I was waiting near Wenceslas Square when a stranger pointed out the Russian tank that stood there permanently. It was the first tank across the border after the war when the Russians were regarded as the liberators of Czechoslovakia. It was identical with one in the same square that had to come to suppress the Prague Spring
Now the Czechs did not want to speak Russian, they preferred to speak the hated German. I left many friends behind, some of whom later left their homeland o