My 1968
Unbelievable that it happened almost exactly 56 years ago. I remember the night of August 20-21st of 1968 as a six-year-old boy vacationing with my parents in a log cabin in the area of Chata Slovanka (http://www.slovanka.eu/) in Jizerské hory. We were woken up by massive airplane rumbling over hour heads at predawn hours and I heard my parents whispering to each other what the hell is going on. My mom was especially worried. Then later in the morning while walking to breakfast I saw some folks locking up door with suitcases in their hands and running up the hill. "They are running," someone said. I had no idea what the "running" really meant since it was quite obvious they were running.
© Libor Hajsky
When I was older I learned that “running” meant to leave the country and never return similarly as I did many years later. Then in cafeteria at the breakfast inside Chata Slovanka the TV was on showing some war images and at the time I could not comprehend that it was my hometown not too far from the place where we lived at the time. The cafeteria was very noisy unlike any other day, men shouting, women screaming, children crying. Soon I found myself under a pool table trying to comfort some other poor crying boy.
We stayed for another week and then returned by bus to our home in Prague. Sometimes on our way the scenery was very similar to the one on the pictures attached to this post. Whenever our bus was passing a tank column, people were shouting out of the open windows at the Soviet soldiers incomprehensible words. To my relief, our home was still in place and intact. Couple of days later it was a big day for me, I started school. That morning when I was walking to school with my mom I remember passing a water treatment plant with a group of soldiers around the building. I was not too worried, I was told they are “ours” and not the bad ones. Strange times, indeed. It didn’t get much better following days and years. Despite the Soviet soldiers found their place out of the view, their gun barrels were still felt pointing to my head. And that's why I left and “ran” 16 years later.
Not too many color photographs survived from that day of August 21st, 1968. Here are the ones by Libor Hajsky: https://www.rferl.org/a/prague-1968-invasion-photographer/29430254.html
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