Jiří Georg Čupr

"Two weeks later, when it was all over [the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops], I took the ambulance to Novotny's garage. It was pretty shot up. They would shoot at us. There were Russian checkpoints on the routes to Prague. We would turn on the blue lights and drive through. They didn't like it a few times and opened fire at us, but they only hit the rear. We had the rear of the ambulance all stuffed with newspapers, bales of newspapers - and that's like armor, like a panoply. I never got hurt, but there were holes."

"I interpreted quite a lot for SEPO. That's the counterpart of the StB, the Säkerhetspolisen - the Security Police. They don't wear uniforms; they're undercover... I interpreted for them quite often when it came to some 'special cases' like this Russian KGB major. I was an interpreter in a refugee camp. I was employed by the Red Cross and also by the army on the side. I met a man there - a Russian refugee seeking asylum in Sweden. I had a little office there. He came to my office and wanted me to give him some advice and explain something. We spoke Russian. I started asking him some questions. I asked where he was from. He said he was in Kishinev - that's all the way down south - and studied in Leningrad. It was still Leningrad back then. I asked him what he studied and where. He said he studied law at Lomonosov University. I said, 'You're the KGB.' He was puzzled and said, 'What? How do you know?' I said, 'We know that they teach KGB officers at Lomonosov University's law faculty.' Then I said, 'Look, you have two options: either you deny it. I'll tell my seniors and call SEPO, they'll find out who you are, and then they'll kick you out of the country and send you back to Kishinev. Or you own up to it and turn yourself in. You will admit it to me and tell me to pass it on. I'll report it, and you'll undergo a full interrogation and tell me everything.' He chose the latter option. I don't know what came next because they sent him to a higher authority afterwards. I know he was interrogated by my Russian teacher."