Jiří Kovtan

“When our unit was being formed in Buzuluk, an order came from Moscow that we were to remain alive, and be transported to Magadan. But there were about ten of us – those of us who had not been sentenced for illegal border crossing, but for being more educated, for having graduated from schools. It was this group that was left there. The Soviets were very much afraid of this group. I was charged with Article 103, and sentenced to five years. Others were sentenced according to Article 80, and they got three years. I had to remain there.”

“At that time I was already a corporal. Svoboda pointed at me, and I replied: ´But General, I’m wounded, too.´ He was about to leave, but I told him: ´Give me a car and a driver, I will carry stuff to Dukla and bringing back the wounded.´”

“Our guys were already in Magadan, and we continued to stay there (in Susuman) with a few others because we had gotten higher sentences. And so I wrote a letter to Magadan, to the NKVD leader Drapkin, saying that we were Czechoslovak citizens as well and that we also wanted to join the Czechoslovak army. An order came immediately and we were transferred to Magadan to join the others. The ten of us were so emaciated that we weighted forty-five or fifty kilos, whereas before we had had eighty kilos, just like I have today.”

“One day I found a nugget of gold, that was about two hundred grams. I received a kilo of bread for it, ten grams of vodka, and a ponchik, a kind of pasta. And I didn’t have to work for two days.”