Colonel (ret.) Mgr. Milan Michalica

* 1937

  • "Officers of the military counterintelligence from the political department came to visit me. I asked them why and they said they needed me to comment on certain issues. They said that they were surprised that I had made seven applications to study and that I kept getting rejected. I said I hoped they were just talking to me and not following me. I talked to my wife about the situation, telling her that I had no choice but to work with them because I needed to get her on dialysis. That's when she said to me, 'I believe that you won't say anything bad about anyone, because that's just the way you are.' So a few discussions started with these authorities, I signed some papers, and in those discussions I learned that I was followed back in Martin, but not anymore. I spoke to them several times, they asked various things and I said, 'I hope you don't expect me to tell you anything.' My wife got on dialysis, hopefully it wasn't just because of this activity, but I would have done it again if needed. No doubts. I know there was a report, and there were five lines in there that basically said there was some issue - but there was no reaction."

  • "I entered a military grammar school. Unfortunately, 1968 was approaching, my family was in Slovakia, and I was in Opava. On the night of 21 August, I was sleeping in the infirmary because I didn't have a flat, and I heard about the occupation of Czechoslovakia. That night I started to make posters to praise Dubček. Soon in the morning they were the first posters that appeared all over the city. I nailed them to the outside of the military institution. Polish and Russian tanks drove past me. Actually, I couldn't do anything at that time because I didn't have any weapon, I only had a pointer and chalk as a teacher. The commander of the military school was Colonel Černý, who also opposed the entry of troops and at the same time attended a renowned congress of the Communist Party. After the occupation, the school was declared opportunist, followed by the arrival of special officers of the political department. They started checking everyone and the result was that I was getting ready to be dismissed."

  • "I commanded a unit that was to participate at the military parade in Prague. Suddenly I noticed that a large number of officers, even those I knew were in military counterintelligence, started to gather around the unit. One of those counterintelligence officers came to me and said, 'You can't let these men out of the parade practice area,' and he gave me a list of about twelve people. I argued with him and told him that I was responsible for the unit getting ready for the parade, we were sleeping in tents and we were cold – and I had no time to follow his orders. They stopped talking to me. Then a boy came up to me and said he needed to go out because his mother was sick. I didn't check any list and let him go. Later I found out from one of the officers that he had some connection with the American Embassy. So they started following him. And they also started suspecting me of having some connection with American espionage. But I was loyal to the military a, I didn't do any spying for the United States."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Liberec, 25.01.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:53:49
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I nailed anti-occupation flyers to a military building

Milan Michalica in 2022
Milan Michalica in 2022
zdroj: Post Bellum

Milan Michalica se narodil 21. května 1937 v Praze. Jeho otec František Michalica byl legionář a pozdější brigádní generál, který musel pro neshody s ministrem obranyMilan Michalica was born on 21 May 1937 in Prague. His father, František Michalica, was a legionary and later a brigadier general who had to leave the Czechoslovak army in the 1950s due to disagreements with the Minister of Defence, Alexej Čepička. After finishing primary school, Milan entered the secondary industrial school in Brno. After that he studied at the air defence school in Košice where he learned to operate all anti-aircraft weapons and gunnery radars. Subsequently, he was sent to the military school in Turčanský Svatý Martin, where he became the commander of a unit focused on radio detection. During this time, the military counterintelligence started suspecting him of spying for the United States. He was no longer allowed to be promoted and was preparing to be dismissed from the army. However, this did not happen and he remained in the army ranks. In 1967, due to his wife‘s poor health, he requested a transfer to the military grammar school in Opava, where he began teaching science. In Opava, he heard the news of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. At night he began to produce anti-occupation flyers, which he nailed to the walls of the military grammar school. He was dismissed from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and threatened to be dismissed from his job. He was also dealing with personal difficulties at that time, as the health of his wife was seriously deteriorating. In order to get his beloved wife on dialysis and save her life, he agreed to cooperate with the military counterintelligence. However, according to his own words, there was no real cooperation from his side. His wife was eventually admitted for dialysis, but she didn‘t live to see the fall of the communist regime and died in the autumn of 1989. After the Velvet Revolution, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and subsequently became the head of the Opava grammar school. Later he began teaching at a grammar school in Prague. He became the oldest volleyball coach at the age of almost seventy. At the time of filming (2022) he lived in Rychnov near Jablonec nad Nisou and devoted himself to his hobby - painting with watercolours. Alexejem Čepičkou odejít v 50. letech z československé armády. Po vychození základní školy nastoupil pamětník na střední průmyslovou školu do Brna a po jejím absolvování se rozhodl pokračovat ve studiu na učilišti protivzdušné obrany v Košicích. Zde se naučil ovládat všechny protiletadlové zbraně i střelecké radiolokátory. Následně jej čekalo odvelení na vojenské učiliště do Turčanského Svatého Martina, kde se stal velitelem jednotky zaměřené na radiolokaci. V této době se dostal do hledáčku vojenské kontrarozvědky, která jej podezřívala, že provádí špionáže ve prospěch Spojených států amerických. Pamětník nesměl být nadále povyšován a připravoval se na propuštění z armády. K tomu ale nakonec nedošlo a on setrval v armádních řadách. V roce 1967 požádal z důvodu špatného zdravotního stavu manželky o převelení do vojenského gymnázia v Opavě, kde začal učit přírodovědné předměty. V Opavě jej také zastihla zpráva o obsazování Československa vojsky Varšavské smlouvy. Ještě v noci začal vyrábět plakáty proti okupaci, které přibíjel na plochu vojenského gymnázia. Následovalo propuštění z Komunistické strany Československa a nová hrozba propuštění ze zaměstnání. K těmto problémům se navíc přidaly i rodinné potíže, protože se vážně zhoršoval zdravotní stav pamětníkovy manželky. Aby svoji milovanou ženu dostal na dialýzu a zachránil jí život, podepsal Milan Michalica závazek s vojenskou kontrarozvědkou. Dle vlastních slov však byla jeho spolupráce s bezpečnostními orgány nulová. Manželku na dialýzu nakonec přijali, avšak pádu komunistického režimu se již nedočkala a na podzim 1989 zemřela. Po sametové revoluci čekalo pamětníka povýšení do hodnosti plukovníka a následně se stal náčelníkem opavského gymnázia. Později začal učit na gymnáziu v Praze a ve volném čase se stal skoro v sedmdesáti letech nejstarším trenérem volejbalu. V době natáčení (2022) žil v Rychnově u Jablonce nad Nisou a věnoval se své zálibě – malování akvarelem.