EUROPE 2009 - SATURDAY 25 APRIL 44945

I never expected to be spending a Saturday with the Soviet Army, but there you go.

On Saturday, April 25, my friends Roman and Vera Machek picked me up for a day out shooting photos. You would know Roman because he provided me with the tasty goulash recipe in my book and has recently left his computer-programming job to work at a small, startup community newspaper as a photographer.

His assignment for the day was to photograph a group of history buffs who collect Soviet army artifacts. This group, called Pechotnik, or “small infantry” (www.pechotnik.com), was this day staging a re-enactment of the Russian Army occupation of Děčín (pronounced “dyeh-cheen”) castle.

I mentioned in a previous journal that there is an area known as Czech Switzerland, or ÄŒeské Å výcarsko, and it was here our journey took us. See http://czechtourism.com/eng/uk/docs/what-to-see/national-parks/all/ceske-svycarsko. Just like the Franconian Switzerland area in Germany, this national park is a tourist destination where people come to hike, bike, climb and enjoy sports on the waterways. I can tell you it’s gorgeous! We saw rolling hills and rocky outcroppings as we drove, and it was quite different in character from Franconian Switzerland. The most interesting rock formation to me was the protruding columnar basalt, which looked like a bundle of giant black crystals jutting out of the ground.

The city of Děčín’s web site is http://english.mmdecin.cz. On the web site there is a very good video about the town in English. The chateau that is shown in the video is the castle where I spent most of the day with the “Russians”.

In the video it’s revealed that Děčín has an “old town” and a “new town”, which I’ve found to be rather typical in the Czech Republic and Europe in general. Prague has both, and many other cities I’ve visited do as well. I think it may have something to do with the fact that this land is very desirable and has been fought over and occupied by many different invaders throughout the eons. Between the occupiers’ buildups and subsequent rebuilding after they left, it’s no wonder many towns have two or more centers. Another factor for this might be that important towns are often situated on rivers, with two small settlements’ growing up on each side of the river eventually becoming one city.

The video describes the city’s sports centers. Czechs are SO active and are huge sports fans. They really get behind their local teams. In Liberec, where most of my friends live, they had a champion basketball team that has been sold to the town of Brno. Needless to say, many people are really bent out of shape because of that. They’ve taken it quite personally.

If you watch the video, notice the cultural centers. I’ve found that Czechs are very well rounded when it comes to things like balancing a love of sports with an enthusiasm for art and music. Maybe I just choose well-rounded friends, but I noticed this in my student population when I taught English there as well.

Děčín lies on the conjunction of the rivers Elbe, Ploučnice and Jílové. People have lived in this area since pre-historic times. The town itself dates from the turn of the 8th Century. The castle dates from the 10th Century and began as a fortress on the cliff above the rivers’ confluence. It was used to secure water routes and also to collect tax on the salt that was shipped upriver.

In 2002 there was a huge flood in the Czech Republic. I remember seeing high-water demarcations in Prague when I was there. In fact, I heard that the Czechs ended up going to Holland to consult with their flood-prevention experts in order to avoid future flood damage. They constructed a series of portable aluminum dams that can now be positioned along the river.

Děčín also got hit with this flood. There are high-water marks carved into the sandstone castle cliff; the 2002 mark stands out not only because it’s the second-highest, but also because it’s relatively freshly carved and is a lighter color than the rest.

Beginning in 1932 the castle was used to quarter soldiers, first by the Czechoslovakian army, then the German army, and lastly the Soviet army from 1968 to 1991. It should go without saying that much damage was done to the castle by the armies; I daresay that the Soviets are blamed for most of it. It was their occupation that this little demonstration re-enacted this day.

We parked the car and walked up the long, high-walled driveway leading to the castle grounds. This driveway is called the “Long Ride” in Czech; apparently it’s a unique feature among castles. My observation would be that anyone trying to sneak up on the castle would have a hard time going unnoticed. I felt like a fish in a barrel walking up there.



We arrived about 8:30 a.m. and the morning sun was still casting long shadows. I took pictures of several details of the walls along the Long Drive because the light so emphasized the textures of the stucco and fixtures.

We continued up the drive and through the archway, past the Rose Garden entrance and the information office door opposite. We crunched our way across the small gravel parking lot (for buses only) where two “Russian soldiers” were reinforcing the entrance with sandbags. From the ease with which they did this and the brittle sound I heard, I determined that these sandbags were filled with straw!



We then crossed the footbridge over the erstwhile moat to the castle grounds. Because I travel in such elite company, Roman got us all in for free with his press credentials. You’re jealous.

We entered the long, wide courtyard on one end. The ends and right side of the castle have been restored and are beautiful. The left side was still under construction and I could see the horrible state of disrepair. It’s impressive that the restoration was done so well and I’m gratified to know that resources are being funneled into this project. The crumbling walls made for great detail photos, though, as well as a wonderful backdrop to the “army occupation.”

If you remember, I encountered this same mid-project reconstruction at Valdstejn in my last journal. Keep in mind that this country has been free of Soviet occupation for only about 20 years and they are still putting things back together. Think about all the things they have had to deal with in the past two decades, like switching overnight from a communist to capitalist economy, and it’s amazing they’ve gotten this far with reconstruction projects such as these.

We continued past a huge tree in the middle of the courtyard. Beyond that was a group of about a dozen men, all in Soviet Army uniforms, pitching camp. We arrived as they were fastening the ropes to the stakes on the second tent. Roman went to find their fearless leader and I was off and running, taking photos of the activities and the equipment and artifacts that had been laid out on blankets beyond the tents. There were uniforms, boots, warm- and cold-weather gear, including heavy wool coats and furry hats.



When I lived in Germany in the late 1980’s I took a tour to what was then East Berlin. I remember passing very close to Russian soldiers there and being impressed by their uniforms and insignia. I was even a little scared, having been subjected to all the propaganda growing up in America about how evil the “Reds” were. Now, after a more than a few years of living and traveling, and after huge political shifts, I’m not so easily intimidated. I realize now that those soldiers were probably younger than me at the time and probably just as led by their propaganda. I wonder what they are all doing now.

At any rate, I saw those selfsame uniforms here on a blanket under the tree on a beautiful spring day looking a little shabbier and much less respected. In addition, there was a field radio, guns, bayonets, yards and yards of bullets, a couple of hand grenades, camp gear, just anything you could think of. I wondered how they came by all of that.

I have been told more than once that, during Soviet occupation, the Czech people would freely take anything from the military or their place of employment. Since their resentment was so high and they couldn’t get fired under Communism, there are barns and attics still loaded with not only military stuff but also things from factories and offices and farms that were smuggled out. When you find a Czech antique store, you can be fairly sure the items are authentic and that they probably just came out of Uncle Jiří’s attic.

There are stories that Czech soldiers, forced to be in the army and paid far too little (if anything), would trade their army gear, including and especially guns and ammunition, for cigarettes and booze. Then, when they were in a situation where they needed these things, would have to surrender because they had no guns. I don’t really think they minded all that much really.

Anyway, as an American whose culture has provided her with pervasive gun-control arguments, pro and con, I felt kind of uncomfortable that parents were encouraging their children to handle the guns, ammo and hand grenades. And, yes, you could reach down and pick up any one of these items on display. I DID learn that the hand grenades had been defused!



This is a good point about why I like to travel: I learned something about myself. I didn’t know I would feel that ill at ease seeing those kids playing with guns. I like to pride myself with being a “live and let live” sort, but I discovered I had some strong feelings there. This situation gave me an opportunity to work on myself. I’ve grown because of it. As a result, I’m more at ease in the world. Travel rules!

The “Russians” who were, after all, Czech, continued to pitch camp and then to cook lunch, which was a pot of stew. They unpacked the groceries from plastic bags and began to chop vegetables and slice sausage. It looked very anachronistic for them to be using modern packaging in that environment. When I commented on it, they led me over to a wooden crate and unpacked the “authentic” items: bottles and cans of provisions with labels from the war era in Russian.



My “impressed factor” deflated somewhat when I learned that they had obtained the food items from a company that specializes in producing replica canned goods. Now, how big a market do you suppose there is for such products?

At one point, two men were left tending the stew pot and I caught a moment on film where the older one was giving the younger one a taste of bread that he’d dipped in the stew. They were unaware that I’d photographed them. It was on film, so you’ll have to see that image later when I post my black-and-whites to my web site. Later, the “soldiers” gave us a mess cup of the stew for our lunch. It was really salty and I didn’t like it so much, but Roman seemed to enjoy it a lot.



There was nothing to do after the camp was established and the stew was on the fire, so Vera and I visited the castle’s beautiful Rose Garden. Roman and Vera bought me a book about Děčín (they never let me pay for anything) and a couple of postcards at the table nearby. It’s from this book that I’m getting a lot of the information about the history for this journal.

Then, Vera and I explored the Rose Garden. It was well manicured, of course, and not quite in bloom yet, but the order and the recently restored and cleaned sculptures were pleasant. The gloriette (I learn new words traveling, too), which is an architectural term describing an elevated structure in a garden, was adorned with sculptures of seven goddesses. Under the gloriette you can see the entire city spread out below you.



Vera is a very lovely, graceful and very quiet woman. I’d met her before and she hadn’t said much at all to me at the time. This time began the same way. I have learned that, many times, Czechs are quiet with me because they are self-conscious about their English. If people only knew how bad my few words of Czech are, they wouldn’t worry at all, so I tried to speak what little Czech I knew to her. I also spoke in English because hearing a foreign language allows your mind to gear toward it if you know any of it at all. I’m happy to report that by the end of the day we were, if not chatting it up, at least much more comfortable with each other.

After the rose garden, we visited a photography exhibit that was set up in part of the castle. It was called inter arma silent musea, which is a Latin term meaning, “during war the muses are silent,” or that war squelches art. The exhibit was a huge series of photographs depicting the occupations of the castle by various armies and showing the awful state the castle was in before restoration.

The castle also houses historical exhibits but we didn’t visit those because it was time for the “1968 demonstration”. At the castle gate, one of the men had put a jacket on over his Russian uniform. He was the “dissident.” The others “guarded” the gate. A speech was made, which I didn’t understand, of course, and during which one of the sentry’s mobile phone rang! Man, was he embarrassed!



After the speech, the “dissident” ran up with a homemade sign and yelled, “Běž domů, Ivane!” which translates as, “Ivan go home!” in Czech. I was informed that this was a popular slogan in 1968 when the Russians began the occupation that lasted until 1989 when the Communist regime collapsed. The “dissident” was then apprehended and summarily dragged off, ostensibly to be confined. But he appeared a few minutes later sans his jacket and laughing with his “captors.”



Shortly after this demonstration, after I’d gotten the web site and email information from the Commandant so I could send them some photos, we departed beautiful Děčín on our way to Roman’s next assignment.

The place was so beautiful, though, that I want to return soon. There was so much about the place that I didn’t see this time, but it was a fantastic experience spending the day with my new “Russian” friends. In light of the attitude I’ve seen among Czechs regarding Russians (not very tolerant, I might say), I was impressed that the group seemed to do justice to the spirit of the Russian army camp overall.

Before I end this journal, I want to share my favorite photo from the day. I call it, “Pickles”:


My friend Kurt Lee's moral of this story:
Looking at history, how much we can learn about people…and ourselves.

Stay tuned for a Neo-Nazi adventure next time!

Posted by Hodie J