Jiří Blata

* 1948

  • “I almost felt sorry for the boys, as I saw the gear they had been using while doing some quite demanding mountain climbing, even in six or maybe seven thousand meters, the gear and clothing they managed to get by with. I didn´t want to stand out, as that could be a problem, if someone would note me being a foreigner, so I used to dress in a way they did while in the country. But I would keep my boots. As I tried the boots their were using on maybe on two occasions, they would break just after a week. So on these expedition, the most commonly used instrument was the bodkin, being the essential tool of every mountain climber. They had all these strings and wires all over their pockets and every evening they would do the shoemaker´s work, as their boots were just falling apart as they walked and they couldn´t get better ones. They used to wear boot similar to our Pioneer brand ones, but they were of much lesser quality.”

  • “I recall these situations, like when we were sitting in the taiga, eating. And I would dig a spoon into some food in my mess tin, and before I could reach my mouth, the spoon was covered with mosquitoes, it just turned black. So I would blow them off, maybe half of them, but I would eat it anyway as I didn´t want to go hungry. We used to wear mosquito net hats. As while walking in taiga you would step into vegetations on the marshes and this cloud of mosquitoes would rise so you couldn´t see the man walking in front of you. And you had to bear that for twenty four hours a day. And it would take a heavy toll on the mental stability of some people. Such thing can even drive you insane. Also, walking through the taiga, you would sometimes come across a dead reindeer, and while trying to find out what happened to it you would see its nostrils clogged with mosquitoes.”

  • “It was just unbelievable that areas as large as the whole Czech Republic were just charted on like a little piece of paper. For example, there would be just Yenisei and Ob rivers with several tributaries and the largest mountain ridges. Anything else we charted on our way. Nowadays, it´s quite a different story, as now, they do have satellite photos, from Sputnik and such, but back then, the system was that the geologists would be improving the maps with data they would gather while traversing the vast territories, charting every stream, every ridge, every plain or iceberg high up in the mountains, they would chart it all and send it to the central institute in Moscow. There, the cartographers would just add it to the old map they already had. And as the next group would set out they would have this more detailed map and continue with charting the details. That´s how maps were made.”

  • “They (The Russians) camped on a high ground overlooking our barracks, so they could see right into our quarters. They were controlling the situation with all those tanks and guns stationed above. And all the guns were pointing right at our windows. So I can recall several situations which were quite interesting. As a recon unit we had a jammer so our radio operators were jamming their communication. And they would find out, of course, so their commander showed up. And he would enter our barracks by driving a tank through a closed gate, stopping at the courtyard and turning its gun in all directions. Then he would get off and begin to yell that we should bring the men operating the radio station, who were jamming their signal. Or there was this ammo depot which they were patrolling. However, at the right moment, we managed to get inside and fill a truck with ammunition. We didn´t know how it´s gonna be, whether that was the end of it, or there would be a confrontation. In the end, we had to hand over our weapons and thing went their own way. So we went through quite many situations like that. And sometimes, we were only few steps away from a bloodshed, as in the first days neither us nor them knew how the situation would evolve.”

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    v Ostravě, 10.12.2018

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I found freedom in the wilderness

Jiří Blata / around 1975
Jiří Blata / around 1975
photo: archiv pamětníka / Petra Sasínová

Jiří Blata was born on May 20th 1948 in Opava. He enjoyed sports since childhood. He did skiing, competed in orienteering, was a mountain climber and a paddler. He graduated from gymnasium and also studied long-distance at the college of education. In 1967, as part of his compulsory military service, he joined the special reconnaissance unit based in Rakovník. In August 1968, he witnessed the barracks being taken over by the Soviet troops under dramatic circumstances. For twenty five years, he was the director of the district tourist and natural sciences club in Opava. He was also a coach of a youth orienteering club. He participated on twenty expeditions to Siberia and to the Far East with mountain climbers and geologists from the former USSR. For about fifty years, he had been visiting Africa, looking for tribal societies who were able to preserve traditions of their ancestors. He built a vast collection of African art and ritual objects. He had been lecturing on his expeditions regularly and had been organising photo exhibitions. After the collapse of the communist regime, he had been working as a representative of Czech companies exporting machinery and machine parts for the textile factories in the former USSR. He strives to establish an independent African art museum in Opava.