“On 21 August I was on duty at Prague’s central station. At approximately 3 am I had a break, sat down, rested and suddenly thought: ‘There is an airplane circling here all the time, what is the matter?’ I went out and saw flying one airplane after another. Somebody said: ‘The Russians flew in. Everything has changed.’ I ran to the other posts and there everyone already knew we had been occupied.”
“There were plenty of people in front of the Czechoslovak Radio building and somebody announced that they were already on their way through Vinohradská street. We wanted to go face them; we thought they wouldn’t go through against us. We went up street with the crowd when suddenly a spy arrived in a motorcycle with a sidecar. The Russian boys had glasses and were dirty with mud. All of the people turned to me: ‘You are a soldier, so explain it to him. Why are they coming here?’ We had a discussion but it was of no use. Then a tank arrived, we went against it but when it suddenly speeded up and I was busy just jumping aside.”
“I remember a musician veteran Josef Laufer arriving in front of the Czechoslovak Radio building, saying: ‘They are heading towards the Central Committee of the Party, let’s go defend it!’ At that time, people believed the Party had reinvented itself and that it was our task to protect it.”
To live for music and for the railway
Pavel Douša was born on March 29th, 1948 in Prague. Since elementary school, he loved music and railways. He completed vocational school, specializing in railways. During his military service he joined the railway corps and witnessed Prague’s occupation by the armies of the Warsaw Pact. He worked in railroad transport until 1993. At present he makes a living as a freelance musician.
