Honza Štangl in his childhood

Alexandra Šmiřáková, Krnov, July 2024

Alexandra Šmiřáková, Krnov, July 2024

Alexandra Šmiřáková, latter 1940s

Mother Anna Lusková's and father Matěj Píka's wedding photo, Opava, 1928

Family photo from 1963. Top, left to right: brothers Bohumír, Karel and Jan. Bottom, left to right: sisters Alexandra, Marie, father Matěj, mother Anna and sister Milada

Alexandra Šmiřáková's uncle Heliodor Píka with his wife Marie Píková, née Sehnalová, and son Milan Píka in Paris, 4 March 1927

In the kindergarten yard in Pitárné, Osoblaha region. Alexandra Šmiřáková is top left

Alexandra Šmiřáková with children during a carnival in kindergarten in Krnov

Alexandra Šmiřáková's husband Ludvík Šmiřák

Ludvík Šmiřák and Alexandra Šmiřáková's wedding in Krnov, 28 October 1954

Candidates of the People's Party in the municipal elections in Krnov in 1994. Brother Jan Píka is in the middle row, second from right; Alexandra Šmiřáková is in the bottom row, fourth from right.

Heliodor Píka at left, unknown where and with whom

General Heliodor Píka

Heliodor Píka (right) in conversation with then General Staff Captain Vilém Sacher, Head of Staff of the 2nd Czechoslovak Independent Paratroop Brigade in the USSR. The photo dates back to the first half of 1944, probably 26 April 1944 when the brigade received its battle standard. Zdenko Maršálek, Institute for Contemporary History of the CAS

Soviet General Dmitry Danilovich Lelyushenko is centre. The latest possible date of the photograph is February 1948 when Lelyushenko visited Prague for the founding congress of the Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship Union. Lelyushenko commanded until August 1947 the Soviet 4th Guards Mechanized Army located first in Hungary and in East Germany from May 1946, and from August 1947 he was the commander of the tank forces of the Group of Soviet Occupation Troops in Germany. Píka is a division general in the photo, so it must have been taken sometime between October 1945 and February 1948. In my opinion, the most likely date is May 1946 when Lelyushenko's army was moving from Hungary to East Germany (Soviet occupation zone) via Czechoslovakia. The man on the left is wearing a diplomatic service uniform, which would correspond to May 1946 and the working meeting of the commander of the moving Soviet troops with the Vice-Chief of the Czechoslovak Main Staff Heliodor Pika on the right. The man in the diplomatic service uniform may be a Soviet embassy guard, wearing a formal suit unlike Lelyushenko. Lelyushenko is obviously wearing a service uniform with only ribbons and no foreign decorations; he would probably not wear this on an official visit. Author of the caption: Jiří Fidler, Institute of History of the Czech Armed Forces

An official event between June and August 1945, as Heliodor Píka's rank is that of a Brigadier General. I cannot identify other generals in the background. Jiří Fidler, Institute of History, Armed Forces of the Czech Republic

Heliodor Píka (right) is already in the division general rank, dating the photo back to early October 1945. Another possible clarification is the Yugoslav Order of the Partisan Star on the right side of his chest. Broz-Tito decorated Minister Svoboda and a group of Czechoslovak generals personally during his visit to Prague in April 1946. However, Píka may have received the decoration earlier. This dates the photograph to the period from October 1945 to April 1946. In addition to Píka, the photograph shows an as-yet unknown Romanian division general, a likely unidentifiable Soviet colonel, and the shoulder of a Romanian brigadier general. Judging by the plates, cutlery and food scraps (likely roast pork with dumplings and cabbage) I guess the lunch took place in our country. The Romanian division general is wearing the Soviet Suvorov Order (probably 2nd class) and the 1939 Czechoslovak War Cross. This makes him most certainly the commander of the Romanian division or corps that was deployed to liberate Czechoslovakia in 1945. Only such top commanders received Soviet orders of this level. Jiří Fidler, Institute of History, Armed Forces of the Czech Republic

Left to right: secretary of the Supreme Soviet Alexander Gorkin, Ludvík Svoboda, Mikhail I. Kalinin, Heliodor Pika. Pika and Svoboda are still in the colonel rank. The photo was taken in April 1943 when Svoboda was awarded the Lenin Order in Moscow for combat action at Sokolovo. Zdenko Maršálek, Institute for Contemporary History of the CAS

Heliodor Píka (far right), Alexandra Šmiřáková's aunt Otýlie (second from right), Marie Píková (third from right)

Alexandra Šmiřáková's native house in Suché Lazce, Opava region. Witness's own watercolour

Heliodor Píka's native hosue in Štítina, Opava region. Witness's own watercolour

J. J. Neduha as a Worker of The State Enterprise Vojenské stavby

Jaroslav Jeroným Neduha at Military Service in 1965

Folk-rock Extempore in Malostranská beseda