Ján Boďa

* 1956

  • “On the next day there was a great tumult. We got a notice we were going to attend a great exercise, heading to Libava. But I said to myself, well, you can say what you want, but I have a feeling there is something else going on here. That morning they took our radios, the small transistors, and they forbade us to write home. Well, I guess that´s not going to be just the regular Libava. Of course, I wrote home; and that´s when it got out, that the “Libava” was just a code name and that we were heading to Poland.”

  • “We had heard, the battalion commander announced it, that the commander of the regiment returned to the camp for live documentation. And then we received an order to get on the BVPs. We drove away from that field, lined into the train of vehicles and we headed towards a crossroad where on the left was Hradec Králové and on the right Wroclaw. Sure, the driver and BVP´s commander had their heads out also in moving position. Above the troop it was possible to open the roof; we called it canopy, but it was prohibited to be opened during the ride. Nevertheless, the whole train had its canopy open and everybody looked if we were turning to the left or right. Well, and luckily, we turned left and went back to our garrison.”

  • “But it all lasted until my retirement to the civilian life; I was leaving on August 31. Yet before Christmas it was said that the officers might need to stay in the garrisons. Well, we faced something what we called the enhanced combat readiness. Any kind of leaving passes or days off for Christmas were forbidden, and then it went only in such swells. In any case, I used to go there the most frequently and I also used to enter the service only as an assistant of the supervision unit. And there was such a wardrobe, a safe, that in a case of some kind of given password, it was necessary to open an envelope from there and act accordingly. Only one and only envelope was not in the safe, but hanged on a key. And there was stated in big writing Krkonoše.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Bratislava, 23.10.2015

    (audio)
    délka: 57:41
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Polský rok 1980 a československá reakce na něj
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

We had a feeling we had nothing to do with that. However, a soldier has to listen to orders and he wants to survive

Ján Boďa 2015
Ján Boďa 2015
zdroj: Michal Ďurčo 2015

Ján Boďa, born on November 20, 1956 in Martin, was accepted to Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University in Bratislava in 1975 as a student of Physics. After the successful completion of his studies in 1980, based on a draft card as a university graduate, he had to enroll at the compulsory military service in Benešov. He became the platoon commander and in December 1980 he took part in an action of the Czechoslovak People´s Army marked as „Krkonoše“, which was aimed against Poland. At last, the soldiers retired and also Ján Boďa and returned with his unit back to military quarters. However, he was aware of the tense international situation even in the following year of 1981, as the troops had enhanced combat readiness. He was dismissed from the service into civilian life at the end of August 1981.