Prague, June 22 (CTK) – An exhibition of black-and-white photographs by Dana Kyndrova, opened in Prague’s Leica Gallery yesterday, marks 25 years since the last Soviet troops’ departure from Czechoslovakia and documents the decline of the Soviet empire, Kyndrova said at the opening ceremony yesterday.
Her series of photographs documenting the troops’ departure in 1990 and 1991 is complemented by photos showing the same places 25 years later.
Kyndrova said she faced no problems when photographing the end of the more than 20-year stay of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia.
“The ordinary soldiers were indifferent to it and I always reached agreement with the commanders. I speak Russian, I was 25 years younger then and as a woman I gained access to some places that probably would be inaccessible otherwise,” she told CTK.
In her photographs, she focused on depicting the atmosphere in Soviet barracks, including the miserable position and apathy of ordinary soldiers amid the fading coulisses of the Communist propaganda.
Their situation aroused compassion with these simple people who often were mere puppets in big political games, Kyndrova said.
Not all Czech residents of Milovice, the central Bohemian town where the Soviet command headquarters were located, felt hatred for the Soviet soldiers, she said.
The Soviet troops, together with soldiers from other Warsaw Pact armies, invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968 to prevent its deflection from the Moscow-promoted communist line.
According to the data released by a parliamentary commission in charge of the troops’ departure, there were about 75,000 Soviet soldiers in Czechoslovakia, and their number together with their family members and with civilian employees living in the country crossed 113,000.
The last Soviet soldier to symbolically leave Czechoslovakia on June 27, 1991 was Eduard Vorobyev, commander of the Central group corps.
rtj/dr/pv
