New photo exhibit marks 30 years since Soviet troops left Czechoslovakia

A photo exhibition will open outdoors at Prague's Vítězné náměstí square on Monday to mark the 30th anniversary of the departure of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia, Post Bellum spokesperson Kristýna Bardová has told CTK. Soviet troops remained in Czechoslovakia from the August 21, 1968 invasion until June, 1991.

Photographs on large panels will showcase the last moments before the soldiers' departure from the country, captured by renowned photographers Dana Kyndrová and Jindřich Štreit.

The exhibition has been prepared within Post Bellum's Paměť národa (Memory of the Nation) project. A ceremonial unveiling is scheduled for June 21, which marks 30 years since the final transport of Soviet soldiers from Czechoslovakia.

The exhibition will also be available online, at the Memory of the Nation's Google Art & Culture account.

Bardova said the exhibition will include memories from eyewitnesses.

"You will learn when the last train left Milovice [military grounds northeast of Prague], how many vehicles the Soviet soldiers needed to move away, and how large an area the Soviet military occupied [in the Czech Republic] for more than 20 years," Bardová said.

The soldiers remained in the country from August 1968, when the invasion by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops crushed the Prague Spring communist reform and paved the way to hard-line communist rule.

There were 73,500 Soviet soldiers and 40,000 members of their families and Soviet civilian employees in Czechoslovakia after the fall of communism in the country in 1989.

The last transport of these units from Czechoslovakia left Milovice on June 19, 1991. Two days later, they crossed the eastern Czechoslovak border at the Čierna nad Tisou border crossing.

"Only a single representative of the Soviet military, General Vorobyev, remained behind on Czech territory. On June 24, he attended a large concert celebrating the end of the occupation," Bardová said.