Prague, May 9, 1945

In the early days of May 1945 the War was about to end. Lyonya, Sasha’s father, command sergeant major of the Special Communication Battalion, was still fighting in Berlin, but a bitter-sweet feeling of victory was being felt everywhere.

As it often happened, real life is complicated and unpredictable. A new order was issued and the Special Communication Battalion turned to Prague as part of the so-called Prague Offensive – one of the last major Soviet military operations of WWII in Europe.

After several days of advances, attacks and forward progress, Lyonya’s battalion was already in Central Prague. It was May 9, 1945. The Nazis were gone and the people of Prague were cheering the liberators.

At the end of the same day, Lyonya got his quartering order. It was an apartment in the upscale part of the city, and when Lyonya came to the door he heard music playing inside.

The door was opened by the maid and behind her, in a large foyer, stood a big middle-aged man dressed in a tuxedo. Now, with the door opened, in addition to the music, the foyer was filled with the noise of a cheerful party.

Lyonya handed over his quartering order, and the host, speaking Russian in a low rough voice with a surprisingly mild accent, invited him into the hall. There were about a dozen men and women in the room, all formally dressed.

“Attention, friends!” said the host, “We have another dear guest tonight. He came directly from the front, as you see, and we will delay our dinner a little, as we wait for our guest to take a bath and get changed.”

“This way, please,” he said to Lyonya.

“Thank you,” said Lyonya. “But I’m afraid I have nothing to change into.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll find something in my dresser.” At that time he skeptically looked at Lyonya, recognizing that his own size was much larger. “OK, take a bath, and we will figure something out.”

Time spent in the hot tub was a luxury, well deserved after many hard days of fighting, all the way from Berlin to Prague.

The host knocked on the door. “Starshina,” he addressed Lyonya by his Soviet Army’s rank. “I did not have anything close to your size, except pajamas. So, we decided that you, me, and my wife’s brother – we will all wearing pajamas tonight,” he said in a commander’s tone, interrupting Lyonya’s objections, “Nothing is usual tonight. Prague is free, the War is over, and we are all alive!”

He was already in pajamas, but had black tuxedo shoes on.

He gave Lyonya a pack of clothes, “Leave you uniform, the maid will take care of everything. Change, we are waiting for you in the next room.”

When the three of them came to the dinner table in pressed pajamas over the white shirts and ties, there was a wide-eyed moment of silence followed by approving applause and laughter. That when the real party began.

Andrey, the host of the house, was an officer in the Russian Tsar’s Army, when in 1915 he got hit by a German poison gas attack and barely survived. Nikolai, a military doctor, saved his life, but not his voice – that why Andrey’s voice was so rough. Andrey and Nikolai became very close friends, and, soon, brothers-in-law – Nikolai fell in love with Andrey’s sister, Elisabeth. The Russian Revolution separated them: Nikolai and Elisabeth stayed in Russia, while Andrey left for Prague.

Andrey became a lawyer, got married, and his daughter, Verushka, was born on May, 9. That night in Prague the guests gathered to celebrate her thirteenth birthday. Each guest wrote into Verushka’s journal some kind words and wishes. She asked Lyonya to write something in her journal as well, so he wrote some verses about a happy childhood in a peaceful world, verses that he composed on the fly.

Lyonya stayed a couple of nights with that wonderful family in Prague, but new orders were issued and new tasks required his attention. One of his assignments was to inspect high frequency communication lines.

In one of his letters, Lyonya wrote to us:

“After May 9 formally everything was about the same, but Victory, spring and youth made all the difference. For that task [lines inspections] I had an absolutely unique pass “Для прохода всюду” (To go everywhere), which was a wonder by itself. Add to that pass unlimited gasoline and seized German passenger cars – the result was an unbelievable chance to combine business with pleasure, while touring the picturesque regions of South Austria, Germany and western Czechoslovakia – more than a two thousands mile road trip.”

On that point this story should end, but, as we said before, real life is more complicated and unpredictable than that.

Fifteen years later, the Soviet government assembled a Train of Friendship to mark the 15th anniversary of Victory Day. A group of veterans, who, like Lyonya, participated in both battles to capture Berlin and to liberate Prague, got a chance to visit the places in which they fought during 1945.

When in Prague, Lyonya found Verushka, now a young engineer-chemist and mother. She kept the journal with Lyonya’s verses in it, and the memories about that day’s pajama party. Then a whole new story started that would include Verushka’s aunt and uncle, Elisabeth and Nikolai, Lyonya’s grandson, Mark, and the friendship that continued for the next forty-five years.

But that will be another story.