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A good friend of mine left Czecheslovakia in 1968 to study in Switzerland. After Russia "liberated" the country[1] citizens living abroad were ordered back to

A good friend of mine left Czecheslovakia in 1968 to study in Switzerland. After Russia "liberated" the country[1] citizens living abroad were ordered back to the motherland. For him this was a really tough decision, since people who refused were criminalized and he would have faced jail if he returned to the country. He told me that whenever he went from Zurich to Vienna he took the train, which takes 9 - 12 hours compared to the flight, which takes roughly an hour. His reasoning was that if the plane, for whatever reason, is diverted to Bratislava he would be truely and royally fucked. At the time he told me the story I thought he was a bit paranoid. Looking at what happened in Belarus I'm no more so sure. And he was just a potential convict not a prominent disident. Thankfully he could return after the velvet revolution[2] and he now lives in Prague. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czechoslovakia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czecho... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
In this case, though, the flight from Greece to Lithuania went directly over Belarus. If I were Roman Protasevich, I would definitely not want to fly in the airspace of the country that wanted to get me. There is no path from Zurich to Vienna that flies over Czech airspace. Furthermore, during the Cold War an act of a Warsaw Pact country hijacking a Nato country's plane over Nato airspace would have very likely led to something at least as bad as the Cuban Missile Crisis, if not WWIII.
- CaptainZapp 5y ago
  Hijacking the plane was not really a tought. But what happens if Vienna airport needs to close its runways (say it's blocked by a broken plane or an accident) and the plane needs to be diverted? Bratislava is just 55km from Vienna. It's an obvious choice if the plane needs to divert to a different airport. It's not an unreasonable fear.
  - dmix 5y ago
    Reminds me of this story which had a great documentary but extremely sad ending of 7 young people trying to flee communist Georgia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6833 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6833 Here is the documentary by a local Georgian director that stuck in my head for a long time: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818087/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818087/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUkluq8oPvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUkluq8oPvY These were kids of the Georgian intelligentsia, including trained doctors, painters, and an actor, doing something naive and stupid (hijacking a plane to go to the nearest capitalist country). It turned out even the pilots were armed, shot at them, and turned the flight right back to Georgia. The head of local KGB then got Georgian soldiers to shoot up the plane "so it wouldn't leave", killing the pilots "by accident" and injuring innocent passengers. The plane was then raided by Soviet Alpha group (basically their US Delta Force). The communist leader of Georgia at the time wanted to make an example of them and gave death sentences, even despite their ages, except of course the one girl got 15yrs. The parents didn't find out they were executed by the state for five years (nor did the media obviously). The desire to leave the Iron Curtain countries lead to some crazy stories and near suicidal attempts. And these stories were quickly forgotten.
    - Spare_account 5y ago
      >The communist leader of Georgia at the time wanted to make an example of them and gave death sentences, even despite their ages. The parents didn't find out they were executed by the state for five years (nor did the media obviously). These two sentences appear to contradict each other. Why would their executions be low-key if they were to be made examples of?
      - tut-urut-utut 5y ago
        And that’s how you spot a made up story. Plus that Georgia as a country didn’t exist back in the time of this dirty, and its „communist leader“ was just a minor Soviet apparatchik, who couldn’t make such decision on his own.
    - 5y ago
- kspacewalk2 5y ago
  There is no path from Zurich to Vienna that flies over Czech airspace, but Vienna is so close to Bratislava that (if there was a compelling need for it), a more intelligent adversary than the current Belarusian government could devise a plan to divert the plane onto Czechoslovak airspace and force it to land. Probably overly cautious to hedge against that possibility (just like it was not cautious enough on Pratasievich's part to take a flight that takes it over Belarus's airspace without any diversions). But I wouldn't fly out of Vienna if I were a prominent Czechoslovak emigre. A little too geographically close for comfort.
- Dah00n 5y ago
  The plane was in Belarusian airspace so it isn't really comparable to "a Nato country's plane over Nato airspace" but if what happened in and around Cuba didn't start WW3 then a single plane diverted (and maybe a dissident or two kidnapped) would hardly register in the big picture. In fact several planes did get diverted and some even shot down during the Cold War and it rarely caused any further incidents.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Planes can be diverted for other reasons; serious failure of something on board, bomb scare at the destination airport (that is how the worst air disaster ever on Tenerife happened [0]), very bad weather over the destination etc. In that case, Bratislava would be a possible backup airport, especially if the plane did not have much fuel. For regular Western citizens, that would be just a slight annoyance, but anyone who escaped the Soviet Bloc without formally parting ways with their country of origin (that could be done, but not many people did, [1]) would be royally fucked. Several years of prison and eternal pariah status after discharge would follow. (No good jobs for you, traitor, go dig trenches, even if you are a doctor.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconcilee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconcilee
  - CaptainZapp 5y ago
    Thanks for the Reconcilee link. Very interesting. At first I thought why didn't Otakar (my friend, who's heart is really Czech and who went through immense suffering and pain about not being able to go home) apply for that status? After reading the article it's totally clear that that would have never been an option for him.
- nradov 5y ago
  Switzerland and Austria were not NATO members.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
inglor_cz 5y ago
Czechoslovak political emigrants quite often moved far away from the Iron Curtain (e.g. from Munich, Vienna to Britain, Canada, Australia) "just in case". StB (the secret police, a Czechoslovak equivalent of the better-known Stasi) definitely had capabilities to abduct someone, but the longer the way back, the more complicated the task was. They probably would not bother snatching you in Sydney. Vienna was tempting, though.

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago

In this case, though, the flight from Greece to Lithuania went directly over Belarus. If I were Roman Protasevich, I would definitely not want to fly in the airspace of the country that wanted to get me. There is no path from Zurich to Vienna that flies over Czech airspace. Furthermore, during the Cold War an act of a Warsaw Pact country hijacking a Nato country's plane over Nato airspace would have very likely led to something at least as bad as the Cuban Missile Crisis, if not WWIII.

CaptainZapp 5y ago
Hijacking the plane was not really a tought. But what happens if Vienna airport needs to close its runways (say it's blocked by a broken plane or an accident) and the plane needs to be diverted? Bratislava is just 55km from Vienna. It's an obvious choice if the plane needs to divert to a different airport. It's not an unreasonable fear.
- dmix 5y ago
  Reminds me of this story which had a great documentary but extremely sad ending of 7 young people trying to flee communist Georgia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6833 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6833 Here is the documentary by a local Georgian director that stuck in my head for a long time: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818087/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818087/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUkluq8oPvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUkluq8oPvY These were kids of the Georgian intelligentsia, including trained doctors, painters, and an actor, doing something naive and stupid (hijacking a plane to go to the nearest capitalist country). It turned out even the pilots were armed, shot at them, and turned the flight right back to Georgia. The head of local KGB then got Georgian soldiers to shoot up the plane "so it wouldn't leave", killing the pilots "by accident" and injuring innocent passengers. The plane was then raided by Soviet Alpha group (basically their US Delta Force). The communist leader of Georgia at the time wanted to make an example of them and gave death sentences, even despite their ages, except of course the one girl got 15yrs. The parents didn't find out they were executed by the state for five years (nor did the media obviously). The desire to leave the Iron Curtain countries lead to some crazy stories and near suicidal attempts. And these stories were quickly forgotten.
  - Spare_account 5y ago
    >The communist leader of Georgia at the time wanted to make an example of them and gave death sentences, even despite their ages. The parents didn't find out they were executed by the state for five years (nor did the media obviously). These two sentences appear to contradict each other. Why would their executions be low-key if they were to be made examples of?
    - tut-urut-utut 5y ago
      And that’s how you spot a made up story. Plus that Georgia as a country didn’t exist back in the time of this dirty, and its „communist leader“ was just a minor Soviet apparatchik, who couldn’t make such decision on his own.
  - 5y ago
kspacewalk2 5y ago
There is no path from Zurich to Vienna that flies over Czech airspace, but Vienna is so close to Bratislava that (if there was a compelling need for it), a more intelligent adversary than the current Belarusian government could devise a plan to divert the plane onto Czechoslovak airspace and force it to land. Probably overly cautious to hedge against that possibility (just like it was not cautious enough on Pratasievich's part to take a flight that takes it over Belarus's airspace without any diversions). But I wouldn't fly out of Vienna if I were a prominent Czechoslovak emigre. A little too geographically close for comfort.
Dah00n 5y ago
The plane was in Belarusian airspace so it isn't really comparable to "a Nato country's plane over Nato airspace" but if what happened in and around Cuba didn't start WW3 then a single plane diverted (and maybe a dissident or two kidnapped) would hardly register in the big picture. In fact several planes did get diverted and some even shot down during the Cold War and it rarely caused any further incidents.
inglor_cz 5y ago
Planes can be diverted for other reasons; serious failure of something on board, bomb scare at the destination airport (that is how the worst air disaster ever on Tenerife happened [0]), very bad weather over the destination etc. In that case, Bratislava would be a possible backup airport, especially if the plane did not have much fuel. For regular Western citizens, that would be just a slight annoyance, but anyone who escaped the Soviet Bloc without formally parting ways with their country of origin (that could be done, but not many people did, [1]) would be royally fucked. Several years of prison and eternal pariah status after discharge would follow. (No good jobs for you, traitor, go dig trenches, even if you are a doctor.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconcilee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconcilee
- CaptainZapp 5y ago
  Thanks for the Reconcilee link. Very interesting. At first I thought why didn't Otakar (my friend, who's heart is really Czech and who went through immense suffering and pain about not being able to go home) apply for that status? After reading the article it's totally clear that that would have never been an option for him.
nradov 5y ago
Switzerland and Austria were not NATO members.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

inglor_cz 5y ago

Czechoslovak political emigrants quite often moved far away from the Iron Curtain (e.g. from Munich, Vienna to Britain, Canada, Australia) "just in case". StB (the secret police, a Czechoslovak equivalent of the better-known Stasi) definitely had capabilities to abduct someone, but the longer the way back, the more complicated the task was. They probably would not bother snatching you in Sydney. Vienna was tempting, though.