Returning to Czechoslovakia in the role of an agent
Less than a year after he had been forced to leave his homeland, Miroslav Procházka together with his friend Cyril Sláma, returned to Czechoslovakia in the role of agents of the exile intelligence service. They were trained in Great Britain how to handle a gun and how to operate a radio set and in Vienna they received instructions for their first mission. In 1951, they set out across the border from Austrian Poysdorf in the direction of Valtice. Each of them was carrying false papers, a radio transceiver and Czech currency. “We had about thirty thousand Crowns. We each also had two guns – one of them was a nine mm caliber and the other one a 7.65 mm.” On the way to the Czechoslovak border they got caught by a big storm. “We had to take shelter in a hay stack and stayed there all night long.” They continued their journey the next evening after it got dark and marched all wet and hungry. They successfully crossed the border and made it to a village called Úvaly. Because they were wet and dirty from the mud on the fields, they had to spruce themselves up somewhere. They took a risk and spoke to a young married couple. They were lucky and got help. “We gave them cigarettes and some money for the kid.” After having left the guarded border zone, they continued their journey on a train. They had to search for a suitable shelter and reach out to local resistance groups.
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Miroslav Procházka
Miroslav Procházka was born on November 28, 1928, in Veverská Bítýška. He spent his childhood at a local farm there. After having completed secondary school, he began working in a store. However, he soon left the store and began to study for a shop attendant at a school in Brno. By the time of the February Coup in 1948, he was in the second grade. Because he was convinced about the unacceptability of communism, he tried to escape to Austria as soon as in March 1948. However, he was arrested nearby Vienna together with two friends and deported back to Czechoslovakia, where he was fortunately saved by an amnesty of President Klement Gottwald. Even after this experience, Miroslav kept dreaming about escaping to freedom. He joined the resistance movement and helped his friend Jaroslav Salajka – an agent of the British intelligence service – to hide a foreign pilot. Their collaboration continued until the arrest of several resistance fighters. Due to the threat of being revealed, Miroslav eventually left Czechoslovakia. After six months of training, however, he returned back home as an agent. Together with a colleague, Jaroslav Sláma, they collected information on the activities of the resistance fighters and proponents of the communist regime. When they returned from their mission back to Austria after seven months, Miroslav decided that he’d no longer take risks and emigrated to Brazil. However, he had a hard time living there, as he was penniless and struggling in a country with a different culture. In 1960, he managed to obtain a Canadian visa. In Canada, Miroslav lived until 1999, when after the death of his wife he finally decided to return home. He presently lives with his second wife in Želešice nearby Brno.
