Karel Souček – obránce Podkarpatské Rusi na barikádách Pražského povstání
Karel Souček – A Carpathian Ruthenia Defender on the Prague Uprising Barricades

Summary/Abstract: Several years ago, Radan Lášek published a series of testimonies of the State Defence Guard members about the dramatic autumn of 1938 and spring of 1939. The life destiny of Karel Souček could be included in the notional group of ‘one of the many’ who participated in these interviews but unlike them, the life story of Karel Souček shows continuity in the Czechoslovak resistance during 1939–1945 and mainly the good condition of available sources about his life. Karel Souček was born in 1908. In 1937, he joined the Czechoslovak gendarmerie and was immediately posted to Carpathian Ruthenia. In addition to short departmental service, he became involved in guarding strategic buildings when the securing of borders was declared on 21 May 1938; later, as part of the State Defence Guard, he participated in the most extensive clashes with Hungarian terrorists near Šalanky in October 1938. Subsequently, as a member of the gendarmerie emergency troop, he suppressed the rebellion of Ukrainian nationalists supported by Germany at Khust on 14 March 1939 and retreated to Romania. Starting in May 1939, he continued his service in the Protectorate gendarmerie and began a family; his second child was born at the end of January 1945. As a qualified driver and member of the Box Sporting Club, his superiors addressed him about the seizure of the Czechoslovak Radio building by the resistance movement. It materialised on 5 May 1945 when Karel Souček was in the first line of the special assault team of the Prague police and gendarmerie that occupied Czechoslovak Radio. He commanded the rebels until 15 May 1945. On 31 November 1945, he joined the Czechoslovak Police and continued his service until 7 September 1947 when he was seriously injured while guarding The Golden Helmet of Czechoslovakia motorcycle race. One of the racers, who died at the scene, ran over him with his motorcycle. Karel Souček did not recover from his injuries and died of health complications on 27 November 1953. The life destiny of Karel Souček thus demonstrates the continuous belief about the moral rightness of the service of the First Czech Republic’s security forces under difficult circumstances during the epoch-making years 1939–1945.

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