About a book
55 minutes between life
and death
Original title: 55 minút medzi životom a smrťou
Genre: novel
Slovak edition: Forza music
Foreign editions: Czech (Mladá Fronta - 2017)
CONTENT
In 1983, Robert Hutyra, the two-time champion of the Czechoslovakia in cycling, decided to leave the country with his family. It was not an easy decision, but after refusing to cooperate with the secret police, he felt bullied and, moreover, in a socialist establishment where everything belonged to everyone and no one was responsible for anything, he could not develop his entrepreneurial talent.
He decided to a hot air balloon to travel behind the Iron Curtain. The great adventure took place on the night of September 6th, 1983. When they were intercepted by the border patrol, they were already at a safe altitude and after 55 minutes they disembarked in an Austrian vineyard near the village of Falkenstein.
REVIEWS
“There were several ways to escape from the iron cage, but none were without risk. It was not easy to get a travel clause from the police, and if the whole family applied for it, it was usually unsuccessful. Whoever wanted to leave no matter what, had to cross the border illegally.
A special group of refugees consisted of exceptionally technically proficient individuals. These conquerors of the Iron Curtain include the famous bicycle racer Robert Hutyra with a hot air balloon, Vladimír Beneš with a self-made tank, Ivo Žďárský with a motorized rogal, the helicopter designer František Lacnak and the German aqua scooter inventor Bert Boettgner. All these men and many others were united, in addition to skill and a desire for freedom, by the belief that in the West they would use their extraordinary abilities in a way that they could not at home.”
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EXTRACT
I loaded four propane-butane gas cylinders into the basket.
I calculated that one would ensure the start, the other two
flight and we will land with the last one.
I inflated the balloon with cold air to three quarters. It took me about ten minutes.
Then I started heating the cold air with a burner. Balloon
rapidly rising to the height of a seven-story building. Anchors werestretched to bursting.
All four of us entered the bin once
one meter.
– Let it work out, – whispered my wife. I didn't see her
into the eyes. I cut the mooring lines, and the balloon literally took off with us from
a country that has lost our trust. I had no idea how it will take a long time to land.
It was late evening, September 6, 1983. A day later died
Boris Hagelin, Swedish inventor of encryption machines. Nobel
prize for peace will be awarded to a Polish trade unionist and leader Solidarity Lech Wales.
Twelve days later the islands
Saint Kitts and Nevis gains independence from Great Britain.
We just put everything into getting independence.
from life in socialist Czechoslovakia. I am thirty nine
years old, wife Jana is thirty-six, daughter Janka is fourteen
and son Richard eleven.
It has to work out.
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