„We fought for it to be the Czechoslovak Republic, and they conceived the Soviet land to expand, so they took what they needed. And we stayed here.”
Štěpán Antonij was born and spent his youth in Subcarpathian Ruthenia. After the occupation of Subcarpathian Ruthenia by Hungary, Štěpán Antonij decided to leave the country and crossed the border to the Soviet Union, where, however, he was accused of espionage and sent to the Gulag. He spent three years in inhuman conditions constructing a railway from Kotlas to Vorkuta. In 1943, he joined the Czechoslovak army. At first, he was a typist and a clerk, later he was assigned to the signalmen. He was active in combat operations from Kiev to Dukla, where he was wounded and transferred to a hospital. After leaving the hospital, he returned to Slovakia, but wasn't involved in combat operations anymore. He was conscription auditor. The end of the war caught him in Kroměříž. After the war he continued his service in the army untill 1968, when he was dismissed for disapproving of the occupation. After that he worked in a storehouse and later for the railways. He lives with his wife in Olomouc.
