Freedom does not come alone, it is necessary to fight for it with weapons in hand
In cinemas, the film Brothers describing the fate of the legendary resistance of the brother Man group is now being screened. I was curious about the film because I had read two books about the resistance groups and I was a little worried about the film’s processing, but after watching it I can say that the film was successful. The film does not leave the girl in peace for even a minute, and the protagonist takes her through the unpleasant fates to the very end.
The first thing that comes to the hunter’s mind is the sigh of HORSES. Konen was an elaborate film about the most famous Czech resistance of anti-communist groups. The audience should have the opportunity to form their own opinion about these people THEMSELVES without emotionally strained comments, because the film maps (and with minor exceptions such as the fictional character of the Sudeten poet) the real fate of this resistance.
Assessed resistance from the perspective of 1953 or 2023?
There is no darkness that divides society better than brother Man. The main problem in evaluating this group can be in the time horizon, or if you want, in the time from which other brother Man is evaluated. It is a huge difference to evaluate these other groups in 2023 or 1955. Even in the 1970s and 1980s (during normalization) it did not reach the horrors that befell the bn oban after 1948, when the communists in the republic spread Stalinism (pesnji gottwaldovsk) terror, when people are locked up just on the basis of a day or for a reason (a kulak who stayed and worked on his field or a business woman with a colonel), condemned to long-term imprisonment and inhumane torture, up to and including physical liquidation.
Here is the link to the creation of two irreconcilable groups. From the camp of critics of this resistance group, we hear about unnecessary force, for example, the cashier, who owned a pistol, which in itself was a great privilege in a time when you could get the death penalty for owning a deadly weapon. Or the case of the SNB scam. Despite these events, the film always documents, does not gloss over, and that is the defining characteristic of the era.
Manov: Decided on an active fight against communist terror
Here you have to realize that the arrest of the fifties was full of communist terror, draconian sentences of many years are announced on the radio, the names of executed criminals are announced (similar to the Nazis), people are afraid to speak in public and in private, they only disagree with the mention of convicts or a joke is a ticket to the StB and many years old alm. The members of the SNB or the People’s Militia are not cute daddies from families, but proven communists where, theirs the main round is the fight against the weekly insect, often including the physical elimination of defenseless victimsnot a prisoner of safety and first defense.
And at this time alone, Manov and the others decided to go to war. He saw the core of the totalitarian communist regime in the militias and members of the SNB.
Therefore, it is wrong to connect the activities of the brother Man group with any terrorist organization, as an unnamed university political scientist recently did in Moscow. The Manovs were not born fanatics and they did not kill for freedom, but because of the open struggle that the Stalinist regime of the time declared for a large part of the Czech population.
On the other hand, it is a completely legitimate objection of the group of critics of Brother Man regarding the absence of the liquidation of any StB member or high nomenclature cadre. These guys worked really hard.
Josef Man’s daughter, Barbara Masin, in her book The Link describes in detail the course of the resistance of the brother Man group, thus describing a train full of StB officers, when they even managed to find explosives with enormous effort, but the practical implementation did not lead to it, because the State security involved it shear around the resistances of the group.
Emigrate and fight communism
In 1953, the Manov brothers decide to emigratenot because of the comfortable life in the West, but based on the call of Radio Free Europe for a named exile from Eastern Europe to join the special armed forces that will liberate Central Europe from the communist side. With the outbreak of the 3rd World War, the Manov brothers fought wars between the Soviet Union and Western Europe (no one knew about the division of the sphere of influence at that time), so they wanted to join these special units (they also served in them) so that they could fight for freedom.
The role of Radio Free Europe at that time is somewhat contradictory, on the one hand, it was certainly a valuable source of information, but on the other hand, two of them were imprisoned for fifty years behind the Iron Curtain, somewhat dishonestly promising foreign armed aid.
And the movie Brothers itself?
It’s definitely worth seeing, if only because it shows the inescapable heroism of Brother Man while marching across the borders of what was then East Germany and breaking through to then-free West Berlin. At this moment, their story reaches epic proportions, when the press of the VoPo (communist police) and the army stand against them. When, at the Uckro railway station (about a hundred kilometers from Berlin), they manage to hide and escape into the forest after entering, in order to fight an invisible battle in which the policeman decides to retreat. They are even forced to freeze in a pile for several days, so that they manage to get to West Berlin after being starved and frozen under completely unfavorable conditions (there is quite a song captured in the film).
And for animals?
That’s why Dark Brother Man is so controversial that it holds up a mirror to the society of the fifties. The vast majority of the population resigns to any resistance and dream only to pet A minority of the population not only collaborates with the communist regime, but also actively supports the repression of innocent people. And mainly, not only did he hear the reproaches of Nmce as a protectorate, but echoes. They are the ones who betray, send innocent people to concentration camps. They are the ones who are big in the companies, who beat innocent people and execute them. And in this mere chaos, the Manov brothers appear as a revelation, and they decide to fight against this evil. Irrespective of the evaluation of their others, their courage will earn them great admiration, because it meant encouragement for a large percentage of the population in the communist marasmus of that time.
