“In 1968, I was transferred to a foreign language education center. My order was to teach French officers to speak Czech. It took almost two years, the whole day they used to study Czech. They didn’t speak but they understood everything. That was my task.”
Even though Valérien Ignatovitch, a Retired French army Colonel, never owned a Czechoslovak passport, he speaks fluently Czech. He was born in 1929 in Vienna, his mother was Czech, his father, Sergeji Ignatovič, was a Russian immigrant. The family lived in Strasbourg and later moved to Neuilly sur Seine, one of Parisian suburbs. In 1951 he enrolled to a military academy and finished his studies three years later. Between 1955 and 1960, he served in the Foreign Legion in Algeria because he couldn't find an appropriate position elsewhere in the French army. After his return he served in various infantry units in different districts in France. In 1968, after the Russian invasion to Czechoslovakia, he was transferred to monitoring of Czechoslovak military communication tapped by a Bavarian unit. Between 1968 and 1970, he taught French army officers Czech. He is retired, in 1990s he worked occasionally as an interpreter for the French army. He is a chairman of the Association of Czechoslovak Volunteers in France. He lives in Paris.
Valérien Ignatovich in 50s
Valérien Ignatovich, 1952
Valérien Ignatovich, graduation 1954
Valérien Ignatovich in early 60s
