'You could never go back': Cold War-era refugees recall defecting to N.L.

As the provincial government offers support for Ukrainian refugees who may want to move to Newfoundland and Labrador, some Eastern European refugees recall their experiences decades before in Gander as they fled Soviet-ruled countries and found refuge in Canada.

Veronika Martenova Charles, who defected from Czechoslovakia in 1970, said her experience was different from that of fleeing Ukrainians — but there are some similarities.

"The situation is totally different," said Charles. "There were some casualties, but it was peaceful. We didn't have destruction like what's happening now. But the effect on the people who are leaving is the same."

Before 1968, Charlies enjoyed her life in her home country as a member of a pop band. Everything changed after four countries from the Warsaw Pact — the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary — invaded to suppress a reformist movement.

"There was this absolute disbelief and shock by the whole population and their lives were upended within hours. People lost their careers," Charles said. Her life wasn't directly affected at the time, but many of her friends chose to leave the country.

"I knew at the time that I would never be able to see them again because you were not allowed to travel to the West.… It's just like they were dead in a way, because you will never see them again."

As time passed, Charles began to see more of an impact on her life.

"When we would be going for concerts, we would be driving by a lot of convoys of soldiers and you knew then it will never be the same. Like, you couldn't go into the woods and pick mushrooms because you could encounter the soldiers."

But she held onto hope that Czechoslovakia would return to being the country she knew and loved.

That changed after Charles went on tour with her band to Cuba in May 1970, and the new environment — "seeing blue sky, being on the other side of the world, the ocean and pure air" — inspired her to rethink her decision to stay in her country.

Her band's next tour stop was in the Soviet Union. She didn't want to go but she knew leaving would have stark consequences.

"I knew if I do this, I can never go back because if I did return, or even if I was flying somewhere else in Europe and I was intercepted [at] some different airport, I was getting put in prison," she said. "Leaving at the time was considered treason. Once you left, that's it. You could never go back."

When her band boarded the plane in Havana, Charles wasn't sure if it would stop to refuel en route to the Soviet Union. As fate would have it, it did stop — in Newfoundland, a place she'd never heard of before.

"When it stopped in Gander, I decided, 'I'm just going to stay.'"