Photos give new look at '68 Czech invasion

By Louis Charbonneau

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Russian soldiers aim rifles at students waving flags. Tanks, cars and buses burn. A mother and her small daughter tread through rubble in front of smoldering buildings pockmarked by bullets and shrapnel.

These are some of the images in a new exhibition of photographs of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 taken by Czech photographer Josef Koudelka.

Although they are 40 years-old, some of the nearly 250 black and white snapshots currently being shown at the Aperture Gallery in New York look surprisingly contemporary, and are made even more interesting in the wake of Russia's recent invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

The fighting that followed the invasion left an estimated 72 Czechs and Slovaks dead. It was the first news event the 30-year-old Koudelka covered.

As he roamed the city with his camera, Koudelka was not afraid to climb on tanks or look down the barrels of guns.

In a recent interview with the editor of Aperture magazine, he described some of the dangers he faced during the shooting and shelling by the Soviet soldiers.

"I climbed to the top of one of the buildings, and the Soviets saw me. They thought I was a sniper and started to chase me," he said.

"I ran through the hallways into another building, and by chance found that a friend of mine was living there. I left all the film I had shot that day -- about 20 rolls -- with him, just in case the Soviets caught me."