Vashek didn't remember the Soviet tanker depicted in the photograph, who participated in the liberation of Prague from the Germans in May 1945. But the boy had long dreamed of finding the tanker and returning the photograph to him. To get to the Soviet Union, Vashek took part in the "Do You Know the Countries of Your Friends" contest, the winner of which received a trip to Artek.
Old General Safronov helped Vashek and his new friends find former soldier Grigory Mergelyan, who recognized the tanker Nikitin from the photograph. Sailor Kostya, whom the children saw on the diesel-electric ship Rossiya, had a photograph of his father—exactly the same as Vašek's. A newspaper photo also helped find Nikitin's wife, Kostya's mother. After many years apart, mother and son were reunited!
And to faraway Prague, the radio brought words of fervent gratitude from a Russian mother to her unknown but dear Czech friend, Vašek.
