Sosnarová says she was dragged off to Siberia, where she spent 20 years working in uranium mines at the end of World War II. Czech Social Service officials refuse to believe her and refuse to acknowledge her claim for compensation, stating that she should have sued them when she had the chance. They say now it is too late to file a claim.

Sosnarová has not been able to produce any document proving that she was in a Soviet concentration camp, says Božena Michálková, the head of the country’s Social Security administration.

Michálková says she also found it odd that Sosnarová had a "work book", which is not usually the case for other gulag prisoners.

Officials from the Club of Committed Non-Party Members (Klub Angažovaných Nestraníků in Czech, or KAN) say the group will pay part of the amount to which it feels Sosnarová is entitled.

"We do not doubt the veracity of Mrs. Sosnarová's claim, which is why we will give her a lump sum compensation. It will not be in the hundreds of thousands of crowns, but we hope it will please her. It still has to be approved by the board of directors," Josef Valášek, KAN’s deputy director, told the newspaper.

"I can't understand why the Social Security administration is making problems. They are strictly adhering to the regulations to the point that they are marring the intent of the law on compensation," he said, adding that the KAN adheres to the adage: who gives quickly gives double – especially when the recipients are over 80 or 90 years old.

Sosnarová says that, prior to release, KGB officials made her swear she would never tell anybody about her imprisonment.

"I protested, but they told me that if I didn't like it, I didn't have to go home at all," she says. "I don't want anything from the gentlemen at the ministry, but they don't need to imply that I was in Russia on vacation. I can only wish they could chop trees in temperatures of 20 degrees below zero, on 250-gram ration of bread and a bowl of stinking borscht."

There is no point in asking people who were dragged off to Siberia to produce papers, because the Soviet state never gave them any, says Miroslav Kostelka, Czech ambassador to Russia.

Kostelka has offered to help Sosnarová by researching Russian records. He says that Russian officials are very helpful when it comes to righting the wrongs of the former regime.