A monument to the Soviet military leader I. Konev has been recently dismantled in the Czech capital, which resulted in a diplomatic scandal between Prague and Moscow.
30 years after the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact Organization, Moscow can not stand the fact that Russia and the Czech Republic (and in general all countries of Central and Eastern Europe) have different views regarding the spring of 1945 and the next 40 years of the history of the European continent.
If most of Europe after the surrender of the Nazi Third Reich on May 8, 1945 began a new life (especially successfully in those countries where the USA helped with the “Marshall Plan”), then Central and Eastern Europe developed (according to the Yalta-Potsdam division of the spheres of influence on the continent) into the second belt of the Red Empire. While one part of Europe wholeheartedly was rejoicing at the collapse of Nazism, the other was watching with fear and trepidation the replacement of the Nazi occupation with the Soviet one.
Without denying the daily courage of the soldiers and officers of the Red Army who were liberating Central and Eastern Europe from the troops of A. Hitler and his allies in 1944-1945, today the Czechs (as well as Slovaks, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Albanians, former Yugoslavs and those who lived in East Germany) find any monuments associated with the Soviet troops as a reminder of forty years of stagnation of their countries behind the barbed wire of the socialist camp.
For Moscow, monuments in different countries to “unknown soldiers” or to specific military leaders of the Red Army symbolize the soldier’s feat and victory over Nazism, but for Prague – the change of one occupation to another. Moreover, taking into account the current foreign policy of Moscow (its imperial ambitions and international crimes), any Soviet monuments in the civilized Europe can be perceived as markers of power and influence from the USSR/I. Stalin to Russia/V. Putin.
Over the past decades, the monument to Marshal I.Konev in Prague has been repeatedly desecrated. The last time this happened in 2019, when a huge inscription was written on the pedestal: “No to the bloody marshal! We will not forget!”. Whereafter the monument was completely covered with tarpaulin to avoid new acts of vandalism. Local authorities in the Prague-6 district proposed moving the statue of I. Konev to the territory of the Russian Embassy, but the Russian Foreign Ministry did not agree. And on April 3 of the current year, despite the protests of Russian diplomats, the municipal authorities of the Prague-6 district decided to dismantle the monument. At the same time, no one is going to throw out or send for remelting the bronze figure of the Soviet marshal. In the place of the monument to I. Konev, a memorial will be erected for the soldiers-liberators of Prague in May 1945 (the difference will be explained below), while the statue of the Soviet military leader has been sent to the vault, later it will be exhibited in the “Museum of the 20th Century Memory” (its opening is planned in the near future).
By the way, why did Czech activists write that the monument was to a “bloody marshal” and what exactly “must not be forgotten”? This can be found on the information boards on the monument, which were updated in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968, which put an end to the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring (aimed at expanding the rights and freedoms of citizens and decentralization of power in the country). So, at first in May 1968 I. Konev led the Soviet delegation to Prague, conducting, in fact, an intelligence mission, and already in August 1968 combined forces (up to 500 thousand people and 5 thousand tanks and armored vehicles) occupied Czechoslovakia.
There is also a reminder that in 1956, as Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, I. Konev led the tough suppression of the popular uprising against the pro-Soviet regime in Hungary. It is indicated that in the period of 1961-1962 it was I. Konev who commanded the Group of Soviet Forces in the German Democratic Republic during the blockade of West Berlin and the subsequent construction of the Berlin Wall.
In general, the main reason for erecting a monument to I. Konev in the Czech capital was that under his command, Soviet troops liberated the city from the Nazis (as was presented in Soviet times). The true story of the liberation of Prague, which has been silenced down for many decades and which Russia does not still like to remember, deserves a separate story. In short, events developed as follows. On May 4, a popular uprising began in Prague. At this time, the retreating SS units were moving to the city, and they were ordered to crush the uprising and destroy the city. However, units of the army of General A.Vlasov (which collaborated with the Germans against the Stalinist regime but refused to obey the orders of the Wehrmacht) came to the aid of Czech rebels. During May 5-8, 1945, Prague was almost completely liberated by the forces of Czech rebels and units of the army of General Vlasov. On the morning of May 9, point units of the Soviet troops entered the already liberated city and continued to clean up the city and its outskirts until May 11, 1945.
And only many years later, when the Czech Republic ceased to look back at Russia, on May 6, 1993, a wooden cross with the inscription “RLA” was scuttled on Olshansky cemetery (on a hill where about three hundred soldiers and officers of the A.Vlasov’s army died in a battle). It was decorated with crown of thorns, as the gratitude of the inhabitants of Prague to the Vlasovites for the liberation of the city.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson M. Zakharova in response to the dismantling of the monument to Marshal I.Konev, stated that this was a crime capable of becoming a long-term irritant in relations with the Czech Republic. Russian Minister of Defense S. Shoigu asked the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to consider a criminal prosecution of foreign officials involved in the demolition of memorial structures commemorating the citizens of the USSR. Russian nationalists threw smoke cartridges at the Czech embassy and walked the streets of Moscow, shouting that Mariupol, Donetsk, Kyiv, Minsk, Tallinn, Warsaw, Berlin and Istanbul are Russian cities, chanting “our MIGs will land in Riga”, “our tanks will be in Prague.”
So, today, when we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the victory over Hitlerism, we look back at the dramatic events of WW II. But, at the same time, we draw different conclusions. Someone celebrates the victory over the totalitarian Nazi Third Reich, but glorifies the totalitarian Stalinist USSR. Someone tries to forget the terrible past and is looking to the future with hope. Someone tries to be objective and look at these and that events from different points of view.
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