Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE PINK TANK
Until 1991,
Tank 23
sat proudly on its plinth in Prague's náměstí Sovětských tankistů
(Soviet Tank Drivers' Square), one of a number of obsolete tanks generously donated by
the Soviets after World War II to serve as monuments to the 1945 liberation. Tank 23 was
special, however, as it was supposedly the first tank to arrive to liberate Prague, on May 9,
hotfoot from Berlin.
The real story of the liberation of Prague was rather different. When the Prague Uprising
began on May 5, the first offer of assistance actually came from a division of the anti-
Communist
RussianNationalLiberationArmy
(
KONR
), under the overall command of
AndreiVlasov
, a high-ranking former Red Army officer who was instrumental in pushing
the Germans back from the gates of Moscow, but who switched sides after being captured
by the Nazis in 1942. The Germans were (rightly, as it turned out) highly suspicious of the
KONR, and, for the most part, the renegade Russians were kept well away from the real
action.Inthewar'sclosingstages,theKONRswitchedsidesoncemoreandagreedtofight
alongside the Czech resistance, making a crucial intervention against the SS troops who
were poised to crush the uprising in Prague. Initially, the Czechs guaranteed Vlasov's men
asylum from the advancing Soviets in return for military assistance. In reality, the Czechs
were unable to honour their side of the bargain and the KONR finally withdrew from the
city late on May 7 and headed west to surrender themselves to the Americans. When the
Red Army finally arrived in Prague, many of Vlasov's troops were simply gunned down
by the Soviets. Even those in the hands of the Americans were eventually passed over to
theRussiansandsharedthefateoftheirleaderVlasovwhowastriedincamerainMoscow
and hanged with piano wire on August 2, 1946.
The unsolicited reappearance of Soviet tanks on the streets of Prague in 1968 left most
Czechs feeling somewhat ambivalent towards the old monument. And in the summer of
1991, artist
DavidČerný
painted the tank bubble-gum pink and placed a large phallic fin-
ger on top of it, while another mischievous Czech daubed “Vlasov” on the podium. Since
thecountrywasatthetimeengagedindelicatenegotiationstoendtheSovietmilitarypres-
enceinCzechoslovakia,thenewregime,despiteitsmostlydissidentleanings,roundlycon-
demnedtheactasunlawful.Havel,inhischaracteristically even-handedway,madeitclear
that he didn't like tanks anywhere, whether on the battlefield or as monuments.
In the end, the tank was hastily repainted khaki green and Černý was arrested under the
“crimes against the state” clause of the penal code, which had previously been used by
the Communists against several members of the then government. In protest at the arrest
of Černý, twelve members of the federal parliament turned up the following day in their
overalls and, taking advantage of their legal immunity, repainted the tank pink. Finally, the
government gave in, released Černý and removed the tank from public view. There's now
