Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a giant metronome. If the monumental setting seems out of scale that's because
the terrace was designed to accommodate the world's biggest statue of Stalin.
Unveiled in 1955 - two years after Stalin's death - the 30m-high, 14,000-tonne
colossus showed Uncle Joe at the head of two lines of communist heroes,
Czech on one side, Soviet on the other. Cynical Praguers accustomed to con-
stant food shortages quickly nicknamed it
fronta na maso
(the meat queue).
The monument was dynamited in 1962, in deference to Khrushchev's attempt
to airbrush Stalin out of history. The demolition crew was instructed, 'it must go
quickly, there mustn't be much of a bang, and it should be seen by as few
photo of the monument - and of its destruction.
The Missing Tank
Náměstí Kinských, at the southern edge of Malá Strana, was until 1989 known
as náměstí Sovětských tankistů (Soviet Tank Crews Square), named in memory
of the Soviet soldiers who 'liberated' Prague on 9 May 1945. For many years a
Soviet T-34 tank - allegedly the first to enter the city (in fact it was a later Soviet
'gift') - squatted menacingly atop a pedestal here.
In 1991 artist David Černý decided that the tank was an inappropriate monu-
ment to the Soviet soldiers and painted it bright pink. The authorities had it
painted green again, and charged Černý with a crime against the state. This in-
furiated many parliamentarians, 12 of whom repainted the tank pink. Their par-
liamentary immunity saved them from arrest and secured Černý's release.
After complaints from the Soviet Union the tank was removed. Its former set-
ting is now occupied by a circular fountain surrounded by park benches; the vast
granite slab in the centre is split by a jagged fracture, perhaps symbolic of a
break with the past. The tank still exists, and is still pink - it's at the Military Mu-
seum in Lešany, near Týnec nad Sázavou, 30km south of Prague.
MMUSSEUUM
NÁPRSTEK MUSEUM
