What is more important: memory or politics?

Hello everyone! Today I read the news that a monument to the Soviet Marshal Konev (who led the operation to liberate Prague from Nazi Germany) had been dismantled in the Czech Republic allegedly due to a lack of funds for its maintenance and restoration from the constant actions of vandals.



At the same time, the Czech leadership assures that the monument will be located in a museum complex dedicated to the World War II, however, the museum itself has not even been built. These events, of course, outraged Russia, which declared disrespect for the history and Soviet memory of the soldiers-liberators. Moreover, sources close to the Czech Ministry of Defense said the Minister received a letter from the Russian Ministry of Defense stating Moscow’s request to remove the monument from Prague to Russia.

Do you think the Czech authorities did the right thing by dismantling the monument to the man who liberated their country from Nazi Germany? Could international politics be above history and human sacrifice?

 

Sell yeah my Liberation of Prague medal real cheap...dasvidaniya comrade.

 

Is it a monument to their liberation or oppression? Seems to me that the Czechs did not fare to well under Soviet "liberation." and they fared less well after the Soviet "liberation" of 1968.

 

Memory makes us who we are...not always a good thing.

 

I think all eastern bloc countries removed after 1991 the Victory statues. Not surprising.

 

I think there is a huge Lenin statue collection in Estonia. Btv there is a Lenin statue in Finland Kotka. Only one.

 

You could ask a similar question in Richmond, VA. . . be sure to wear a helmet.

 

In Normandy some 500 allied. soldiers were hanget for Rape even if I am sure there was alot of free p*** availalable.

 

Liberation enforcement devices ensuring Czechs feels good & liberated - 1968.





I don't hold with statue-bashing in many ways; they are what they are.
Can understand why some become a tad unfashionable eventually, though.
Konev suppressed the uprising in Hungary, and was part of the Soviet response when Prague sprung.

I believe the Russkis have asked for the statue back?
A Czech museum does seem like a better place.

 

1 post and gone?

Anyway, to the OP

1- Yes

2- No clue.

 

Yes, because I credit most people with understanding that times change, leaving artefacts behind.
The 'Rhodes must fall' types came across as a hysterical small group more interested in creating drama to publicise their own agendas than having any real care for history or context.

When the statues etc. fall, or are blown up, in the immediate aftermath of great events, by the people who suffered directly under that regime or individual, then that has immense symbolic power & innately human justification. Doing it decades or centuries later seems a weak action of shouting at stone & bronze.

Changing plaques slightly, as I think happened in this one's case, or the intended moving to a museum doesn't bother me at all, but many campaigns against marble imply complete destruction is the only satisfying result.

There are those that think war graves & associated memorials to bomber crews an affront to their current political viewpoint, and there've been objections to the German Cemetery at Cannock Chase. I'm uneasy that once you declare one sort of memorial fair game you eventually threaten them all.

 

I would change that to -
If you're a politician, selective memory is your friend.