Monument to Soviet Tankmen (Czech: Památník sovětských tankistů; also known as “Tank No. 23” (Czech: Tank číslo 23) and “Smíchovský tank” - a monument erected on July 29, 1945 in Prague (Czechoslovakia) in honor of the Soviet soldiers who came to the aid of the rebel Prague on May 9, 1945 at the end of the Great Patriotic War. The first to enter Prague was the crew of Guard Lieutenant I. G. Goncharenko on the T-34-85 tank No. 24, which was shot down, and Ivan Goncharenko himself was killed. On July 29, 1945, on Stefanik Square (now Kinskikh Square) a monument to Soviet tank crews was unveiled with another heavy tank IS-2 No. 23. According to legend, General D. D. Lelyushenko, who made the decision on the monument tank, spoke critically about the damaged T tank -34-85, declaring: “We won’t give the Czechs such old stuff.” However, until the end of the 1980s, the official version claimed that the “first” tank was actually exhibited in Prague. After the Velvet Revolution in 1991, it was repainted pink by artist David Cerny, then dismantled from its pedestal and is now used as a symbol of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops.
Tank monument
On May 6, Soviet troops as part of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front moved towards Prague to provide assistance to the townspeople who rebelled against the German occupation. At 3 a.m. on May 9, 1945, tanks from the 63rd Guards Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade, the vanguard of the 4th Tank Army, burst into Prague. The first was the crew of the Guard Lieutenant I. G. Goncharenko on the T-34-85 tank No. 24 from the platoon of Lieutenant L. E. Burakov. In the battle for the Manesov Bridge, the tank was hit by a German self-propelled gun, Ivan Goncharenko was killed, the driver was wounded in the head, and the Czech conductor’s leg was torn off. The remaining tanks of the assault group, having broken the enemy's resistance, captured the Manes Bridge, along which they reached the center of Prague. On July 29, 1945, in Prague (Czechoslovakia) on Stefanik Square (now Kinsky Square), in the presence of Marshal I. S. Konev, a monument was unveiled in honor of Soviet soldiers. However, instead of the “thirty-four” of the guard of Lieutenant I. G. Goncharenko, the IS-2 heavy tank, built in 1943 at the Kirov plant in Chelyabinsk, was installed on a quadrangular pedestal made by captured Germans. According to legend, the decision to replace the T-34 with the IS-2 was made by General D. D. Lelyushenko, who spoke critically of the damaged T-34-85 tank by I. G. Goncharenko, saying: “We won’t give the Czechs such junk.” In addition, the IS-2 was marked with the number 23 (instead of the real number 24) and a red star, which was not on I. G. Goncharenko’s tank. Until the end of the 1980s, the official version claimed that the very “first” tank was actually exhibited in Prague. Brass plates with the inscription were installed on the pedestal: “Eternal glory to the heroes of the guard tankmen of General Lelyushenko, who fell in the fight for the freedom and independence of our great Soviet Motherland. May 9, 1945", and the square with the monument was renamed Soviet Square...
“We studied at a high school named after the Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Leonid Dmitrievich Churilov*,” says ... Andrey Irisov. “Our school has a wonderful museum dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. He is supervised by veterans of tank forces. At their request, a T-34 tank was installed in front of our school - the same one that first broke into occupied Prague. For 45 years it stood on a pedestal in the center of Prague. In 1989, during the so-called Velvet Revolution, but in fact the Czech counter-revolution, hooligans abused him and smeared him with red paint. Our veteran tank crews ensured that the tank was transported to their homeland. Now he is our pride. We decided back in school that we would go serve in the tank forces. Now we are waiting for the call. How do you, journalists, sing this? “Wherever we went, they didn’t give us tanks...” But they will give us tanks. And we’ll see how the course of history unfolds.”
* Kotelnikovskaya secondary school No. 1 named after Hero of the Soviet Union L.D. Churilov
It is enough to look on the Internet, say, open the article “The Pink Tank is the most famous monument of the UDTK” to make sure that in fact that tank No. 23, which stood in Prague on Smichov - in the Prague 5 area - on the Soviet Tankmen's Square with July 1945 to June 1991 is still in the Czech Republic. And I am not spared, no matter how bitter it is to admit, from the mockery of the Czech “democrats” - military and civilian.
It is necessary to clarify that on the pedestal of the monument to Soviet tank crews there was an IS-2M tank, and not a T-34 tank (T-35/85), but with the number 23, with the number of the T-34 tank, the tank that was used on the morning of May 9, 1945 was the first at both the Old Town Hall and Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague.
Yes, on a July night in 1945, the “Stalinist” tank, the IS-2M, rose to the pedestal.
Attached to each side of the granite-clad pedestal of the monument was a bronze plaque with the inscription:
„VĚČNÁ SLÁVA HRDINŮM gardovým tankistům generála Leljušenka, padlým v bojích za svobodu a nezávislost naší Veliké Sovětské Vlasti.
9. května 1945““Eternal glory to the heroes of the Guards tank crews of General Lelyushenko, who fell in battles for the freedom and independence of our Great Soviet Motherland.
May 9, 1945"
For many years, tank No. 23 was a national cultural monument, and on May 9, ceremonial rallies were held on Soviet Tankmen Square.
The outstanding Czech poet Vitezslav Nezval dedicated a poem full of sincere feeling to the tank.
POEM IN HONOR OF MAY 9
Like a statue, like a monument to the great days of courage
It proudly rises above the streets of Prague.That day when, with an escort of stars, breaking through the lead squall,
He rushed to the starry city of cities, the desired dawn,
When the capital, having forgotten sleep and bleeding,
Waged an unequal battle with the enemy on the barricades of May,
When the hearts of Prague residents lit up with a raging fire, -
That day is gone, that day is gone, but don’t forget about it!You taught us perseverance, tank. Children of your tempering,
We didn't give up, Father. But how the wind of death whipped us!
Yes, I can speak for everyone and I’m unlikely to be wrong -
If it weren’t for you, we would all have been sleeping in Prague graves long ago.
And these ten, ten years are like a string of willows,
They would cry for us, bowing the leaves over the Vltava.I'm in the city of Gothic portals and pylons
This is the tenth year I have seen a green tank near Petřín.
You saved my life, you saved my poem, you saved my motherland,
If it were not for you, it would be more difficult to live than to die.
The battle went on for the fourth day, and you decided its fate,
You, a tank with a crimson star, you, with a star in your forehead!
Grateful memory has connected this tank with the name of the commander of the crew of tank No. 24 of the Guard, Lieutenant I. G. Goncharenko, who died in Prague, and was first buried on the square in front of Rudolphin, called Red Army Soldiers Square. Today his grave is in the Honorary Cemetery of Soldiers in Prague's Olšany.
The coup in November 1989, as correctly noted in the article “With a bow to the heroes,” played a fatal role in the fate of the monument to tank crews. Already in February 1991, a decision was made - the monument would be demolished and the tank would be sold. Czech patriotic organizations sent a letter to the main Czech democrat Vaclav Havel, but they never received a response.
On the night of April 28, 1991, student David Cerny, known these days not for the artistic merits of his works, but for scandals, with a group of his friends, repainted the tank pink. The military then returned the tank to its original color, but on May 16, 1991, a group of deputies of the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly repainted the tank pink again.
Here are the names of the desecrators of the monument:
STANISLAV DEVATY
PETER GANDALOVICH
PETER KULAN
Jiri Pospishil
IAN RUML
JIRI RUML
KLARA SAMKOVA
FRANTIŠEK PERNICA
MICHAL MALY
YANA PETROVA
MILOSLAV SOLDIAT
JAN MLYNARIK
TOMAŠ KOPRSZIWA
On June 13, 1991, with the help of two cranes, the tank was removed from the pedestal and transported to the Aviation and Cosmonautics Museum in Kbely, and then to the Military Museum in Leshany. And today the Smichov tank is rusting near Prague - the only piece of military equipment that is still on display repainted pink.
The monument to Soviet tank crews - the liberators of Prague - was demolished. In its place, a fountain “Time that has sunk into oblivion” was built, which, according to the architect, symbolizes the transience of everything. Every counter-revolution strives not only to destroy the gains and achievements of revolutions, but also to consolidate its reactionary, black deeds.
And then, in 1991, and now, I am deeply sorry that it was not possible to protect this tank. It hurts that the tank, which was a symbol of Liberation and an expression of gratitude to those who gave their lives for freedom and peace not only in Prague and Czechoslovakia, to those who saved the world from fascism, is humiliated and insulted.
Every year on Victory Day, Prague residents who have not forgotten the heroes gather in the square where the monument stood, rallies are held, and witnesses of those fateful May days share their memories.
Photo documents were collected and materials were prepared telling the sad and true story of the monument and the tank. A petition has been prepared calling on everyone for whom the memory of the fallen heroes is sacred:
One of the first steps towards restoring the historical truth would be a memorial plaque on the site where the monument to Soviet tank crews stood. And then the construction of a new monument.
Let it once again become a monument to the glory of Soviet tank crews, who did not spare themselves in the very last days and hours of the war, and a reminder of the ingratitude and barbaric attitude of today’s “civilized” Czech “democrats” towards the history of their country, the heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.
The legend about the fate of tank No. 23 convincingly demonstrates that the people still have faith in the triumph of truth and justice. We will ensure that the tank is actually transported to Russia or Belarus and installed in a worthy place!
I hope and believe that the people’s initiative to “save” the tank and restore the truth will serve the purpose of educating future generations of peoples who will not be indifferent to insulting the memory of fallen heroes.
Anatoly Shitov (Prague)
May 9, 1945 at the end of the Great Patriotic War.
However, instead of the “thirty-four” of the guard of Lieutenant I. G. Goncharenko, a heavy IS-2 tank, built in 1943 at the Kirov plant in Chelyabinsk, was installed on a quadrangular pedestal made by captured Germans. According to legend, the decision to replace the T-34 with the IS-2 was made by General D. D. Lelyushenko, who spoke critically of the damaged T-34-85 tank by I. G. Goncharenko, saying: “We won’t give the Czechs such junk.” In addition, the IS-2 was marked with the number 23 (instead of the real number 24) and a red star, which was not on I. G. Goncharenko’s tank. Until the end of the 1980s, the official version claimed that the very “first” tank was actually exhibited in Prague. Brass plates with the inscription were installed on the pedestal: “Eternal glory to the heroes of the guard tankmen of General Lelyushenko, who fell in the fight for the freedom and independence of our great Soviet Motherland. May 9, 1945”, and the square with the monument was renamed Soviet Tankmen Square.
"Pink Tank"
The tank remained in this form until the final liquidation of the monument on June 13, 1991. The tank monument was deprived of the status of a cultural monument and was first transferred to and then to the military-technical museum in Leshany, where it is still located, still painted pink.
The proposals of representatives of the Communist Party to restore the monument, as well as the proposals of David Cerny to install a pink tank in Prague as a permanent monument, were not crowned with success (under pressure from Prime Minister Milos Zeman and the Russian Embassy, the Prague City Hall rejected his project). In June 2002, a fountain called “Hatch of Time” was opened on the site of the former monument.
On the initiative of David Cerny, the pink tank was exhibited for some time in the resort town of Lazne Bogdanec, where the barracks of the Soviet troops were located until the 1990s. In the summer of 2004, during the cultural event “Cow Parade,” a cow with a star and the number 23 was installed on Kinsky Square, parodying the monument to the Soviet tank. Then on August 21, 2008, as a protest against the 1968 occupation and the Russian-Georgian War, an installation was installed on Kinski Square - part of a tank base painted pink
On Kinski Square there is a unique object of contemporary art - the “Hatch of Time” fountain (Propadliště času). The fountain carries the idea of reconciling today's Czech Republic with its past, with the Soviet period of history. The architectural composition is a massive slab of Liberec granite, which is split in two, creating a relief fault. Around the slab there are 64 columns of water. The fountain is framed by a circle of polished black slabs, which give it a shape similar to a hatch in the ground. The fountain's jets create a programmable wall of water, the maximum height of which reaches 8 meters. In the evening, the jets of the “time hatch” illuminate 40 light fixtures.
The fountain project was developed by architects Jan Lauda and Petr Levi. The main symbolic idea that the authors wanted to convey is that time is fleeting, like water, it washes away the grievances and conflicts of the past, which are too lightweight compared to eternal human values. The artistic goal is achieved not by the volume of the composition (it has an almost flat shape and almost does not rise above the surrounding asphalt), but by the contrast of the lightness of the water jets with the rough monumentality of the natural materials from which the fountain is built.
The purpose of installing the “Hatch of Time” here, in front of the Palace of Justice, was not only artistic, but also partly political. Previously, another cultural site was located on this site, which almost became the cause of a major international scandal.
Conflict washed away
At the end of World War II, in memory of the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the German occupiers and the feat of Soviet tank crews, a monument was erected in Prague - an IS-2 tank raised on a pedestal. The monument stood on Kinsky Square (which at that time was called “Friendship Square”) from 1945 to 1991. It is not surprising that after the Velvet Revolution and the introduction of tanks into Czechoslovakia, the monument to Soviet tank crews was perceived ambiguously by the residents of Prague. Sooner or later he was bound to become the object of anti-Soviet protest. In April 1991, a group of creative youth repainted the tank pink. Soon after this, the monument was dismantled.
For a long time after the removal of the monument to Soviet tank crews, there was a debate about what kind of object should be erected on Kinsky Square. The Communist Party and the USSR Embassy advocated for the return of the traditionally painted tank to the pedestal, and the creative community proposed burying the pink tank in the ground as a symbol of the collapsed regime. The tense situation around the defeated monument became threatening, so it was decided to install a fountain in this place, which was to become the new architectural dominant of Kinsky Square, without causing any political associations.
Thus, “Hatch of Time” was originally intended to reconcile the past and the present, mark the end of the Soviet era, and forever close the issue of Soviet tanks in the Czech capital. The opening of the fountain took place on October 17, 2002.
BATTLE AT MANESOV BRIDGE
When Kamatai Tokabaev was called up to fight in 1942, he was only 18 years old. The division of recruits was immediately thrown into the heat of Stalingrad, where they were already finishing off the German army of Paulus, which had surrounded this legendary city on the Volga. In May 1945, Sergeant Kamatai Tokabaev met in Berlin, from where he and his fellow soldiers were urgently transferred to Prague.
It is known that the German command at the end of the war intended to turn Prague into a second Berlin. However, this plan was thwarted on May 5, 1945 by the uprising of Czech patriots. In the former Soviet republics, little is said about the fact that the plans of Hitler’s last generals were also thwarted by Vlasov’s army, which at the last moment turned its bayonets against its German masters. But the main burden of the latest battles fell on the shoulders of the Soviet army.
Guard sergeant Kamatay Tokabaev's unit was ordered to ensure the security of one of the bridges over the Vltava River. Here, on the last day of the war in Europe, Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko died on May 5, 1945 - very soon his name was turned into a symbol of the liberation of Czechoslovakia from fascism. For Kamatai Tokabaev, the name of his famous fellow soldier became a source of personal pride, and all these 65 years he dreamed of somehow getting to Prague and seeing Goncharenko’s tank on a pedestal at the site of his death.
A tank under the command of Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko was the first to cross the Manesov Bridge, but ran into cannon fire
German self-propelled gun. In the summer of 1945, it was announced that the tank of Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko was erected on a pedestal in the center of Prague. Even the famous Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev attended the opening of the monument. Official legends were widely duplicated in Czechoslovak cinema, in books, and in the memoirs of Soviet front-line soldiers. For example, in 1950, a Czech writer published a story for children “About the Heart of a Ural Lad.”
In a conversation with us, World War II veteran Kamatai Tokabaev proudly spoke about the book of memoirs of his fellow soldiers, “Steel Ram,” which described the feat of Ivan Goncharenko. The rest of the crew survived and also experienced copper pipes after fire and water. On one of their visits to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, they were awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Prague.”
However, they and other knowledgeable people involved in this story were silent all these decades, that a completely different tank stood on the pedestal for almost half a century.
MYTHS DESTROYED
Kamatai Tokabaev was invited to Prague for festive events in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Victory over Germany. Colonel of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan Murat Rakhimzhanov accompanied him on the long journey. The war veteran from Astana itself was also accompanied by cardiologist Bakhytgul Zhankulieva. The Embassy of Kazakhstan in the Czech Republic organized a wide range of events this year in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Victory, and organized the arrival of a delegation from Kazakhstan.
Colonel of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan Murat Rakhimzhanov and war veteran Kamatai Tokabaev laying wreaths at the monument to Soviet soldiers. Prague, May 9, 2010.
On the last day of his visit to Prague, after all official events, Kamatay Tokabaev asked to be shown the legendary tank of Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko. But it turned out that this tank was no longer in Prague for a long time, that the monument to Soviet times had long been demolished.
Moreover, it turned out that all these years there had been a completely foreign tank standing on the pedestal, which was not involved in the liberation of Prague. But this foreign tank, towards the end of its propaganda mission, was subjected to ridicule and was repainted pink three times. After a series of quick political battles, the Soviet tank was consigned to the outskirts of history - it is now located on the territory of the Military Technical Museum near Prague.
However, the Kazakh veteran Kamatai Tokabaev did not know all this. He was traveling to Prague to not only attend official receptions, but also see the legendary tank of Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko. However, the memory of Goncharenko and his crew in Prague is now captured only in the form of a memorial plaque on Klaržov Square. The war veteran was taken there.
The veteran stood at the site where the tank was destroyed, paused, looking around at the site of the last bloody battle in which he took part. This is the corner from which Soviet tanks burst out, from the Manesov Bridge. This is the serpentine road where German cars and tanks were hastily leaving. All this was 65 years ago, it was so long ago, and it was only yesterday.
When a journalist from Radio Azattyk told the veteran he had discovered the history of the tank, his reaction was ambiguous. Kamatayu
The delegation of Kazakhstan laying wreaths at the monument to Soviet soldiers. First on the right is the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the Czech Republic Anarbek Karashev. Prague, May 9, 2010.
Tokabaev did not like the falsification of history from the very beginning, when a completely different tank was placed on the pedestal, and they announced and wrote in books and newspapers that it was the same tank, the real Goncharenko tank. And further metamorphoses, the debunking of myths after the collapse of the communist system in Czechoslovakia, and the relocation of the tank to a museum completely upset him.
Frankly, we did not get to the essence of things. What they heard was what they believed. However, I think the damaged tank itself should have been delivered. This would be a real monument. Since we were talking about the name Goncharenko, it was necessary to supply that same tank. So, supposedly, a tank burned down, and he died in this tank. It would be very helpful, it would be appropriate,” says Kamatai Tokabaev.
But to be honest, we did not tell the veteran about the most striking events around the tank - the tank being repainted pink. We didn’t want to upset us with the work of the cardiologist, who accompanied a strong man of 85 years old, who nevertheless dictated to us by heart the numbers of units and formations, addresses and telephone numbers of his fellow soldiers.
Kamatai Tokabaev was demobilized from the army in 1947. Next, a standard work biography awaited him, also marked with medals and other awards. He worked on the railway for more than half a century, including at the station in his native village of Babatay, Arshalinsky district, Akmola region. Promoted to station chief. In 1984 he retired. He raised and raised four daughters. “I have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren,” says the veteran, who ended the war in Prague, proudly.
65 years later, in Prague, which he liberated, the Kazakh veteran faced the collapse of Soviet-era propaganda myths.
BLACK PAINTED THE TANK PINK
In Soviet times, the Soviet tank number 23 stationed in Prague was called the Smichov tank. He simply stood on the square in the Smichov quarter, and this square from 1951 to 1990 bore the name of the Soviet Tankmen Square. In the 1950s, the tank was given the status of a national cultural monument.
However, in 1989, the Iron Curtain fell in Europe and the time came for liberation from Soviet totalitarianism. In April 1991
Tank of Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko shortly after the battle in Prague on May 9, 1945. Photo from the website www.zanikleobce.cz
The residents of Prague were shocked to see a Soviet tank in pink in the literal sense of the word in the morning. This was the action of the then student David Cherny and his friends. David Černý later became popular as the author of children's figurines, which he placed on the main television tower in Prague - it looks like children are crawling up and down the tower like ants on a tree trunk.
David Černý is called a controversial artist, a biased artist also because he created a parody of the main monument to the founder of the Czech state, Prince Vaclav. David the Black turned the horse upside down and put Vaclav on the horse's belly.
To understand the motive of David Cherny’s work, one can perhaps draw parallels with the public protests of the Kazakh avant-garde artist Kanat Ibragimov. They are both politically engaged, both love to shock the public with parodies of any social events. Only Kanat Ibragimov's street performances with cutting off the head of a fish or taking off his panties are reminiscent of the antics of nervous Russian students from 1905, and David Cherny raised his work to the level of criticism of totalitarianism.
So, after the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, they discovered that all these decades there had been absolutely nothing standing on the pedestal.
Monument to Soviet tank crews in Prague. Photo from the website www.zanikleobce.cz
A different tank than the one that first entered Prague. If Ivan Goncharenko fought on a tank of the famous T-34 model, then on the pedestal stood a tank of a completely different model, the IS-2, which, moreover, had nothing to do with the battles in Prague. In addition, Goncharenko’s tank had side number 24, and on the pedestal stood tank number 23.
According to Czech historians, the substitution occurred due to the fault of the Soviet military leaders themselves; the commander of the tank army, General Dmitry Lelyushenko, allegedly said: “Still, we will not give the Czechs such junk.” However, other Czech researchers say that Lieutenant Goncharenko's tank was not so damaged that it could not be repaired.
Amid speculation that there was no moral reason to leave the Soviet tank on its pedestal, David Cherny repainted the tank pink one night in April 1991. This is how he expressed his personal protest against the invasion of Soviet tanks into Czechoslovakia in 1968, in a completely different situation.
“I perceive this tank as a symbol of the Russian dictatorship, during which I was born. I don’t perceive this tank as a symbol of freedom, as a symbol of the end of World War II,” David Cherny explained his action to the local press then.
A scandal arose. Discussions arose in the press, and notes of protest were received from the Soviet government. David Cherny was placed under arrest for several days. The authorities tried to hush up the noise by returning the Soviet tank's green attire three days later.
The monument to Soviet tank crews was repainted pink. 28 Prague, April 28, 1991. Photo from the website www.zanikleobce.cz
However, 10 days later, in the same spring of 1991, the tank turned out to be painted pink for the second time. This time, 15 members of the Czechoslovak Parliament came to the tank with buckets of pink paint and again went over the armor with their brushes. They exercised their right to immunity. President Václav Havel condemned the actions of these deputies. And then passers-by dismantled the curb tiles around the tank and put them together into an impromptu monument to General Vlasov, whose army is credited with the true liberation of Prague in the period from May 5 to 8, 1945.
The collapse of the myths and symbols of totalitarianism in Czechoslovakia happened quickly; already in the summer of the same 1991, on June 13, a crane was driven up to a Soviet tank and pulled it off the pedestal with a commemorative plaque.
The tank stood in one museum for some time, and then moved to the courtyard of the Military Technical Museum in the suburbs of Prague. It still stands there today. Since the dramatic repainting of the tank in 1991 was carried out hastily, these layers of paint kept falling off. But the Czechs have already nicknamed the tank “Pink Tank”. And in 2000, at the museum, the tank was once again thoroughly painted pink. Now forever.
In June 2002, in Prague, on the site of a former monument to Soviet tank crews, a fountain called “Hatch of Time” began to play.
“PINK TANK” IS BACK!
However, the legendary Soviet tank haunts some Czech activists, the same sculptor David Černý, and on the fringes of history. The “pink tank” has been at the center of scandals at least three times in recent years. In his student youth, having successfully found his theme, successfully creating his own style in art, David Cherny benefited from the theme of the “Pink Tank” several times later.
In 2001, the same sculptor David Cherny again shocked the public with a work on the theme of the “Pink Tank”. He placed on the territory of the provincial town of Lazne Bohdanec a model of the rear part of a tank, which seemed to dive into the ground, and then, without any authorization, in May 2001 he moved this artifact to a square in the center of Prague. The local administration opposed such a delicacy, and the architectural composition was soon removed. Again, protests came from the very top. A negative reaction was expressed by Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Russian Ambassador to the Czech Republic Vasily Yakovlev.
In August 2008, on the 40th anniversary of the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia, David Cherny again returned the tank, or rather its symbolic end, to the center of Prague. So he again reminded the public of the aggressiveness of modern Russia’s foreign policy. The local press wrote that even the model of the end of the “Pink Tank” itself weighs four tons, and that it was necessary to use a crane with the sponsor’s money.
It is worth noting here that these actions of David Černý cause different reactions in Czech society. For example, a representative of the Prague City Council (maslikhat, speaking in Kazakh), a deputy from the Communist Party, Frantisek Hoffman, said that local veterans’ organizations are asking for the Soviet tank to be returned to its place. František Hoffman said that David Cherny’s action of repainting a Soviet tank was unacceptable to him.
KRÁVA CÍSLO 23
Another story surrounding the legendary tank of Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko happened in the summer of 2004. A cultural event, Cow Parade, was held in Prague at that time. Life-size plastic figures of cows and bulls in natural colors were displayed in the city center. Similar actions were held in other European capitals. Prague received 220 exhibits, many of which were later auctioned.
The organizers also played with some stages of the history of the Czech Republic in these figures. For example, there was a cow, or rather, a figurine of it, called “Cosmonautics”. One bull was given the name “Karel Gott”; his figure was covered with newspaper articles about this living legend of the Czech stage.
The cow under the name “Romeo” was placed on Kinsky Square, where a real Soviet tank once stood. They wanted a cow
A figurine of a cow parodying a monument to a Soviet tank. Prague, summer 2004.
The motif of David Cherny was painted pink, but we decided on green. On the side they painted a red star and the number 23. This was the number of the Soviet tank on the pedestal.
The representative of the organizers of the action, Martin Ratzman, explained to journalists that the idea of creating this cow was not to denigrate the memory of the 144 thousand Soviet soldiers who died in battle. Martin Ratzmann convinced that the meaning of this cow figurine was only a joke, an attempt to make the people of Prague smile.
The ultimate goal of the Cow Parade was to auction off these figures for charity. However, the good intention was overshadowed by the antics of vandals - many cows were simply broken by cobblestones, beer bottles, and so on. The cow-tank was also unlucky. Her sides received huge holes in September 2004. The names of three students who misbehaved with the tank cow have been identified. Again a scandal, again a political embarrassment.
But the situation was defused by two members of the Czech parliament - Jan Mládek and Jiří Dolejš, who bought the figure of a cow-tank for 46 and a half thousand crowns. At that time, this amount exceeded two thousand dollars. “We thereby want to prevent further mockery of the memory of fallen heroes. We are buying this artifact as private individuals,” Jiří Dolejš said at the time.
It was announced that the tank cow itself would be restored and placed in Southern Bohemia under the guise of an ordinary local cow. These two members of parliament and the company organizing the “Cow Parade” action did not put forward any material claims against the three students who punched the sides of the plastic cow.
Loading...