Year 1962: Comrade Stalin fired. Detonations could be heard all over Prague
However, shortly after the ceremonial unveiling of the monument, clouds began to gather over Stalin’s legacy.
Under normal circumstances, it would only be a freight transport structure. In the years of real socialism, however, the Prague metro became primarily a political issue. It has been talked about since 1898, but it was not until the mid-1960s that the traffic situation in the center of the capital became unbearable and further postponement was not possible.
The idea of building a monument to Stalin in Prague appeared after the end of World War II. At first it looked like the statue would be part of Dejvice’s Victory Square.
Other localities considered, such as the Letná Plain, the waterfront between the National Theater and Charles Bridge, or the area near Wilson’s Station, also had supporters. A special commission headed by the Ministry of Information Václav Kopecký gave priority to Letná, directly opposite Čech Bridge.
The appearance of the monument arose from an art competition announced in April 1949. From more than fifty received designs, the jury selected a study by architect Jiří Štursa, his wife Vlasta and sculptor Otakar Švec. The winning team came up with the idea of a sculpture in which eight figures were symbolized behind Stalin, symbolizing the Czechoslovak and Soviet people.
17 thousand tons and 140 million crowns
Due to the number of characters, the monument was nicknamed the “meat front”. The jurors were enthusiastic: “From an ideological point of view, this proposal is the only one that unites the leading figure of the whole progressive world, the personality of Generalissimo Stalin clearly with the people,” was the verdict.
At the end of the 1960s, efforts at the time to liberate the communist regime and to push through political change culminated in Czechoslovak society at the time. The Strahov demonstration of university students on October 31, 1967 was a harbinger of the reform process for which the Prague Spring was adopted.
Prime Minister Antonín Zápotocký tapped the foundation stone of the monument on December 22, 1949. Construction work on the then largest group sculpture in Europe did not begin until February 1952. This caused Stalin to finish his sculptures. nor did his co-creator Otakar Švec, who had committed suicide a month before.
The interior of the more than 30 meter high monument consisted of a massive reinforced concrete structure. The stone parts of the statue, carved from 235 blocks of North Bohemian granite, were attached to it. The monument weighed 17,000 tons, and a large reinforced concrete underground was built under it to prevent it from collapsing into the Vltava. The total bill for the megalomaniac construction climbed to a staggering 140 million crowns.
But in 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech criticizing the cult of Stalin’s personality. The Czechoslovak communists hesitated how to react to the new course. The decision to remove Stalin’s statue from Letná was not made until 1961. The design of the work was gradually dismantled, and the statue was blown up three times in the autumn of 1962. The orphaned pedestal still stands on Letná.
The removal of the monument took several weeks and the event was strictly guarded. However, detonations were heard throughout Prague.
The documentary by screenwriter Tereza Nováková is also about all this. Directed by Olga Šubrtová, Věra Hlaváčková and René Šmotek perform. Under what circumstances did the largest group of sculptures in Europe break down and where tens of thousands of tons of concrete and granite disappeared, editor Ondřej Ševčík filmed it right on the spot where Stalin stood in life-size.
