DISINFO: Removal of Konev monument insults the Elbe Day and joint fight against coronavirus
SUMMARY
In light of joint fight against the coronavirus outbreak many controversial issues in US-Russia relations retreat a little bit. Their cooperation in fighting coronavirus revives the spirit of the Elbe Day. The decision of Prague 6 district to remove the monument to Soviet marshal Ivan Konev goes contrary to this spirit. Moreover, the First Ukrainian Front, whose regiment met American troops on the Elbe River, was under Konev’s command. Therefore, the monument’s removal is an insult to the Elbe Day and the joint fight against coronavirus.
RESPONSE
This is another example of disinformation concerning the removal of Konev's monument in Prague. The speculation that this decision insults the Elbe Day and the joint fight against coronavirus is far-fetched and unreasonable, especially considering that the decision was made in September 2019, several months before the coronavirus outbreak. The democratically elected municipal council of Prague 6 voted for the removal of the statue. Using the protocol of the Politbureau's assembly, Czech historians established that on 8-14 May 1968 Konev chaired the Soviet military delegation sent to Prague to prepare the military invasion of Czechoslovakia. Konev was also chief of the Soviet troops in East Germany during the Berlin wall crisis in 1961. In other words, the Red Army brought not only liberation but also the terror to Czechia, as the mayor of Prague 6, Ondřej Kolář, reminded. Kolář said that he respects the role of Konev-led forces in liberating Prague, and the sacrifice of Soviet armies liberating Europe from Nazism. "We will strive for an art competition for a memorial to the liberators of Prague at the end of World War Two instead of the marshal Konev statue," he said before the vote. "At the same time we will secure a dignified - and let me stress that, dignified - placement of this art piece (Konev) in a memorial institution. I think this is a consensual solution we have called for a number of years." The monument to Marshall Konev was erected in 1980 during the "normalisation" period in communist Czechoslovakia. The leadership of Prague's Municipal District 6, which retains legal ownership of the statue, has voted to move the monument to a museum and replace it with a memorial commemorating Soviet sacrifices in the fight against Hitler in general, and the liberation of Prague in particular. More information available here. See earlier disinformation cases concerning the Konev's statue which alleged that the purpose of removing the monuments is to provoke aggression towards Russia, that the removal is immoral and illegal, and that Prague committed a crime by removing the Konev monument.