Petr Blažek: The Cult of Marshal Konev and his Prague Monument

The life story of Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev and the history of his propaganda monument, which stood in 1980-2020 on the Interbrigade Square in Prague's Bubenč. Its authors were sculptor Zdeněk Krybus and architect Vratislav Růžička. After 21 August 1968, numerous occupying Soviet troops were stationed in the country, which had been ruled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1948. It is significant that the unveiling of the statue of Konev was attended by their highest representative. After 1989, the Konev monument became the subject of controversy, reflecting different views of the past. 

Petr Blažek is a Czech historian. He works at the Museum of Memory of the Twentieth Century, where he became its interim director in December 2023, and at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, where he leads a project on the history of the shaft graves in Ďáblice.