In a text entitled "A Dignified Place for Konev " published on 26 January 2021 in the daily Právo, MP and former Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg commented on a case that resonated not only in the Czech political environment a year ago this spring.
I will take the liberty of supplementing his view with facts that are missing from his article. In April 2020, the Prague 6 municipal district and the Museum of the Memory of the XXth Century concluded a contract for the loan of the statue of Marshal Konev. By this step, the management of the Prague 6 municipal district supported the museum and memory institution, which was established a few months earlier on the basis of a resolution of the City Council of the capital city of Prague. Prague.
The statue has found a temporary shelter in the depository, where it is being cared for in a proper quality. The Museum of the Memory of the XXth Century is now preparing an exhibition project that would bring this artefact
to present this artifact in a broader historical context. It is likely to be realised next year in a temporary location the museum's temporary home, the House of the Passion at Hradčany. In the long term, we expect the statue to be placed in the Hradec Králové House in Prague 6. of Marshal Konev in the permanent seat of the museum, which is to be located in the Strahov Stadium.
The aim of the forthcoming exhibition is also to show different perspectives on the personality of Marshal Konev, his role in various historical events and the building of his propaganda cult in post-war Czechoslovakia. We would like to create a substantive framework for public debate on these issues. Already in 2020, at a time that did not allow for mass public events, we held a total of four debates, at least online, which presented both the personality of Marshal I. S. Konev and the propagandistic use of his personality by the communist regime. All of them are available on the museum's website.
In the context of coming to terms with the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century that operated on the territory of today's Czech Republic, I also wish that the emotions surrounding the Koniev statue would calm down and that the Museum of Memory of the 20th Century would be given the opportunity to present this artefact in its exhibition.
PhDr. Jan Kalous, Ph.D., Director of the Museum of Memory of the 20th Century, kalous@muzeum20stoleti.cz
Statue of Marshal Konev, 31 August 2019 (photo: Petr Blažek)