A Prague municipality has covered the statue of a Soviet marshal whose forces liberated Prague in WWII, claiming it needs protection from vandals. The move angered many Czechs, including the president’s spokesman.

Authorities in the northwestern Bubeneč district of the Czech capital announced that they can no longer keep cleaning the monument to Marshal Ivan Konev after continuous acts of vandalism against it, so they decided to cover it with a tarpaulin.

The move, announced by the mayor of Prague 6 municipality, Ondrej Kolar, caused an immediate backlash. Several dozen people protested against the decision on Monday at the statue’s location, including the Czech president’s spokesman Jiri Ovčaček.

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“We have different opinions and we choose different political parties, but one thing connects us, we reject the rewriting of history and we reject people who trample on the values ​​of democracy,” Ovčaček said in a speech.

He was one of the multiple Czechs protesting the covering-up as it happened. He posted a photo of him bowing his head before Konev’s statue on his Twitter account, calling him “liberator of the Czech Republic and of the Auschwitz death camp.”

S modlitbou k Dobrotivému Bohu jsem se poklonil památce Ivana Stěpanoviče Koněva, osvoboditele ČSR i vyhlazovacího tábora Auschwitz. pic.twitter.com/97OSia8I7T — Jiří Ovčáček (@PREZIDENTmluvci) August 29, 2019

The Russian Embassy condemned the timing of Kolar’s decision, made “in the run up to the 80th anniversary of the most horrific military conflict in human history.” The embassy claimed it has received numerous letters from Czech citizens denouncing this move, with some “wondering which side would incumbent municipal government of Prague 6 district support during World War Two.”

While the embassy did not provide specific examples of the letters, denunciation of the act from the Czech general public was evident. A man named Jiri Cernohorsky, described as “anti-immigration activist and supporter of the Russian Federation” removed the cover in protest on Friday and again during the Monday protest, and was reportedly apprehended by police for that.

Podporovatel RF a znamy hlasity recnik z napriklad protiimigracnich demonstraci Jiri Cernohorsky nozem odstranil plachtu ze sochy marsala Koneva, ktera ji měla chranit pred vandaly. Vice na @SeznamZpravypic.twitter.com/VwsLkBrGHR — Šimon Trantina (@trantina19) August 30, 2019

Other Czechs also condemned the act of covering the statue, while also celebrating Konev’s historical role.

“Truth cannot be burned as the Nazis did, nor hidden as the Bolsheviks did, nor can it be covered with the tarpaulins of the P6. Truth always comes to the surface,” one person wrote on Twitter.

“If not for Konev, Prague would have been reduced to ashes,” another stated.

“Konev was a hero, but Nazis don’t like that,” a third one added.

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Some Czech citizens, however, had a different opinion, largely based on Konev’s post-war activities. The monument’s opponents called him a “liberator and murderer” for being “complicit in the murders in Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia 1968,” and recalled that he “commanded the troops that massacred the Hungarian uprising.”

In response to criticism, district boss Ondrej Kolarsaid the Konev statue is targeted for vandalism at least twice a year. He believes this illustrates the district population’s negative attitude towards Konev, and called those gathered for Monday’s protest “extremists united by… a blind love for Russia.”

Kolar suggested the monument should be moved to the Russian Embassy which is also located in Prague 6 – but Ovčaček reminded the mayor he was against the removal only two years ago, saying it would “polarize the society” and “there are more important problems to take care of.”

The monument to Konev was unveiled on May 9, 1980, the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Prague by the troops of the 1st Ukranian Front, commanded by Konev. While hailed as a WWII liberator, Konev’s post-war actions still spark controversy because of his role in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and the so-called Prague Spring of 1968.

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