Marshall Ivan Konev in Prague in 1945 (source: WIKIMEDIA CC)
Slovakia may soon become probably the first Central European country to erect a monument to a Soviet-era figure since the fall of communism, reports Denník N.
During his visit to Moscow last week, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) discussed the idea with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The monument would honour Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev, who led the 1944 Carpathian-Dukla operation—an attempt to support the Slovak National Uprising against Nazi occupation. Putin called the initiative "noble".
Feeding the nostalgia
According to the daily, it was Putin who first brought up the subject at the start of their meeting.
"I know about your proposal to build a monument to Marshal Konev in your country. It is a noble thing; we are grateful. If you need any help, we are ready," the Russian president said. Fico replied that talks about the idea have been ongoing since commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Dukla operation last year. No concrete details about the proposed monument have been disclosed.
The daily notes that the idea is likely to resonate with Fico's voter base. Compared to neighbouring Czechs, Slovaks tend to hold stronger nostalgic feelings toward Russia and the communist period. Fico has often tapped into this sentiment, promoting the notion that life was better under communism.
However, not all in Slovakia share this view. There are ongoing efforts to remove Soviet symbols from public spaces. For example, a majority of Košice city councillors recently urged the city leadership to remove a Soviet-era monument from Liberators Square—or at the very least, to take down the hammer and sickle emblems. The symbols have frequently been vandalised, and opposition to them has grown since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While countries such as Poland and the Baltic states are actively dismantling Soviet memorials, Fico appears to be charting a different course.
Prague takes the opposite path
A statue of Marshal Konev was erected in Prague in 1980 during the post-1968 normalisation period, intended to reinforce allegiance to the Soviet Union. In 2020, Prague city councillors voted to remove it, despite strong objections from the Russian embassy and then-president Miloš Zeman.
The city later went a step further, renaming the street once bearing Konev's name. The decision was partly motivated by Konev's controversial legacy: he played a role in suppressing the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and had a marginal involvement in the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
