Stalin's Monument () was a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

statue honoring

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. It was unveiled on 1 May 1955 after more than years of work, and was the world's largest representation of Stalin. The sculpture was demolished in late 1962.

History

Background

The structure was commissioned after the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

seized power in Czechoslovakia in 1948 with Soviet backing. It was designed to showcase Stalinist ideology and was constructed on an elevated site on Letna Hill in Letná Park, overlooking the city centre of Prague.Stalin statue site reveals chilling remains of Prague labour camp

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

(28 March 2020)

Construction & Inauguration

The monument was located on a huge concrete pedestal on the flattened Letna Hill, which can still be visited in Letná Park. It was the largest group statue in Europe, measuring high and long. The monument weighed 17 million kilograms, and consumed thirty thousand granite slabs.

Forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

was used during the monument's construction. In 2021, archaeological excavations in Letná Park uncovered the foundations of a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

which housed workers involved in the monument's construction. According to historical documents, the camp consisted of three wooden

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

, each accommodating up to 40 inmates in eight-person rooms, with minimal facilities. The laborers were described as soldiers and individuals deemed politically unreliable by the communist regime. The monument was officially unveiled on May 1, 1955. It was officially titled ''"A Monument to Love and Friendship."'' The sculptor was

Otakar Švec Otakar Švec (23 November 1892, in Prague-New Town, Prague, New Town – 3 March 1955, in Prague) was a Czechoslovak sculptor best known for his colossal granite Stalin Monument (Prague), Monument to Stalin in Prague. Career A pupil of Josef Vá ...

, who killed himself a few days before the unveiling.

Demolition

Stalin died in March 1953, two years before the unveiling of the monument, and the process of

de-Stalinization De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nik ...

began shortly after its completion. The monument, therefore, became a liability to the

. As ordered by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, it was taken down with of explosives. The remains of the statue are stored in chambers beneath the site.

Later use of site

In 1990,

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

station Radio Stalin operated from a bomb shelter beneath the statue's

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

. The same shelter was also the home of Prague's first rock club in the early 1990s. Since 1991, the marble pedestal has been used as the base of a giant kinetic sculpture of a

metronome A metronome () is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a uniform interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats per minute (BPM). Metronomes may also include synchronized visual motion, such as a swinging pendulum ...

. In 1996, the pedestal was briefly used as a base for a statue of

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

as a promotional stunt for the start of his

HIStory World Tour The ''HIS''tory World Tour was the third and final worldwide solo concert tour by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, covering Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and North America. The tour included a total of 82 concerts spanning the gl ...

. A billboard promoting Civic Democratic Party leader

Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...

was erected on the site during the Czech parliamentary elections of 1998 but was removed soon after due to high winds. A green plaque below the metronome reads:

Metronome
Letenské sady
The Metronome, the work of sculptor , was erected in 1991 atop the massive stone plinth that originally served as the base for the monument to Soviet leader Josef Vissarionovich Stalin. Work began on Prague's Stalin monument towards the end of 1949, and in May 1955, it was finally unveiled. The largest group sculpture in Europe during its existence, the monument had a reinforced-concrete structure faced with 235
granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
blocks, weighing 17,000 tonnes and costing 140 million crowns to complete. The gigantic composition, by sculptor
Otakar Švec Otakar Švec (23 November 1892, in Prague-New Town, Prague, New Town – 3 March 1955, in Prague) was a Czechoslovak sculptor best known for his colossal granite Stalin Monument (Prague), Monument to Stalin in Prague. Career A pupil of Josef Vá ...
and the architects and /nowiki>his wife/nowiki> Štursa, did not tower for long over the medieval centre of Prague: in connection with Soviet criticism of Stalin's "
cult of personality A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader,Cas Mudde, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create ...
," the work was dynamited and removed towards the end of 1962.

The City of Prague has been considering several options for redevelopment of the site for years, including a plan to build an aquarium. The remaining socle is a popular meeting point for skateboarders and other people.Letná Park (praha7.cz)
/ref>

References

External links

Article from Prague local about Stalin monument

1990 Bomb shelter housing Stalin Club and pirat radio station
photo by Peter Lind {{Authority control 1955 sculptures Buildings and structures demolished in 1962 Colossal statues Czechoslovakia–Soviet Union relations Demolished buildings and structures in the Czech Republic Destroyed sculptures History of Prague Monuments and memorials in Prague Outdoor sculptures in Prague Statues of Joseph Stalin Buildings and structures completed in 1955 1955 establishments in Czechoslovakia Prague 7 Stalin, Prague 1962 disestablishments in Czechoslovakia 20th-century architecture in the Czech Republic Soviet monuments outside Russia Works about Stalinism Politics of Prague Communism in Czechoslovakia Buildings and structures in Czechoslovakia