Visual symbols, democracy and memory: The monument of Ivan Stepanovich Konev and the memory of communism in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The article discusses a conflict surrounding the removal of the Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev monument in Prague in 2020. The text begins by presenting different narratives associated with the statue and proceeds to demonstrate how the monument became entangled in a battle between opposing political factions, both in the Czech Republic and on an international scale. The aim of the article is to examine this example in the context of memory studies and to indicate that the situation in the Czech Republic arises from different cultural, social and historical contexts, especially the legacy of communism and the complex Czech Russian relations, but is in many ways similar to the situation in the United States and other places around the world lately experiencing monument struggles.