Stalin's Monument (Prague)
Encyclopedia
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
that was unveiled in 1955 after more than 5½ years of work in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. It was the world's largest representation of Stalin, and was destroyed in 1962.
The monument was located on a huge concrete pedestal, which can still be visited in Letná Park
Letna Park
Letná Park is a large park built on a plateau above steep embankments along the Vltava River in Prague, Czech Republic called Letná. Letná's elevation and location afford commanding views of the Prague Old Town ....
. It was the largest group statue in Europe, measuring 15.5 meters in height and 22 metres in length. The sculptor was Otakar Švec
Otakar Švec
Otakar Švec was a Czech sculptor best known for his colossal granite Monument to Stalin in Prague, Czech Republic....
, who, under pressure from the government and secret police while receiving hate mail from Czech citizens, killed himself three weeks before the unveiling.
The process of de-Stalinization began shortly after the unveiling of the monument. The monument, therefore, became an increasing source of embarrassment to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
, and was taken down with 800 kg of explosives.
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...
. 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
Prague Metronome
The Metronome is a giant, functional metronome located overlooking the Vltava River and the city center of Prague. It was erected in 1991, and stands on the plinth left vacant by the destruction of an enormous monument to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin . The Metronome is now mostly a scenic...
. In 1996 the pedestal was briefly used as a base for a 35 feet (10.7 m) statue of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
as a promotional stunt for the start of his HIStory European tour. A billboard promoting Civic Democratic Party leader Václav Klaus
Václav Klaus
Václav Klaus is the second President of the Czech Republic and a former Prime Minister .An economist, he is co-founder of the Civic Democratic Party, the Czech Republic's largest center-right political party. Klaus is a eurosceptic, but he reluctantly endorsed the Lisbon treaty as president of...
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
Vratislav Karel Novák, 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-concreteFerrocementThe term ferrocement is most commonly applied to a mixture of Portland cement and sand reinforced with layers of woven or expanded steel mesh and closely spaced small-diameter steel rods rebar. It can be used to form relatively thin, compound curved sheets to make hulls for boats, shell roofs,...
structure faced with 235 graniteGraniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
blocks,
weighing 17,000 tonnes and costing
140 million crownsCzechoslovak korunaThe Czechoslovak koruna was the currency of Czechoslovakia from April 10, 1919 to March 14, 1939 and from November 1, 1945 to February 7, 1993...
to complete.
The gigantic composition, by sculptor
Otakar ŠvecOtakar ŠvecOtakar Švec was a Czech sculptor best known for his colossal granite Monument to Stalin in Prague, Czech Republic....
and the architects Jiří
and Vlasta[ his wife] Štursa, did not tower for long
over the medieval centre of Prague:
in connection with Soviet criticism
of Stalin's "cult of personalityCult of personalityA cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
," 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 considered to be one of the best skateboarding spots in the world, and is daily frequented by local skaters, as well as visitors from all over the world.