The Czech Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry commented on a letter from the head of the Russian military to the Czech counterpart Lubomir Metnar, in which Sergei Shoigu asked to hand over the monument to Marshal Konev, which was demolished in the Prague-6 area, and announced Moscow’s readiness to bear all shipping costs.
Statements by Czech government agencies come down to three main points, from which the further development of events becomes obvious: a) a response to the appeal will be prepared; b) the “relocation” of the monument does not violate any bilateral agreements; and c) the monument is the property of the Prague-6 district, and therefore the Ministry of Defense cannot decide the fate of what does not belong to it.
A much more lively reaction of the Czech authorities followed to another question of journalists – about the possible prosecution of dismantling organizers by Moscow. The representative of the Ministry of Justice assured that the Czech Republic will certainly not extradite anyone to Russia.
This topic arose for a reason, because a few days ago Vladimir Putin signed a federal law on criminal liability for the destruction or damage of military graves and monuments that perpetuate the memory of those who died in defense of the Fatherland. So when Maria Zakharova called what happened in Prague a crime, it was not an emotional outburst and a colorful epithet, but a statement of how the Russian law looked at the situation – which confirmed the initiation of the corresponding criminal case by the Investigative Committee.
The recent Eastern European attack on memorials dedicated to the exploits of the Red Army during the Second World War is very different from what these processes usually represent.
Demolition of monuments almost always reveals the country’s internal life during periods of acute crisis. This is a symbolic and ideological break with the past, which for one reason or another is hotly condemned and rejected. Our country experienced the same thing twice in the last century: first after the revolution, and then, fortunately, on a much smaller scale, in the early 1990s. Now the West, in a fever of liberal political correctness, is getting rid of the suddenly become outrageous and unacceptable monuments, including those established by Columbus and the American founding fathers.
But, obviously, the encroachment on Soviet war memorials in Poland, the transfer of the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn and the dismantling of the monument to Konev – are something else. Not about the inner life of the respective countries, but about their desire to hook Russia: to hurt, insult, humiliate, provoke an acute emotional reaction, proudly demonstrate once again the position “we are not brothers to you”.
True, there is a subtlety that our Eastern European neighbors do not want to notice in any way: only a loved one can cause emotional pain. And so long ago they have been proving the opposite, so diligently trampling on the most sensitive Russian calluses, on the long-lived thesis about “fraternal peoples” that they have achieved their goal – Russia believed them. Well, since it’s not the brothers, then there’s nothing to worry about their actions.
Russian society perceives all these scandals from a completely different angle – in the context of fulfilling a duty to their ancestors, to their heroes. And this is the case when the process in its own way is more important than the result.
Every year, dozens of search squads go on expeditions in the country. Each season they raise and bury with the military honors the remains of hundreds of fallen Soviet soldiers. Someone may say that this is Sisyphus’s work, since you can’t find everyone in any case, and many thousands will remain in unknown graves. But the point is precisely that, continuing this work, Russia pays tribute to the memory of absolutely everyone who gave their lives for their native land.
The long-dead Marshal Konev, of course, doesn’t care what the current Czech authorities do with his monument. Not all the same to Russia, which feels the need and duty to do the maximum possible to protect the memory of its commander.
Concerning the Eastern Europeans, violent indignation was replaced by the calm work of diplomatic and legal professionals. Compared with man, the state has a very serious advantage in the form of a much longer memory and long arms. This is why the Czechs are somewhat nervous about the recent actions of Moscow: Russians in the mode of consistent preparation and quiet expectation are more scary than in a state of loud rage, which betrays pain and powerlessness.
As for the emotional response of Russian society to the actions of the Czechs and other neighbors along the western border in relation to burials, memorials and monuments of the Red Army, of course there is – but it is getting closer and closer to what the Islamists who destroyed the statues almost twenty years ago were honored with Buddhas in the Bamyan Valley of Afghanistan.