Il monumento praghese a Stalin: un’ombra ingombrante sul ‘disgelo’

Abstract

The Monument to Stalin in Prague. A Shadow that loomed over the 'Thaw'

The author of the article focuses on the historical moment immediately preceding the death of Stalin and on the following period of partial political and cultural liberalization in the European countries under Soviet influence. He then concentrates on some guidelines of the so-called “destalinization” process, in particular regarding Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1963. He points out how, for a few years, the leaders of the Czech Communist Party managed to stem the tide of positive reform and anti-dogmatic protests that instead spread faster and wider in countries like Hungary and Poland, as well as in the Soviet Union itself. The essay effectively highlights a symbolic episode of particular importance: the construction of the gigantic statue of Stalin, that dominated the landscape of Prague until 1962. Due to its particular chronology and its emblematic significance, this event summarizes the paradoxical features of the Czechoslovakian political context; in the historical moment in question, Czech politicians were particularly reluctant to welcome the liberal stimuli coming directly from Moscow and the Soviet leaders. Finally, he notes how the statue of Stalin has featured in several texts of Czech literature, in particular amongst dissenters and emigrants, but also in a classic such as Bohumil Hrabal, a testimony to the strong emotional and cultural impact that the statue had on the society and culture of Prague and of Czechoslovakia as a whole.