"Ivan with a Rifle": Why Znojmo Can't Decide the Fate of Its Soviet Monument

For the past 72 years, a five-metre bronze statue of a Soviet soldier with his rifle pointed towards Vienna has stood on a roundabout in the central Mariánské Square in the Czech town of Znojmo. Locals call it "Ivan" — officially, it's the "Victory Monument," erected in 1953 to commemorate the town's liberation by the Soviet army in May 1945.

The monument is protected by the state as a cultural heritage site, so it cannot simply be torn down, says Znojmo Mayor František Koudela of the ODS party. According to him, the town is roughly split down the middle on what to do with the statue: "I myself would support moving it somewhere else in a dignified manner, but it's still unclear what to do with it next."

A Town Without Consensus

MP Jakub Krajner of the STAN movement, who represents Znojmo, sees the balance of opinion differently: he estimates that no more than 30% of residents actually want the statue removed. He himself proposes sending the monument to storage and restoring something on the square connected to its Marian heritage — until 1952, a Marian chapel stood there before being demolished by units of the People's Militia.

While the two sides remain unable to agree, opponents of the monument have used it for symbolic protests. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the statue was wrapped in Ukrainian flags, and last year, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, local students covered its pedestal with slogans urging people to "respect, understand, not be indifferent, and listen."

Not the Only Monument of Its Kind

Similar Soviet-era monuments still stand in other Czech towns — for instance, the "Traveller" statue on Moravské Square in Brno. In nearby Moravský Krumlov, however, a monument to a Red Army soldier was removed back in 1991. In Znojmo itself, several similar monuments, including one dedicated to Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship, were taken down years ago.

"Ivan" has survived partly because the Czech Ministry of Culture once recognised it as "part of the urban design of the surrounding cityscape" — a status that remained intact even amid the heated debates sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

David Štolpa, an MP from the ANO movement — which won the last municipal elections and remains the frontrunner again this year — admits that the statue personally doesn't bother him, though he wouldn't be upset to see it gone either. In his view, the monument is unlikely to become a major issue in the upcoming municipal elections, since Znojmo has plenty of other problems to deal with — but the question could well end up on a local referendum ballot in the future.

Read also: Brno: What to See and Where to Go

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz