The dispute over a monument to the Red Army

In the Czech city of Brno the municipal authorities have had the hammer and sickle and other communist symbols erased from a monument commemorating the country's liberation by the Red Army. This has provoked protests from Russia. The Czech Foreign Ministry has criticised the responsible local politicians for their actions, and according to Martin Zvěřina it was right to do so because the past can't simply be erased. "For 40 years the Communists governed here like lifeless puppets in the hands of Soviet Russia, so it's understandable that people resent the hammer and sickle. Historians research and evaluate the imperialist practices of Stalinist or Brezhnevian Russia, but no one and nothing can change the fact that Soviet soldiers liberated Brno-Kralovo Pole... The removal of monuments commemorating the fallen liberators is not only irreverent but also childish. The crimes of the Soviet regime should not be allowed to cloud our minds to such an extent that we ignore the thousands of dead soldiers who liberated us."

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