Listen to the audio version of today’s post here.
My son likes wearing pink shirts as a small fuck you to homophobia. After the cold war, Czech artists painted the Monument to Soviet Tank Crews pink, and erected a giant middle finger atop it, as a big fuck you to decades of Soviet occupation and oppression.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: April 27, 1991--
The monument was an actual Soviet tank, set atop a huge stone pedestal in the city of Prague as a hey we kicked out those fucking Nazis for you but we’re gonna stick around and make life shitty for everyone and like it or get gulag.
In the month following the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, there was something called the Velvet Revolution in what was then called Czechoslovakia. After more than four decades of one-party communist rule in the country, nonviolent protests transformed the nation into a parliamentary republic, leading to democratic elections six months later.
But that fucking tank was still sitting there, as it had been since the summer of 1945.
For many, the tank was a symbol of ongoing oppression. One example is that the first half of 1968 was the period of the “Prague Spring,” when there was a brief time of liberalization in the country. But this was crushed by a Soviet invasion of 200,000 troops and 2,000 tanks to say fuck your freedom. And so decades later on the night of April 27, 1991, an artist named David Černý and his friends painted the tank pink and put the finger on top.
Alas, the Soviet Union was not quite yet dead, and they were pissed.
Like artists are often wont to do, David signed his work, and was promptly arrested for “hooliganism” at the behest of the Soviets. The tank was painted back to green in time for the anniversary of the Soviets entering Prague on May 9, 1945 to kick out the Nazis, but a week later 15 newly elected members of the Czechoslovakian parliament, taking advantage of their immunity status, said fuck the Soviets and painted the tank pink again as a protest against Černý’s arrest.
Their efforts got Černý released, and the tank was painted green again. Then it was painted pink again. Then green. Then pink. And I’m not sure how many times but eventually the people with the green paint said fuck it we give up. The tank, with its multiple coats of paint, pink being the outermost color, was then relocated to a military museum a dozen miles south of Prague. In 2011, as part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the departure of Soviet forces, the tank was briefly returned to Prague. A new middle finger was placed atop the tank and it was floated on a barge in the Vltava River for all to see.
Thank you, Ilexx, for the suggestion of today’s post.
The book is now available! Get On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.
Image attribution: ŠJů. License.