How the mighty are fallen.

This is the site in Letná Park of the former monument to Stalin that used to overlook Prague. The monument was a massive granite statue of Joseph Stalin, the largest in the world, followed by a group of admiring comrades. My photograph was taken where the flag is flying in the historical photograph in the link. The statue, 16 metres in height was unveiled in 1955 after more than 5½ years of construction work.

The sculptor was Otakar Svec who, under pressure from the government and secret police and while receiving hate mail from Czech citizens, killed himself three weeks before the unveiling.

The process of de-Stalinization began shortly after the unveiling of the monument, which became an increasing source of embarrassment to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and was blown up in 1962 with 800 kg of explosives.