Hammer and sickle dispute acquires international dimension
An ongoing dispute over whether the communist hammer and sickle symbols belong on a wartime memorial to Russian soldiers who died during the liberation of Brno at the end of the Second World War has stumped Czech officials, divided the inhabitants of Brno and elicited an official protest from Russia.
The dispute was set in motion by the deputy mayor of Brno, Rene Pelan, who took it upon himself to remove the hammer and sickle symbols from a monument built to commemorate 326 soldiers of the Red Army, who lost their lives liberating Brno from Nazi occupation. He made the decision without consulting the town hall authorities and paid a firm to grind off the symbols under cover of the night. The police are now investigating the incident to see whether he committed a criminal offense by interfering with the memorial. The deputy mayor claims that a criminal offense would have been to leave them there since - as he sees it - the hammer and sickle are symbols of a totalitarian regime just like the Nazis' swastika. However, Czech legislation does not ban communist symbols and Brno police spokeswoman Andrea Prochazkova says Mr Pelan is on very thin ice with his interpretation of the law.
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The dispute was set in motion by the deputy mayor of Brno, Rene Pelan, who took it upon himself to remove the hammer and sickle symbols from a monument built to commemorate 326 soldiers of the Red Army, who lost their lives liberating Brno from Nazi occupation. He made the decision without consulting the town hall authorities and paid a firm to grind off the symbols under cover of the night. The police are now investigating the incident to see whether he committed a criminal offense by interfering with the memorial. The deputy mayor claims that a criminal offense would have been to leave them there since - as he sees it - the hammer and sickle are symbols of a totalitarian regime just like the Nazis' swastika. However, Czech legislation does not ban communist symbols and Brno police spokeswoman Andrea Prochazkova says Mr Pelan is on very thin ice with his interpretation of the law.