The Story of Svandovo Divadlo

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There’s a rather ordinary square which I pass daily in Prague that has a rich story to do with pink tanks. It is called Svandovo Namesti and is between Andel with its massive shopping centre and Mala Strana the ancient district of town below Prazsky Hrad(Prague Castle). Last year when browsing through a 15-year old map of the city I noticed that the name used to be ‘Namesti Sovietskych Tankistu’, which roused my interest in a place I thought was named after the theatre of the same name across the street.

Just today I chatted with my flatmate Wernie, who always has a story to tell, told me that where the large granite fountain now stands was the #23 Soviet Tank, which was supposedly the first Soviet tank to enter Nazi occupied Prague. This is mere propaganda he says because surely the first of these tanks was destroyed. Anyways, the name of the square in English was ‘Soviet Tank driver Square’ to commemorate those great comerade liberators from the east(ignoring of course America’s help in West Bohemia). Well, this tank was of course green. But, in the winter of 1989 when the revolution was happening someone in the night decided to paint the tank pink! The communist officials didn’t like this none too much. So they found out who did it and threw him in prison. Then soon after some revolution supporting parliement members showed their solidarity by also painting the tank pink together but in broad daylight. But politicians had immunity. It wasn’t long after that the regime fell. You can imagine how liberating it must have felt to transform such an object of authority to one of ridicule with a coat of paint.
Wernie’s mother was an active protestor for the revolution and recalls when she would take home and treat people who had been beaten and injured from the violent protests just across the river in old town. Wernie lived right by this Svandovo Namesti which had a number of demonstrations at this time. The largest were at Vaclavske Namesti(Wenceslas Square) in the heart of town where instead of beating them there, the police directed them all down one road where they could concentrate them in a herd and give them a piece of their baton. This is the same tactic the Chinese used in Tianneman Square, also, in 1989 where they in fact didn’t kill anyone in the square but on the side streets. Well, no one was killed in Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution but plenty were injured, nevermind the decades of psychological and emotional torture the people endured. While walking down these beautiful boulevards its easy to forget that this happened just 17 years ago.

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Photos

a chat at the bus sop
A chinese merchandise shop had an extra couch on the sidewalk and they offered it to us, and we accepted :). This is us having a chat at the bus stop.