In Prague's Řeporyje, there will be a memorial site for the fallen members of the Vlasov Army

Prague - Next year, Prague's Řeporyje will create a memorial site for the fallen soldiers of the Russian Liberation Army, known as the vlasovci, to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. The proposal was unanimously approved by the local council during today's meeting. According to Mayor Pavel Novotný (ODS), Řeporyje owes a dignified memorial place to around 300 fallen soldiers who assisted in the liberation of Prague in May 1945. The future memorial site will, according to Novotný, be under surveillance and protected with an anti-graffiti coating. The Russian embassy in Prague and Russian diplomacy have previously objected to the proposal for the monument.

The leadership of the Řeporyje municipality will continue to discuss the design of the memorial site. However, the municipality does not plan to hold a public art competition, Novotný stated. The term vlasovci should not appear on the monument, as it is misleading in this context and raises significant controversy. According to Novotný, suggestions made by the public regarding the design of the monument will be taken into consideration.

About twenty journalists, locals from Řeporyje, and other Praguers who wanted to express their opinions on the topic attended the council meeting. They discussed for more than an hour.

Speakers included Robert Vašíček, a councilor from Prague 11 representing the SPD, and pro-Russian activist Žarko Jovanović, who criticized Novotný's plan. Other residents of Řeporyje also questioned the construction of the monument, pointing to the cruel acts committed by the vlasovci while serving the German army.

A proposal for a referendum on the construction of the monument was also put forward, which Novotný rejected. Several locals mentioned their parents' or grandparents' memories, agreeing that they only spoke positively about the vlasovci.

Historian and ODS MP Pavel Žáček also spoke at the meeting, bringing forward a proposal for the monument alongside Novotný. According to him, it was precisely in Řeporyje that it was decided that one of the divisions of the Russian Liberation Army would assist Czech insurgents against the Germans. "We want to honor the lives of ordinary soldiers; we do not want to honor General Vlasov or Buňačenko," stated Řeporyje Deputy Mayor David Roznětinský (Green Party). A broader debate on the design of the monument should take place, he added.

According to the Russian embassy, the monument to the vlasovci would violate the Czech Republic's international obligations arising from the convention on the non-applicability of statutes of limitations to war crimes. Russian diplomacy labeled the idea for the monument as "an absolutely terrible initiative" that serves to reincarnate Nazism.

The so-called vlasovci were citizens of the Soviet Union who allowed themselves to be recruited into the Russian Liberation Army while in German captivity. They then fought against the Soviets alongside the Germans from the beginning of 1945. The commander of one of the divisions of the vlasovci, Sergej Buňačenko, issued an order in Řeporyje on May 6, 1945, after which the vlasovci came to assist the anti-Nazi Prague Uprising.