It's only when Szczygieł tracks down people who were involved with the monument's building and destruction, and finds them still afraid, still unwilling to talk about it, that he comes to a horrifying new conclusion: "Prague's monument to Stalin does exist." "Prague's monument to Stalin never existed." It's absurd, of course, but that's the point - in a country at constant war with its past, dominated for decades by a repressive communist regime, erasing history was a matter of course. "Not a single line about the monument's destruction appears in the press," writes Mariusz Szczygieł. But in 1962, the biggest monument to Josef Stalin in the world was destroyed, after the dictator fell out of ideological favor in Czechoslovakia. It dominated Letná Park in Prague for the seven years it stood. It was 50 feet high and 70 feet long, more than 37 million pounds of granite and concrete. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Gottland Subtitle Mostly True Stories from Half of Czechoslovakia Author Mariusz Szczygiel
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