Prague, May 8 (CTK) – An estimated 200 to 300 people staged a march to the Hradcany Square outside Prague Castle, so called Immortal Regiment, that commemorated those who fell in World War Two, for which the organisers find inspiration in the Russian celebrations of the end of the war.
The participants, most of whom spoke Russian, carried photographs of the people who died in the war or fought in it.
The march lasted about 20 minutes and no incidents were reported. During it, the participants mainly sang Russian war songs. After the march, children’s choirs form the Czech Republic and Russia gave a concert.
In reaction to the march, a few people took up a position at the statue of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, first Czechoslovak president, in the Hradcany Square, carrying the portraits of general Helidor Pika, Czechoslovak legionary Sergej Vojcechovsky, military pilot in Britain Karel Janosuek and politician Milada Horakova, saying they were imprisoned or murdered by the communist regime.
Legionary and representative of the anti-Nazi resistance Pika was executed by the Czechoslovak communist regime in 1949.
Vojcechovsky, a legionary and general of the Czechoslovak military who was of Russian origin, was dragged in 1945 by the Soviet NKVD secret service to the Soviet Union where he died in gulag in 1951.
Janousek, the sole Czechoslovak pilot who was appointed RAF Air Marshal, was sentenced by the communist regime to many years in prison in the 1950s.
The communists sentenced Horakova to death for treason in a framed-up trial and executed in 1950.
The march was organised by the Czech Freedom Fighters Union, the Czech Union of Military Veterans, the Ludvik Svoboda Society, the Association of Czechs from Volhynia and their friends, and others.
