PRAGUE: Around 5,000 Prague residents will soon have a new address as a street previously named after the Soviet general Ivan Stepanovich Konev is to be renamed because of the Russian war against Ukraine, reported German news agency (dpa).
Koněvova Street is to be renamed as of October, the city council decided, a spokesman said on Monday.
For residents of the roughly 3.4-km long main thoroughfare, the move will cause some inconvenience as they are obliged to exchange their identity cards and other documents within six months. Hundreds of businesses and shops are also affected.
In future, the street in the Czech capital will be called Hartigova – named after a former mayor of today’s Žižkov district, Karel Hartig (1833-1905).
A larger-than-life statue to Konev (1897-1973) on Prague’s Interbrigade Square was removed in April 2020. The Russian embassy spoke at the time of an “act of vandalism”.
The Soviet Union marshal took part with his troops in the Battle of Berlin in World War II before liberating Prague in May 1945.
During the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, Konev was the commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces in Germany. – BERNAMA-dpa
