Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Narodni Muzeum

This display of candles was isolated from the rest, depicting a heart and his birth and death years, which were 1936-2011. My sense is that before the candles got moved around, it was easier to read.

This was further down the square, at the Jan Palac/Jan Zajic memorial, one of two on the square (the other is a cross embedded in the sidewalk in front of the Narodni Muzeum).

A giant photo of Havel was prepared on short notice to hang from the Narodni Muzeum as part of the remembrance. There wasn't any dedicated memorial to Havel yet, since he had only just died, so everything had to be makeshift, as in this photo, and the adaptation of the Vaclav I and Palach/Zajic memorials for the purpose. Almost immediately, however, proceedings were begun to rename Prague's Ruzyne Airport to Letiste Vaclava Havla.

This is a wider shot, taken from the front of the statue instead of the left side as before.

This was what I found upon my return to Prague. Vaclav Havel, the former President and revolutionary, had died while I was away. This display of candles, cards, and so on, most of them around the older Svaty Vaclav (St. Wenceslas) statue, stayed up longer than planned, largely due to public outcry against government plans to dismantle it by New Year's Eve (remembering national heroes is a downer when people are on a drinking binge). If I'm remembering correctly, some elements of it were still up when I got back from my New Year's vacation to Wales.

Here are some more of the repro posters.

There were also adbuster-style road signs among the posters.

Here's a rear view of the Volga. The tailfins are somewhat notable, as the Communists seemed to have no problem with them in spite of their being a very American feature. Tatras (from Czechoslovakia) also had them, as did Chaikas (from Russia).

The Czechs are rarely vicious in their criticism of even their most hated enemies, however. Most of the posters were either imploring the Russians to better serve the cause of socialism by going home, while others, like the one on the far left here, simply joked around, saying in this case "We don't give beer to occupiers."

Although grafitti was much rarer in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic than in the modern Czech Republic (for that matter, it was rarer everywhere in Europe in the 1960's than it is today), during the brief protests of 1968 the Czechs used it aggressively to insult the Russians or to voice their grievances. Many posters were also put up, in spite of Communist efforts to restrict access to printing presses and copiers.

This is a 1960's-era (I don't know the exact year) Czech police car, although it's a GAZ-21 Volga, a Russian-made car. Contrary to popular belief, Volga buses and trucks are still made today (cars were made until 2007), but that's another story. The most interesting thing about this car for a Westerner isn't its Russian manufacture, necessarily, but that it doesn't say "policie" on it, the Czech word for police. In the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, calling a police officer was considered politically incorrect (If I'm not mistaken, some people were jailed for calling the police the police.). In a Communist regime, the police, an instrument of capitalist repression, were said not to exist. Instead, there was the "Verejna Bezpecnost Sluzby," (I think I spelled that right, but correct me if I didn't) or the "Public Security Service." Police officers weren't police officers, but "security officers," and so on. Later Verejna Bezpecnost cars (usually Skodas) in the 1980's were repainted into a white paint scheme with yellow fenders that was only marked with the large letters "VB," on the doors, and the car number on the roof. The car that you can see behind this Volga is a Skoda 1000MB, which was the standard Communist-endorsed people's car of Czechoslovakia in the late 1960's.

Here's a closer view of the tank. The ventilator on top of the turret, to the left of the reenactor, is the main spotting feature of a T-54, as opposed to T-55, tank, at least according to Wikipedia (I don't have a copy of Jane's).

Outside of the museum, they had a number of larger temporary exhibits of what would have been seen on the streets in 1968. One of the most iconic of the artifacts from that time was this Russian T-54 main battle tank, in the center, as well as a 1960's-era Skoda 1000MB saloon (on the left behind the tank), and a 1960's-era Volga police cruiser (directly behind the tank).

Here's another model of the museum, this one of the exterior.

Several of the museum's normal exhibits remained open for the 1968 exhibition, including a series of models of the museum itself, which is indeed an impressive building. This model depicts to the frame and interior for part of the roof.

August 21st, 2008 was the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Soviet invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia, so the Narodni Muzeum (National Museum) put on an exhibition of artifacts from the period. In several glass cases were the personal effects of those involved, including the dead. If I'm not mistaken, these were the belongings of Jan Palach, a student who burned himself to death in protest in Vaclavske Namesti a year after the invasion.

On this particular day (I've forgotten the exact date), I had excellent light, so I was able to get some great shots around Prague. I took this at Narodni Muzeum.