Communist Prague seems a distant dream – or nightmare – these days. The city has been free from the Communist yoke for well over 30 years, and most aspects of its 41 years under this totalitarian rule are long gone.
In this article, I show you 18 fascinating Prague sights from the Communist period. This includes some Communist-era architecture and buildings, and monuments commemorating the time Prague lived under Communist rule.
I also show you the best museums and places to learn more about life under Communism in Prague. This includes a trip into a nuclear bunker in Prague, and a superb Retro Museum.
A few last vestiges of life under Communism also remain, including a workers’ cafeteria with the lowest prices in Prague.
I show you all of this in my Communist Prague guide.
Communist Prague and Czechoslovakia – A Brief History
Czechoslovakia’s post-war fate was sealed during the country’s liberation in May 1945 when American General George Patton agreed with his Soviet counterpart General Alexei Antonov to advance only as far as Pilsen (Plzen) in western Bohemia.
Antonov misled Patton in saying that Red Army forces were already engaged in fighting in Prague, although they had not reached the city at that point – they were still two days away, no closer than US forces.
The Red Army went on to help remove Nazi forces from Prague on May 9th.
The Communists had strong support in Czechoslovakia after the end of the War, and when they couldn’t gain power through democratic elections they decided to seize it in a coup d’etat, aided by the Soviets, in 1948. They were led by Klement Gottwald, who ruled until his death in 1953.
It didn’t take long for the Communists to go about eliminating opponents in the manner of their Soviet overlords. One of the most famous victims was Milada Horakova, who was condemned to death in a show trial in 1950.
The Czechoslovak regime made some tentative reforms in 1968, in what was termed the Prague Spring, only for the Soviets (under Leonid Brezhnev) to overrule them and send in the tanks to crush any dissent. Czechoslovakia then went through a period of ‘normalisation’ which lasted until the 1980s.
The appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the USSR in 1985 had seismic effects. He pushed through policies of ‘glasnost’ (openness) and ‘perestroika’ (restructuring) which were anathema to some of the hardened leaders of the Communist bloc in Central and Eastern Europe.
1989 saw the collapse of Communism in Europe and the end of the Warsaw Pact. Poland made early progress, as did Hungary by allowing holidaymakers from East Germany to cross the Iron Curtain into Austria, where they would claim asylum at the West German embassy.
The Berlin Wall fell on 9th November 1989, and on the 17th a wave of street protests began in Prague and across Czechoslovakia. Within a week the Communist regime and resigned – the Velvet Revolution had brought freedom for the first time in over 50 years.
What Was Life In Communist Prague Like?
This is a question I have asked many Czechs of a certain age, and those too young to remember it have also offered their opinions.
Life in Prague under Communism could include state surveillance, often through your nosey neighbours. There was no financial incentive to improve yourself. There was no freedom of expression. If you stepped out of line, there was the threat of arbitrary imprisonment, even execution.
The Czechoslovak borders were closed, ostensibly to keep the West out, when the intention was to prevent escape. The shops were poorly stocked – except, I’m told, for beer.
The country was brutally kept in check by a hated regime from a thousand miles away, which had no historical claim on the territory. You could be sentenced to years in a forced labour camp for the tiniest of indiscretions.
To top it all off, the pubs were usually all shut by 8pm. And don’t even think about the toilet paper.
However, not everyone minded a bit of suppression, drabness, austerity and Orwellian absurdity. Some older Czechs were sad to see the end of the Communist regime. The State provided them with jobs for life and a place to live for life (even if it was sometimes wire-tapped by the secret police).
After the Velvet Revolution, this safety net was no more, replaced by uncertainties, insecurity and often unemployment.
Snapshot: November 1st 1989
A German friend and his organized tour group had travelled through the former East Germany, but were held at the border for several hours. No reason was given. However, an overheard conversation at the hotel revealed the truth the Communist police didn’t want anyone to know – there had been a sizeable demonstration in Wenceslas Square, and foreigners weren’t allowed in until the crowds had been fully dispersed. The same day the Czechoslovak government had opened their western border, so anyone entering from East Germany could also escape to the West this way.
Prague Communist Architecture
1. Hotel International
The only example of the Socialist Realist style of architecture in Prague is the Hotel International in Prague 6 district. It’s now part of the Mozart Group so there’s no chance you’ll get any Communist-era customer service, but the exterior is clearly inspired by the massive Moscow University buildings that gave birth to the architectural style.
See Also: Prague Architecture – 15 Styles That Shaped The City
2. Žižkov TV Tower
The Žižkov TV Tower was the Communists’ last architectural imprint on Prague, on one of the highest hilltops in the city. Like the Metro stations below, it resembles something out of early ‘80s science fiction, a building intended to look futuristic that now looks vintage retro.
It has been voted the second ugliest building in the world, which I think is rather harsh. The terrace, 93 metres above ground level, commands a great view over the whole city, and there is also a restaurant, bar and exclusive one-room hotel. The old Socialists would be turning in their mausoleums at the thought.
3. Prague Metro Stations
1980s Prague had a strong retro-futurist feel about it, and this extended underground to the new Metro network.
Line A is the best place to see the old stations – especially between Hradcanska and Náměstí Miru – with their distinctive décor, which looks like the lower half of a Dalek, the vicious evil foe in the BBC series Doctor Who.
Best stations to see: Hradcanska, Malostranska, Staromestska, Náměstí Miru
Prague Apartment Blocks
The architectural legacy of Communist Prague is most visible in its suburbs. The vast majority of Praguers live in apartments, with many residing in massive apartment block estates built in the Communist era.
Many visitors to Prague won’t make it to the suburbs, but a climb up one of the higher towers in Prague – especially the Petrin Tower – will reveal the suburban landscape of the Czech capital.
You’ll see the classic ‘panelak’ apartment blocks – the equivalent of the East German plattenbau – right across the city, with some major concentrations around Ladvi and Kobylisy in the north of the city, and Krc and Modrany in the south.
Communist Prague Museums
1. Prague Museum of Communism
Prague has several museums devoted to aspects of Prague Communist history, and this one covers the most ground, especially the political history, and is the best introduction if it’s your first time in Prague or your first time visiting a museum covering this period of history.
The Museum gives a good, easy-to-understand chronological guide to the events of the period, while revealing aspects of everyday life in Czechoslovakia along the way. The sections on the STB and how dissidents were dealt with is especially interesting, as are the tales of escape across the Iron Curtain.
I’d suggest setting aside three hours or so to see this and the Retro Museum (across the square) together – they complement each other very well.
Where: Náměstí Republiky
Getting there: Metro line B or trams 6,8,15 or 26
2. Prague Cold War Museum
The Cold War Museum Prague is a great place to delve into Prague history. It’s set in a bunker deep beneath Wenceslas Square, where chosen Party faithful would be able to sit out two weeks after a nuclear strike on Prague, before emerging into the irradiated wasteland that would be left afterwards.
It’s a fascinating place, accessed via the Hotel Jalta, which was built on the site of a building destroyed during World War II. It was reserved for foreign guests, who could be eavesdropped on at any time via a switchboard located in the bunker.
The bunker could only keep a group of people alive for two weeks, but it’s intriguing to see everything needed to keep them alive, from hospital rooms to an air filtration system which – if it came to the worst – could be operated by a hand-crank.
Where: Hotel Jalta, Wenceslas Square
Getting there: Metro to Muzeum or Mustek, or trams 3, 5,6, 9, 14 and 24 to Vaclavske namesti
3. Prague Retro Museum
The Retro Museum Prague does a brilliant job of showing you everyday life under communism in Czechoslovakia.
It covers virtually every facet of day-to-day life, from the home to the hairdresser, school to sport and just about everything in between. The Museum is superbly designed and curated, and gives probably the most extensive overview of life in Communist Europe that I have ever visited.
It’s on the third floor of Kotva department store, itself a Communist era Prague relic, a Brutalist-lite building inspired by the humble hexagon. Just beware the psychedelic wallpaper….
Where: Náměstí Republiky
Getting there: Metro line B or trams 6,8,15 or 26
4. Prague KGB Museum
I have yet to visit the KGB Museum in Prague. It’s located in Mala Strana Prague, an area with many embassies renowned for espionage activities during the Cold War between 1948 and 1989.
The KGB was the state security organization of the USSR, and at one time employed a staggering 480,000 people. These included border police, spies at home and abroad, and hit squads used to, for want of a more delicate phrase, bump people off.
The Museum has a collection of KGB artefacts and paraphernalia, and from a multitude of online reviews, the guide / owner gives demonstrations of the process of bumping people off, playing both the role of perpetrator and victim.
Where: Vlasska
Getting there: A 5-minute walk from Malostranske náměstí (tram 12, 15, 20 and 22)
5. Prague Trabant Museum
This museum in the western suburbs of Prague gives you the lowdown on the Trabant, the much-desired status symbol Communist car made in East Germany from 1957 to the 1990s.
My son and I ventured to the Trabant Museum Prague to check this quirky museum out, and found the whole thing hilarious. The car was notorious, a spluttering fire-trap and carbon-monoxide-spreading environmental hazard made from an East German material called Duroplast which took ten years to harden sufficiently. This was how long you had to wait for a Trabi, and the time it would take you to get from 0 to 60.
Most of the captions in this Museum are in Czech only, but a few minutes’ online research before your visit will help you get the gist of most of it. The garage at the back of the Museum repairs Trabants, and I’m pretty sure you can buy one there too.
Communist Prague Sites of Interest
1. Wenceslas Square
The heart of modern ‘downtown’ Prague is a natural gathering place, the largest space in the city centre where people could congregate.
After the initial protests of November 1989, larger crowds massed at Wenceslas Square, and it was there that dissident leader Vaclav Havel addressed hundreds of thousands before the eventual capitulation of the Communists.
Many of the most famous images of the Velvet Revolution were shot there.
There is also a memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajic, two students who died from self-immolation in protest against the Communist tyranny and Czechoslovaks’ acceptance of their defeat by the invading Soviets in 1968.
Getting there: Metro to Muzeum or Mustek, or trams 3, 5.6, 9, 14 and 24 to Vaclavske Namesti
See Also: New Town Prague – 28 Things to See in The Modern Heart of Prague
Olšany Cemetery Soviet Memorial
Part of the northern section of Olšany Cemetery in Žižkov is devoted to fallen of the Soviet Red Army. It’s on the eastern side of the Cemetery, to the north of the Jewish Cemetery.
There is a main memorial, with an armed figure on each side and a hammer and sickle inside a Soviet star, and a red star-shaped memorial to a senior military figure.
These are surrounded by hundreds of immaculately maintained graves of soldiers who fell during the capture of Prague in May 1945.
Getting there: Metro or tram to Zelivskeho then a 10-minute walk
Strahov Stadium
The Great Strahov Stadium (Velky Strahovsky Stadion), near the summit of Petřin Hill Prague, was constructed in the 1920s, long before the arrival of Communism in Czechoslovakia, but has a strong association with the totalitarian era because of the mass displays held there.
Strahov Stadium is the largest stadium ever built. It’s the size of nine football pitches, with an astonishing spectator capacity of 250,000, of whom almost 200,000 were standing.
The Stadium hosted the pre-war Sokol event, a mass gymnastics display, and was also the scene of a protest against the Communists in 1948.
Future Sokol events were cancelled, replaced by Spartakiads, which were vast synchronised gymnastic displays and parades. These were also held in the USSR and East Germany, and are the forerunner of the Arirang Mass Games held in North Korea over the last twenty years or so.
The Stadium is only occasionally open for guided tours.
Lennon Wall
The Lennon Wall is one of the most popular landmarks of Prague. Located in a quiet square in the Mala Strana district, the wall had protest messages written on it since the 1960s, and the death of former Beatle John Lennon in 1980 led to many more.
The Wall is often adorned by a painting of John Lennon, though the original has long been painted over, and many times at that. Until recently, visitors were able to write or paint on the Wall, but can only now do so in designated areas of it, leaving the main artistic depiction untouched.
Where: Velkopřevorské náměstí, Mala Strana, Prague 1
Nearest tram stop: Hellichova (12, 15, 20 and 22 trams)
Prague Metronome
The Prague Metronome occupies a prominent location in Letna Park, overlooking the Vltava river and Old Town. This was, until 1963, the site of the widely despised statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. However, to great celebrations, the statue, along with its accompanying figures, was blown up.
The Metronome – which works, provided it’s not turned off – was placed on the empty plinth vacated by Stalin in 1991. It’s 23 metres (75 feet) high, and believed to be the largest metronome in the world.
It’s a constant reminder of the country’s past under Communism, as well as its future away from the totalitarian system.
The area below the Metronome is very popular with local skaters and skateboarders, and our son also likes to burn around it on his new scooter whenever we’re in the vicinity.
Where: Letna Park
Nearest tram stop: Cechuv most (15, 17 – followed by an uphill walk) or Korunovacni (1,8,12 or 25 – followed by a 5-10 minute flat walk).
Post-Communist Prague Memorials
1. Velvet Revolution Memorial, Národni třida
The Velvet Revolution (Samotace revoluce) of 1989 was one of the biggest events in Czech history, so it’s a little surprising to see it commemorated by a rather small, modest monument close to where it started.
This monument is on Národni třida, one of the main Prague streets, where the first protest culminated in a confrontation with riot police. The demonstration was ostensibly to commemorate International Students Day, and the murder of student Jan Opletal by the Nazis 50 years earlier.
The simple monument consists of several hands stretched out, reaching for freedom., with the date 17.11.1989 beneath. Within eleven days of this date, the Communists had relinquished their ‘leading role’ in governing Czechoslovakia, ushering in a new democratic era.
Where: Národni třida
Getting there: Národni třida Metro or tram, or Národni divadlo tram.
2. Memorial to the Victims of Communism
This memorial consists of six statues of the same person on a staircase, each one withering away more and more until there is very little left of the final one.
The figures, by Olbram Zoubek, represent the gradual withering away of the body and soul while living under the repression of the totalitarian system.
It’s a very haunting installation, one of the most impressive series of statues in Prague.
Where: Újezd
Nearest tram stop: Újezd
3. Jan Palach Memorials
Jan Palach was a student activist who died from burns caused by self-immolation in January 1969. A specialist who treated him said that he was protesting against Czechoslovaks’ resignation following the Soviet invasion to stop the Prague Spring reforms of the previous year.
He set fire to himself on Wenceslas Square, and a cross and rise in the ground mark the spot where he fell. Another student, Jan Zajic, emulated him a month later, and he too is commemorated by this monument.
Palach is also commemorated by the small memorial plaque pictured above at Charles University, and by two sculptures on the Square named after him in Prague Old Town.
Communist Prague Cafes and Restaurants
1. Café Nona, Narodni Divadlo (National Theatre)
Café Nona is in the 1980s part of the National Theatre, a few minutes’ walk down the street from the Velvet Revolution memorial. Czech theatres were very low on Communist credentials – they were at the vanguard of the Velvet Revolution, leading strikes in its early days.
We went with high expectations having seen images of it online, with its classic ‘80s square ceiling lighting. This remains, but the café is smaller than the impression these images give.
There are some great views out of the window over Národni třida, but the fare is similar to what you get in most Prague cafes, at rather inflated prices.
Where: Národni třida
Getting there: Tram (2, 9, 17, 18, 22) to Narodni divadlo
Jidelna Svetozor
This restaurant – actually canteen is probably a better word – is the closest thing we’ve found to a Communist-era restaurant in Prague.
It’s a simple, no-frills eatery downstairs in an arcade just off Wenceslas Square (and right next to its main tram stop on Vodickova). They serve all the Czech traditional favourites at far lower prices than you’ll pay in the Square or the nearby Old Town, and it’s very popular with locals and hungry shopworkers. It’s definitely one of the top Communist things to do in Prague!
It’s open Monday to Saturday from 1000 to 1500.
Where: Downstairs in the Svetozor Arcade on Vodickova.
Getting there: Trams 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 14 to Vaclavske namesti (Wenceslas Square)
Czech Communist Brands
Whereas virtually all consumer brands disappeared in the former East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, some Czech brands have survived over three decades of capitalism and are still prospering.
The one you’re most likely to encounter when visiting Prague is Kofola, which you’ll see in most cafes, corner shops and supermarkets. Coca-Cola and Pepsi weren’t available behind the Iron Curtain, so the authorities ordered the production of a Czechoslovak alternative.
Kofola tastes more like dandelion and burdock, which British readers of a certain age may well remember, than cola, but it’s still thriving. And I must say I rather enjoy it.
Since moving to the Czech Republic over three years ago, we have always used Jar washing up liquid. During the Communist era, Jar was the only washing-up liquid available in Czechoslovakia. And it’s still here.
Communist Prague – Final Thoughts
Prague is a great city to begin your exploration of Cold War European history. The city has changed enormously since the collapse of Communism, but there are plenty of remnants of its Cold War past. This guide will help you seek them out.
If you want to explore further, one of the best places is just across the border in the beautiful Baroque city of Dresden. The Stasi Museum Dresden is as grim as it gets. The former Stasi prison is a shocking reminder of how harshly ordinary people were treated under Communism.
David Angel is a British photographer, writer and historian. He is a European travel expert with over 30 years’ experience exploring Europe. He has a degree in History from Manchester University, and his work is regularly featured in global media including the BBC, Condé Nast Traveler, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sunday Times. David is fluent in French and Welsh, and can also converse in Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech and Polish.