Ostrava - From the pedestal of the statue of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, which stood for many years on Main Street in Ostrava-Poruba, there will be a monument to the representative of the Czech anti-communist exile Pavel Tigrid. The Poruba municipality has dedicated a two-meter high granite block to the Pavel Tigrid Language Gymnasium, said the spokesperson of the municipality Jana Končítková today. A bust with a commemorative plaque is being created in the studio of academic sculptor Miroslav Rybička in Jistebník in the Novojičín region. The sculptor has been working on reducing and refining the giant fourteen-ton block since autumn. Subsequently, he will place a bronze bust of Tigrid and a commemorative plaque in the niche of the granite block, which is expected to bear an inscribed motto. The wording of the text is currently being worked on by the educators and students of the gymnasium. The monument could be completed this September. "We believe that the personality of Pavel Tigrid, who is particularly close to us with his active attitude towards the world, deserves a memorial," said the director of the language gymnasium Zdeňka Průšová. According to the district mayor Lumír Palyza, the transformation of Lenin's pedestal into Tigrid's memorial is an interesting paradox of history. "The project of the gymnasium appealed to us, so we decided to support it financially as well. We plan to contribute 50,000 crowns for the creation of the bust and the commemorative plaque," stated Palyza. The costs for the creation of the monument to one of the most significant writers and journalists of Czechoslovak expatriation will be 350,000 crowns. The funds for the monument are being actively sought not only by the students, who have already organized events like a retro fashion show, but also by their teachers. The bronze statue of Lenin in life-size, standing 420 centimeters tall, was unveiled in Poruba in 1976. This monument, created by academic sculptor Antonín Ivanský, stood on Main Street until the fall of the communist regime. It was removed from public space in April 1990. The statue of Lenin was purchased by a private collector in Ostrava in 2002. The two-meter pedestal was donated by the municipality to the gymnasium last year. Tigrid also has a commemorative plaque on the house where he lived during his stays in Prague, and in Paris on the building that housed the editorial office of the pre-November Czechoslovak opposition magazine Svědectví from 1981 to 1991, of which Tigrid was the publisher. After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, Tigrid actively engaged in the political and social life of his country. In the newly formed Czech Republic, he served as Minister of Culture from 1994 to 1996, among other positions. He passed away in 2003.
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