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Political leaders as well as members of the public gathered outside Czech Radio’s Prague headquarter on Sunday to mark the 74th anniversary of the Prague Uprising against Nazi rule at the end of WWII.

The radio station was the focal point of the uprising and the site of one of the biggest clashes with Nazi forces as citizens came to defend the building against German attempts to retake it.

Around 170 people died defending the radio building and hundreds of others fell at the barricades that went up around Prague. Altogether, over ten thousand people were killed around the country. The commemorative ceremony outside Czech Radio was attended by the Speaker of the Senate Jaroslav Kubera, Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib, members of the Union of Freedom Fighters and others.

On April 5, 1945 the newly formed Czechoslovak government agreed on a manifesto known as the Košice Programme. It clearly delineated the future of the country as a Soviet ally – and can be seen as laying the groundwork for the eventual Communist takeover in 1948.

In 1946 a secret American operation in Czechoslovakia led to major diplomatic protests. The US authorities had organized a mission aimed at obtaining hidden Nazi documents from a cache in a forest near Prague. However, they had not alerted the Czechoslovak authorities or sought permission – and that led to a real propaganda coup for the country’s pro-Soviet Communist politicians and press.

The razing to the ground of the village of Ležáky in Eastern Bohemia and the murder of the local community by the Nazis was remembered on Sunday, 76 years after those terrible events took place. Hundreds of people attended a memorial at the spot where the atrocities occurred.

Among those who spoke at the ceremony was Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who highlighted the importance of the EU and NATO in safeguarding peace in Europe.

Some 33 residents of Ležáky were executed by the Nazis on 24 June 1942 as part of reprisals for the assassination of governor Reinhard Hedyrich. A similar fate had earlier befallen the village of Lidice near Prague.

Around 250 people took part in a 32-kilometre Pilgrimage of Reconciliation from the town of Pohořelice to Brno on Saturday to commemorate the victims of the post-war expulsion of Brno’s German-speaking population. The route followed the one that the expellees must have taken but symbolically went in the opposite direction, organisers said.

The pilgrimage, which began at the site of a May 1945 holding camp for German speakers in Pohořelice, was part of a festival entitled Meeting Brno. The first such commemoration took place in 2006.

Leading Czech politicians, war veterans and cultural figures gathered at Ďáblice Cemetery in Prague on Sunday to pay homage to the soldiers who had laid down their lives liberating the country from Nazi oppression. There are some 160 soldiers of different nationalities buried at the cemetery.

The commemorative ceremony was attended by government and Parliament representatives, Prague City Hall officials and members of the Union of Freedom Fighters.

Political leaders, war veterans and members of the public gathered outside Czech Radio’s Prague headquarter on Saturday to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Prague Uprising against Nazi rule at the end of WWII.

The radio station was the focal point of the uprising and the site of one of the biggest clashes with Nazi forces as citizens came to defend the building against German attempts to retake it. Over 100 people died defending the radio building and hundreds of others fell at the barricades that went up around Prague. Altogether, an estimated 12,000 people were killed around the country.

The commemorative ceremony outside Czech Radio was attended by the Speaker of the Senate Milan Stech, Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová, members of the Union of Freedom Fighters and others. Mr. Stech said that although the uprising had come in the last days of the war it had prevented the Nazis from destroying the historic core of the Czech capital.

Freedom celebrations continue in the West Bohemian town of Plzen, marking the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the city by General Patton’s Army. Thousands of people on Saturday welcomed the Convoy of Liberty, with its 220 historic military vehicles, which is traditionally one of the highlights of the celebrations. Seven US and Belgian war veterans who helped liberate the city are attending the celebrations this year.

The Liberation Festival in the city traditionally lasts for several days and includes street happenings, concerts and the chance to see a reconstructed US military camp from that period. The celebrations continue on Sunday at the town’s memorial to the US army with an event called Thank You, America!

At the beginning of May 1945 fighting was still going on in Prague. The Czech lands were one of the last places in Europe where people were dying even after the official end of hostilities between the German Army and the Allies on May 8. There was a last-minute uprising in the Czech capital and the US 3rd Army was only some 80 kilometers (or about 50 miles) away, near the western city of Plzeň.

Moscow has issued a sharp protest over the vandalizing of a statue of Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev in Prague which was spray painted with the dates 1956, 1961, 1968 and 2017 earlier this week. The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the act as vandalism and an insult to those who had laid down their lives in the liberation of Czechoslovakia.

The incident happened shortly after an offensive article appeared on a Russian web which said the Czech Republic should be grateful for the 1968 Soviet-led invasion which had brought the country 20 years of peace and stability. On a state visit to Russia, President Zeman protested against the insult to his country and Russian Prime Minister Medvedev publicly distanced himself from the article.

Marshal Konev is perceived as a controversial figure in the Czech Republic. After being present on several fronts in WWII, Konev was involved in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and was also present in Berlin for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.