Prague housing development pays tribute to Czechoslovak hockey heroes
The names of three Czechoslovak ice hockey players will be used to mark the streets in a new housing development in Prague by real estate company Penta. The players, who were Olympic medal winners in the 1940’s in Czechoslovakia, were jailed without trial by the communist party in 1950.
A new housing development near Prague’s Radlice and Jinonice neighbourhoods called Nová Waltrovka will honour the memory of three Czechoslovak ice hockey players who were persecuted and jailed by the communist regime. Penta, the real estate company behind the new development, has selected players from the 1948 Czechoslovak national team who won an Olympic silver medal as the namesakes of two streets and the central square in the new district.
Augustin Bubník, Vladimír Kobranov, and Václav Roziňák are those who will be commemorated, and Martin Lánský, public relations manager at Penta, told me more about their story.
“In 1948, the communist era began in Czechoslovakia. First, a tennis player named Jaroslav Drobný defected to the West, then so did the figure skater Ája Vrzáňová. The communists were afraid that the hockey players might do the same, because in 1950 there was an ice hockey championship in London. The communists disallowed the team from competing at the tournament. After that, some of the players were in the pub discussing the situation, speaking critically of the regime. The state police heard this, and the players were sentenced to prison without a regular trial, and no information was given to the public. They disappeared, and no one was allowed to talk about the case or even name the players.”
After six years in prison, the players were released and worked in a factory nearby where the Nová Waltrovka development stands today – but their careers as professional athletes were over. Lánský explained the importance behind the tribute.
“I think it’s an important story because it shows us how the communist regime treated people in this country. Imagine if Jaromír Jágr or Dominik Hasek disappeared tomorrow and the public had no news of them for five years. These three men – Augustin Bubník, Vladimír Kobranov, and Václav Roziňák were superstar players during the 1940’s, so it was a big deal for them to disappear.”
Decades later, despite the communist regime’s attempt to erase the legacy of these players, their memory will continue to live on. The street naming has also garnered attention from the Czech Ice Hockey Association – General Secretary Jan Černý praised the effort to preserve the nation’s hockey history.
