On September 25, in the Slovak village of Stary Tekov near the town of Levice, a grand opening of the monument to the outstanding commander of the Great Patriotic War, Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky took place.
The monument was designed by the famous Slovak sculptor Slavomir Gibey and erected at the initiative and at the expenses of Slovak citizens. The main organizer of the event was Josef Gostinsky, who provided his private, but open to the public, site for the construction of the monument.
At the beginning of the ceremony, which took place in the park area of Stary Tekov, the head of the village made a welcoming speech. Stary Tekov Peter Stefan and Secretary of the Central Council of the Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters Viliam Longauer. The monument itself was presented by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Slovakia Igor Bratchikov, the chairman of the parliamentary group for friendship with Russia and vice-chairman of the Nitryansk Autonomous Territory, Marian Keri, and the vice-chairman of the Nitryansk Autonomous Territory, Igor Eder.
The marshal's daughter, Natalia Rodionovna Malinovskaya, addressed the audience through audio recording. She warmly thanked the initiators and organizers of the installation of the monument for perpetuating the memory of her father on Slovak soil.
The place for the erection of the monument was not chosen by chance. It was in the area of Stary Tekov that the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal R. Malinovsky began the Bratislava-Brno offensive operation. On the night of March 24-25, 1945, at the village of Kalna nad Hronom, Soviet troops crossed the Hron River, which allowed them to liberate the whole west of Slovakia in three weeks. Malinovsky headed the operation from an observation post on the Vapnik hill, located 5 kilometers south of Levitse. Currently, there is a monument in the form of an observation deck.
Photo: Slovak Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters (https://www.facebook.com/szpb.sk)
