Town strips first female cosmonaut of honorary citizenship
The Czech city of České Budějovice has stripped the first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, of her honorary citizenship over her support for Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The city’s representatives announced their decision to revoke the Russian State Duma member’s honorary status on Monday.
The city’s representatives were not united in their decision to dishonor Tereshkova, with one member of the ruling party and the entire opposing Communist party voting against the decision.
Tereshkova, who spent two hours alone in space in 1963, was granted honorary citizenship in 1979, four years after visiting the South Bohemia region of what was then called Czechoslovakia.
A previous attempt to deprive Tereshkova of her honorary citizenship, proposed last year, did not pass.
The city has stripped several once-celebrated communist politicians of their honors in recent years, and removed Soviet leader Joseph Stalin from its ranks of honorary citizens in 2017. However, not all Czech cities are so concerned with reconciling history with current events – Lanskroun, in the eastern part of the country, still counts Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as an honorary citizen.
