What's in a Prague street name

Herálecká IV was built in the 1960s.

Herálecká IV obviously has its name for the same reason as the other three Herálecké: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/04/03/prague-4-day-349-heralecka-i/.

So, I’m going to complete the series I’ve been doing these last few days where I tell the story of the Prague Uprising, day by day. Today, we’re on May 9.

The larger German left in the very early hours of the morning; then, at about 04:00, the first Soviet tanks arrived in the city. The only German forces remaining in Prague were those who refused to leave, or who somehow hadn’t been given the order to do so.

Soviet tanks clashed with defenders in Dejvice, then split into two groups and drove to the city centre. One of the units was led by Pavlo Rybalko, who has a street named after him in Vinohrady: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/07/07/prague-2-day-63-rybalkova/.

At Klárov (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-51-klarov/), three tanks fought off four German Hetzers. One tank crossed Mánes Bridge (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-57-manesuv-most/) and ultimately made it to Old Town Square.

Facing minimal resistance, Marshal Konev reported that Prague had been completely liberated by about 09:00. Of course, the Soviets would take all the credit for this, despite having been around for approximately 4% of the entire Prague Uprising.

They had also lost about 30 men. The other death tolls have never been agreed on, but go up to 2,898 for Czech insurgents, 2,000 for Czech civilians, and maybe about 3,000 Germans.

Whoever got the credit at the time, it’s not surprising that there are several streets whose names commemorate the Prague Uprising.

The first ever post I wrote about a Prague street was named after General Konev – and isn’t anymore: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/18/prague-3-day-1-konevova/.

A square in Žižkov is named after the barricades: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/26/prague-3-day-89-namesti-barikad/.

The Battle for Czech Radio gets covered on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/24/prague-2-day-7-na-smetance/.

You can find much more about the first tank to make it across the Vltava – including a particularly great coda from 1991 – on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/20/prague-4-day-178-goncarenkova/.

And the Czech commander of the Uprising found himself out of a job remarkably quickly after it was over: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/09/prague-4-day-29-namesti-generala-kutlvasra/.

There are others, of course, and, now that I’m actively looking for someone who is better at web design than me and can show me how to add search bars and the like without ruining the look of the site, you will hopefully find it easier to search for them very soon.