Statue of Captain Nalepka

Ján Nálepka, promoted by the President of Slovak republic to the rank of brigadier general in memoriam on 7th May 2004, was born 20th September 1912 in the nearby village of Smižany. In 1931 he graduated from the teacher´s institute in Spišská Nová Ves.

He worked as a teacher in Horná, later in Dolná Mariková, Biele Vody, Stupava, Poruba and Vihorlat. In March 1939 he was drafted into the Hungarian army and in the autumn into the Polish army. In 1941 he was sent to the eastern front. In August 1942 he, together with other divisions of the Slovak Army, established contact with inhabitants and partisans. He surrounded himself with antifascist-minded officers and soldiers.

He formed an antifascist patriotic group in the Slovak 101st Regiment, and began antifascists activities under the code name Capt. Repkin. Within his illegal activities he established communication with commander Alexander Nikolajevič Saburov. He was persecuted for his antifascist views. He went over to the Soviet partisans in May 1943 and formed a partisan detachment from former Slovak servicemen.

He contributed to the extension of the antifascist movement between Slovaks who fought on the eastern front, and he took part in the fight against Nazism.

On the 16th of November 1943 he died in the battle for the liberation of the city of Ovruch. For his work with Soviet partisans he posthumously received the title Hero of the USSR. The author of the bronze statue placed on a travertine pedestal in Spišská Nová Ves, that was unveiled on the 8th of May, 1954, is the sculptor Miroslav Václavík.

Address:

Radničné námestie 8,
Spišská Nová Ves