{"id":48273,"date":"2022-08-12T23:59:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T21:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=48273"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:12:11","slug":"the-red-fico-the-story-behind-a-curious-monument-with-a-600-defeating-a-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/08\/12\/the-red-fico-the-story-behind-a-curious-monument-with-a-600-defeating-a-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"The Red Fi\u0107o: the story behind a curious monument with a 600 defeating a tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the city of Osijek, in the extreme east of Croatia, is one of the most curious military-themed monuments you can find.<\/p>\n

A graveyard of abandoned M-60 Patton tanks in the Colorado desert<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe lonely remains of Sherman tanks that fought in the Battle of Normandy<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

The official name of the monument is \"Fi\u0107o gazi tenka!\" (The Fi\u0107o is stepping on a tank!)<\/strong>, although it is popularly known as the \"Crveni Fi\u0107o\" (Red Fi\u0107o), since it shows a Zastava 750, the Yugoslav version of the Fiat 600 -known in Croatia as \"Fi\u0107o\" - defeating a T-55 main battle tank.<\/strong> The composition is clearly surreal, since a T-55 weighs 36 tons and a 600 has everything to lose if it faces one, but The most curious thing about this monument is that it is based, with great irony, on real events.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The Red Fi\u0107o in February 2019 (Source: Dmatesic \/ Tripadvisor<\/a>).<\/div>\n

On June 25, 1991 Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia.<\/strong> Then began an armed intervention of the Yugoslav People's Army in that territory, in order to crush the peaceful protests in Croatia. On June 27, in Osijek, Yugoslav T-55 tanks circulated along the long Vukovarska street<\/strong>, meeting little opposition, since Croatia had no army of its own, much less tanks with which to defend itself.<\/p>\n

Perhaps inspired by la famous scene of the man in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square<\/a> that occurred in Beijing, China, two years earlier, the Croatian Branko Bre\u0161ki\u0107 stopped his Zastava 750 and got off it at the intersection with Trpimira street<\/strong>, in an apparent attempt to stop the march of the tanks. What happened next -it will not cost you to imagine it- you can see it in this video:<\/p>\n