The Limits of Iconoclasm: Soviet War Memorials since the End of Socialism

Abstract

There is a widespread perception that the countries of the former Soviet bloc removed all or most communist-era public monuments soon after the end of socialism. Based on a number of heavily publicized instances of iconoclasm, this claim is wildly exaggerated. Focusing on war memorials, the paper provides an overview of cases of destruction and removal, starting in Soviet times. It shows that centralized campaigns to remove Soviet war memorials (as opposed to local initiatives) have been the exception rather than the rule. Thus the most recent Polish decommunization campaign is an outlier among post-socialist policies regarding such memorials. The paper also contextualizes cases of removal and destruction by mentioning other ways of dealing with Soviet war memorials, such as symbolic marginalization, artistic interventions, or new construction.

Monumental minnepolitikk: Russlands bruk av sovjetiske og russiske krigsminnesmerker i Nord-Norge 2014–2023

“…Sovjetunionen brukte for eksempel krigsmonumenter til å sementere sitt narrativ om sovjethaerens avgjørende innsats i seieren over Nazi-Tyskland og til å legitimere innflytelse i områder som ble erobret av Den røde armé under verdenskrigen. Slike monumenter «were inevitably seen not only as a reminder of Soviet sacrifices, but also as tools of intimidation» (Gabowitsch, 2014). Monumentene ble påminnelser om en maktfaktor som la premissene for politikk og dagligliv i vertslandet gjennom den kalde krigen.…”

“…Bakgrunnen for intensiveringen av minnepolitikken, både i utlandet og i hjemlandet, er at Russland tolker kritikk mot det offisielle narrativet som trusler mot den russiske statens integritet (Kangaspuro, 2021, s. 22) Kritikken kommer fra postsovjetiske land der den Den røde armés framrykning i Europa framstilles som starten på en ny og mye lengre okkupasjon under den kalde krigen, og ikke som en frigjøring fra nazistisk okkupasjon. Spesielt i Baltikum, Ukraina, Polen og Tsjekkia har fjerning eller omdefinering av kommunistiske symboler og monumenter blitt brukt av Kreml som beviser for at minnene om Sovjetunionens krigsinnsats er utsatt for ondsinnet «falsifisering» av russisk-fiendtlige krefter i Vesten (Antonov, 2019, s. 410-421;Ehala, 2009;Gabowitsch, 2018;McGlynn, 2023). Russlands regimestyrte minnepolitikk kommer derfor lettest til syne i møte med andre staters motstridende perspektiver på fortiden.…”

Demolition of Monuments as a Phenomenon of Culture in Global and Local Contexts: Iconoclasm, ‘New Barbarity’, or a Utopia of Memory?

“…47 They were considered as objects with 'higher' Soviet semiotics 48 and its semiotics became 'undesirable' in the 'anti-socialist' revision of the past. 49 Contemporary scholars have analyzed in detail the transformations of the memory politics on the Great Patriotic War/World War II, their content, 50 and forms, 51 in three East-Slavic states -Ukraine, Russia, Belarus -in the context of the political regimes that were established in these countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 52 They argue that the practice of demolishing and erecting war memorials should not be considered as a homogenous act, but as a practice that on the one hand is shaped by public policies of commemoration of the war in this region, 53 and on the other hand has to be placed in the context of other tragedies of the mid-twentieth century, i.e., the memory of the Holocaust, Stalinist repressions, prisoners of war and Soviet forced laborers.…”

Tanks on Monuments, Monument Tanks

“…Worn-out Soviet armored weapons found a second monumental life, so to speak. This practice was used throughout Central and Eastern Europe, such as in the Eastern Bloc sector of Berlin (Davis, 2016;Gabowitsch, 2021;Grzesiuk-Olszewska, 1995; cf. comments on the use of photos and drawings of monuments commemorating World War II in textbooks used during the Soviet era when young people were supposed to recognize in which foreign capitals these monuments to glory and victory were located, among them a tank on a pedestal -this exercise comes from a 1958 work.…”