Monuments for Posterity challenges the common assumption that Stalinist monuments were constructed with an immediate, propagandistic function, arguing instead that they were designed to memorialize the present for an imagined posterity. In this respect, even while pursuing its monument-building program with a singular ruthlessness and on an unprecedented scale, the Stalinist regime was broadly in step with transnational monument-building trends of the era and their undergirding cultural dynamics.

By integrating approaches from cultural history, art criticism, and memory studies, along with previously unexplored archival material, Antony Kalashnikov examines the origin and implementation of the Stalinist monument-building program from the perspective of its goal to "immortalize the memory" of the era. He analyzes how this objective affected the design and composition of Stalinist monuments, what cultural factors prompted the sudden and powerful yearning to be remembered, and most importantly, what the culture of self-commemoration revealed about changing outlooks on the future—both in the Soviet Union and beyond its borders.

Monuments for Posterity shifts the perspective from monuments' political-ideological content to the desire to be remembered and prompts a much-needed reconsideration of the supposed uniqueness of both Stalinist aesthetics and the temporal culture that they expressed. Many Stalinist monuments still stand prominently in postsocialist cityscapes and remain the subject of continual heated political controversy. Kalashnikov makes manifest monuments' intentional attempts to seduce us—the "posterity" for whom they were built.

Antony Kalashnikov is Postdoctoral Fellow in History at the University of Waterloo.

In his thorough historical exploration of memorials and magnificent edifices in Stalin's Soviet Union, Kalashnikov argues that the frenzy of monument building and grand architectural projects was driven less by propaganda and more by the regime's desire to immortalize itself for future generations.

Katherine Zubovich, University at Buffalo, author of Moscow Monumental:

Monuments for Posterity provides a provocative argument that Stalinist monuments were constructed not in the utopian vein but instead to preserve the accomplishments and memory of the Stalin era for future generations. Antony Kalashnikov connects temporality, durability, memory, and nationality to offer novel interpretations of the Stalinist obsession with monument construction.

David Brandenberger, University of Richmond, author of National Bolshevism:

Monuments for Posterity is a fascinating book, framing Stalinist neoclassicist architecture and design within the ideological, political, cultural, social and aesthetic contexts of their time. Antony Kalashnikov provides an informed and well-written account of the theoretical literature on aesthetics, art and architecture, in relation to power dynamics, memory, and time.