The Limits of Iconoclasm: Soviet War Memorials since the End of Socialism
-
Mischa Gabowitsch
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.
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- FALLEN MONUMENTS
- Fallen Monuments: An Introduction
- Apples to Oranges? The American Monumental Landscape
- Christopher Columbus and Juana Azurduy: Revising and Revisiting Historical Monuments in Argentina
- Cooking the Books: Contested Colonial Commemorations in Australia
- The Destruction of the Monument to Humanity: Historical Conflict and Monumentalization
- The Limits of Iconoclasm: Soviet War Memorials since the End of Socialism
- ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- In Podcasts We Trust? A Brief Survey of Canadian Historical Podcasts
- Signs of the Times – A Historical Radio Feature
- The Background, Development and Problems of Public History in China
- INA – An Augmented TV
- Anniversary celebrations of the October Revolution
- Politics of Memory and Cinematography in Modern Russia: the October Revolution and the Civil War
- Review of Russian Exhibits and Media Projects on the Centennial of the Russian Revolution
Articles in the same Issue
- FALLEN MONUMENTS
- Fallen Monuments: An Introduction
- Apples to Oranges? The American Monumental Landscape
- Christopher Columbus and Juana Azurduy: Revising and Revisiting Historical Monuments in Argentina
- Cooking the Books: Contested Colonial Commemorations in Australia
- The Destruction of the Monument to Humanity: Historical Conflict and Monumentalization
- The Limits of Iconoclasm: Soviet War Memorials since the End of Socialism
- ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- In Podcasts We Trust? A Brief Survey of Canadian Historical Podcasts
- Signs of the Times – A Historical Radio Feature
- The Background, Development and Problems of Public History in China
- INA – An Augmented TV
- Anniversary celebrations of the October Revolution
- Politics of Memory and Cinematography in Modern Russia: the October Revolution and the Civil War
- Review of Russian Exhibits and Media Projects on the Centennial of the Russian Revolution
