by Amanda Čuhnova, University of Latvia
The debate about destroying Soviet monuments in the Baltic countries has been ongoing for decades, long before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the war started, everybody in the country had an opinion about the removal of monuments that in any way symbolized or praised the oppressive Soviet regime. Does the demolishing of said monuments further polarize the already ethnically polarized Baltic societies? Or does it finally show a strong stance that the Baltic countries are not and will never again be under Russian rule?
During the Soviet occupation, a monument for a person who supported the regime was a normal occurrence. In the 50 years in which the Baltic countries lived under Soviet rule, many monuments praising and symbolizing the regime were made and exhibited. A discussion about demolishing them has been ongoing ever since the Baltic countries regained independence, however, for different reasons, no drastic or major steps were ever taken. One of the reasons, in the case of Latvia, was that the demolition of the monument could contradict the agreement between the governments of the Republic of Latvia and the Russian Federation, which was concluded in April 1994. The agreement states that both countries should ensure the cleaning, preservation, and accessibility of memorial buildings and burial sites of soldiers. Another reason for not demolishing some Soviet-era monuments was the fact that it could polarize already ethnically polarized Baltic societies. However, both of these arguments did not stand a chance when Russia crossed every line and fully invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February, 2022.
The two most popular cases of Soviet-era monuments that were removed included the “Monument of Victory” in Riga, as it was called by the Russian population in Latvia, and a Soviet-era memorial in Narva, Estonia, a city which has a large Russian-speaking population. Both of these cases show a strong stance from both Latvia and Estonia about their views of the past. This also reflects their views of the future, signaling to Russia that its influence in the Baltics is and has been over for decades.
The removal of Soviet-era monuments and symbols raises an important question: how far are the Baltics ready to go?
Soviet-era architecture is prominent in all three of the Baltic countries. These buildings symbolize the years of occupation, repression, and trauma. Should they also be removed, or at least made to look different? How far are the so-called post-Soviet countries willing to go to clean their past of the memories and signs of occupation? Seeing that the Baltic countries are not hesitant to take drastic steps when it comes to Russia, it would be no surprise that these countries will continue to cleanse themselves of the Soviet occupation.
- This blog is a part of a blog series written by the BAMSE Riga intensive course students. The blog series analyses the concept of resilience from five different viewpoints: democracy in crises, regional responses, social consequences, relevance of history politics and cultural approaches. This blog belongs to the relevance of history politics part of the blog series. Read more about the blog series on Bamse News & Events website.