by Anelė Dromantaitė, Vilnius University
All post-Soviet countries during the period of the Soviet occupation received many monuments glorifying Soviet ideology, war, and oppression. Moreover, in the last year, the war that Russia started in Ukraine was a huge motivator for almost all post-Soviet countries to get rid of the remainder of these monuments. However, the way and decision to get rid of them are not that easy to come by unanimously.
What to do with Soviet monuments that are still standing after decades of restored independence? This is a complex issue that depends on a range of factors. At this moment, the monuments that usually represent a Soviet ideology, Soviet soldiers, or glorify the victory of the communist regime are not just ghosts of Soviet times; they are Soviet ghosts that have spent 30+ years between independent Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, and others. Because of that, we cannot ignore that those monuments became a part of the understanding of the independent self for some people. Additionally, we cannot ignore people from Russian minorities in post-Soviet countries that link the memory of their relatives who have passed away to these monuments. That is why the decision “what to do with Soviet monuments?” includes the historical, cultural, political, and social context of the region and the real motive of destruction.
Probably the more significant portion of citizens argues that Soviet monuments should be destroyed as they represented oppression; a dark period in the country’s history when many people were killed, tortured, and silenced. They do not question if the monuments should be removed. The questions are why they are still here after decades of independence. In their eyes, they legitimize and glorify tyranny and Soviet Russia, whose descendants are committing atrocities in Ukraine today. Also, a big part of the argument that the removal of Soviet monuments as fast as possible sends a powerful message – that we reject the values of Soviet Russia, which today, in the eyes of many, is still represented by the actions of Russia. However, there is still a part of society, especially among Russian minorities, that does not think we should take down these monuments, especially when they represent the soldiers who died in the war.
Overall, the question “what to do with Soviet monuments?” does not only speak about the monuments; the question for people deciding to demolish or not to demolish them is “what message do you want to send to the world?”
It is a message that the country, a city, or a community still holds onto the memory of the Soviet regime or wants to strongly declare that as an oppression that should never be repeated. Of course, either decision comes at a price and does not come easily, but today we live in a world where no decision, especially one that sends a message this powerful, is easy. So we need to understand that we need to look forward now, not to the ease of the decision, but to the role that the message that we are sending will play in the future.
- 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.