Soviet monuments, collateral damage from the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Concerned about energy supplies and tentatively divided over a possible ban or restriction on Russian access to the common area, some countries with a history of Russian occupation or domination have begun removing or destroying monuments and memorials evoking the victory of the Soviet Union. Army Red over Nazi troops. An initiative that infuriates Russian leaders.

Latvia on Thursday dismantled a Soviet-era monument in the capital Riga, giving practical expression to the recently passed law giving until mid-November to remove another 70. Built in 1985, the “Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders” was surrounded by an 80-meter high obelisk with statues of soldiers and a woman.

The community of Russian descent, about a quarter of the population, had protested against the removal of the monument, pilgrimage site every May 9, the day of commemoration of the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The point is that most Latvians, just as the citizens of the other Baltic states or of the Warsaw Pact, see the date as the beginning of the Soviet occupation and repression (in the case of the Baltic states this happened in 1940 and today they belong to the EU and NATO members who most demonstrated support for Kiev).

For the Estonian prime minister, the Russian invasion of Ukraine “opened wounds in society that these communist monuments remind us of”. As such, Kaja Kallas announced a few days ago that “Soviet monuments should be removed from public space as soon as possible”.

A group of activists had already tried to blow up the monument removed in 1997 in neighboring Latvia, but the explosives detonated beforehand, killing two people. In Estonia, the removal of a monument to a Red Army soldier in Tallinn sparked days of rioting, resulting in one death, dozens injured and hundreds of arrests, in addition to the subsequent cyberattack that hit the country.

A few days ago, another cyber attack was registered, but this time, according to authorities, the hackers Russians of the Killnet group failed thanks to the cybersecurity capabilities the country had developed, or lacked a NATO cyber defense expertise center. The cause of the retaliation: the dismantling of a monument containing a Soviet-era T-34 tank in Narva, a Russian-speaking city. The government has indicated that six more monuments must be removed from that site, which is named after the river that separates it from Russia, in a national list that could reach 200 pieces.

“No one wants our militant and hostile neighbor to stir up tensions in our home. We are not going to give Russia the opportunity to use the past to disrupt the peace in Estonia,” said Kallas, justifying the decision with the need to inform the public. to protect. to order and prevent Russia’s use of spaces “to fuel disinformation and tensions,” according to a statement from the State Department.

“Neo Nazi Orgy”

It was also through his counterpart that Moscow responded. “The neo-Nazi orgy continues to gain ground in the Baltic countries when it comes to preserving historical Soviet heritage,” wrote spokesman Ivan Nachaev. “We regard such actions as blasphemy that dishonor the memory of fallen heroes in an effort to settle historical scores with Russia.”

In Lithuania, which had 158 memorials of Soviet soldiers at their graves before the war, the beginning of the invasion was the catalyst for the removal of dozens from the list of heritage to be protected, some of which have since been removed. However, authorities say the signs will remain.

The movement against Soviet heritage is not unique to the Baltic states. After the February 24 invasion, there were acts of vandalism in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Bulgaria.

In the country that welcomed the most Ukrainian refugees, the movement to end the Soviet remembrance had already begun and was gaining momentum. Although Poland was not incorporated into the USSR, like Nazi Germany, it was the victim of an invasion. And the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is seen in Eastern countries as proof that the responsibility for World War II is shared between the Nazis and the Soviets.

Unsurprisingly, a sculpture honoring the Red Army in Brzeg, in southwestern Poland, is the 24th monument of its kind to disappear since March. In contrast to Estonia, for example, which accepts buildings or tanks, in Poland the choice has been made for demolition.

Speaking to the Associated Press, a spokesperson for the National Memory Institute said 60 had been identified and that “it is impossible to keep such monuments in the public sphere” in order to implement the legislation passed in 2015. , last year the aforementioned institution was involved in a scandal when it admitted a historian with fascist sympathies as its director (he was eventually fired after a dozen days).

Proving that the relationship with memory, heritage, recent history and diplomatic relations is a potentially indigestible broth, the Czechs ended decades of discussions in 2020 and removed the statue of General Ivan Konev from the center of Prague. After all, the man who led the Prague liberation campaign was the same man who crushed the Hungarian uprising of 1956 or ended the Prague Spring in 1968.

In the Bulgarian capital, the sculptural ensemble in honor of the Soviet army, inaugurated in 1954, is also the subject of heated discussions and recurring artistic interventions. The mayor of Sofia even announced the removal of the monument, but there is no certainty about its fate.

cesar.avo@dn.pt