Monumental Decisions: The Impact of the Russo-Ukrainian War on Soviet War Memorials

Abstract

As a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2002, Soviet monuments across Eastern Europe–particularly those commemorating the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in the Second World War–are being subject to accelerated removal. These monuments signify a mixture of victory and liberation; loss and grief; and occupation, tyranny and foreign rule, and their removal is deepening divisions between Russia and Ukraine and makes the restoration of peace and the normalcy of international relations more elusive.