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.