Soviet war memorials are memorials commemorating the activities of Soviet Armed Forces in any of the wars involving Soviet Union, but most notably World War II. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, many of the memorials, especially the ones dedicated to the activities of Soviet Armed Forces in former Soviet Bloc countries during World War II, have been removed, relocated, altered or have had their meaning reinterpreted (such as the Liberty Statue in Budapest).
Memorial of Red Army soldiers in Antakalnis Cemetery, Vilnius (removed in 2022)
After 2017, Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) government destroyed most of the Soviet War Memorials in Poland. [6] [7]
Joseph Stalin is still quoted in stone in German and Russian at least in Treptow [8] and Vienna. [9] Such inscriptions have been generally removed in Soviet Union and Soviet block countries as part of de-Stalinization.
A Soviet war memorial was erected in Plummer Park, West Hollywood, California in 2005. [10] The memorial depicts cranes in flight, a reference to a popular Russian-language song by Rasul Gamzatov. A refrain from the song is shown in both English and Russian. A granite slab bares the inscription "dedicated in honor of and in tribute to the World War II veterans from the former Soviet Union" in English. West Hollywood is the center of a large Russian-speaking community from the former Soviet Union.
The Estonian War of Independence, also known as the Estonian Liberation War, was a defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the United Kingdom, against the Soviet Russian westward offensive of 1918–1919 and the 1919 aggression of the pro–German Baltische Landeswehr. The campaign was the struggle of the newly established democratic state of Estonia for independence in the aftermath of World War I. It resulted in a victory for Estonia and was concluded in the 1920 Treaty of Tartu.
Ivan Stepanovich Konev was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, responsible for taking much of Axis-occupied Eastern Europe.
Soviet-era statues are statuary art that figured prominently in the art of the Soviet Union. Typically made in the style of Socialist Realism, they frequently depicted significant state and party leaders, such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.
Mykola Oleksandrovych Shchors was a member of the Russian Communist Party and a participant in the Russian Civil War, serving as Red Army commander. In 1918–1919 he fought against the newly established Ukrainian People's Republic. Later he commanded the Bohunsky regiment, brigade, 1st Soviet Ukrainian division and 44th Rifle Division against the Ukrainian People's Republic and their Polish allies. Shchors was killed following the evacuation of Kyiv in 1919. After being ignored for more than a decade, Shchors became celebrated as a hero in the Soviet Union following the mid-1930s.
The Soviet War Memorial is a war memorial and military cemetery in Berlin's Treptower Park. It was built to the design of the Soviet architect Yakov Belopolsky to commemorate 7,000 of the 80,000 Red Army soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin in April–May 1945. It opened four years after the end of World War II in Europe, on 8 May 1949. The Memorial served as the central war memorial of East Germany.
The Soviet War Memorial is one of several war memorials in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945.
The Battle of Kruty took place on January 29 or 30, 1918, near Kruty railway station, about 130 kilometres northeast of Kyiv, Ukraine, which at the time was part of Nizhyn Povit of Chernihiv Governorate.
The Bronze Soldier is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007. It was originally named "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn", was later titled to its current official name "Monument to the Fallen in the Second World War", and is sometimes called Alyosha, or Tõnismäe monument after its old location. The memorial was unveiled on 22 September 1947, three years after the Red Army reached Tallinn on 22 September 1944 during World War II.
The Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders, unofficially known simply as the Victory Monument, was a memorial complex in Victory Park, Pārdaugava, Riga, Latvia, erected in 1985 to commemorate the Red Army soldiers that recaptured Riga and the rest of Latvia at the end of World War II (1944–1945). The complex consisted of a 79-metre tall obelisk that consisted of five columns topped by five-pointed star, and two groups of sculptures – Homeland the Mother and a band of three soldiers.
The Motherland Calls is a colossal neoclassicist and socialist realist war memorial sculpture on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. Designed primarily by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich with assistance from architect Yakov Belopolsky, the concrete sculpture commemorates the casualties of the Battle of Stalingrad, and is the predominant component of a monument complex, which includes several plazas and other sculptural works. Standing 85 metres (279 ft) tall from the base of its pedestal to its peak, the statue was the tallest in the world upon its completion in 1967, and is the tallest statue in Europe if excluding the pedestal. The statue, along with the rest of the complex, was dedicated on 15 October 1967, and has been listed as a tentative candidate for UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites since 2014.
The Bronze Night, also known as the April Unrest and April Events, was a number of riots in Estonia surrounding the controversial 2007 relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet World War II memorial in Tallinn.
Mother Ukraine is a monumental Soviet-era statue in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The sculpture is a part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. In 2023, the Soviet heraldry was removed from the monument's shield and replaced with Ukraine's coat of arms, the tryzub.
The Soviet War Memorial in Schönholzer Heide in Pankow, Berlin was erected between May 1947 and November 1949, and covers an area of 30,000 square metres. The memorial contains the largest Soviet cemetery in Berlin, which is also the largest Russian cemetery in Europe outside of Russia.
The Soviet War Memorial in Vienna, Austria, more formally known as the Heroes' Monument of the Red Army, is located at Vienna's Schwarzenbergplatz. The semi-circular white marble colonnade partially enclosing a twelve-metre figure of a Soviet soldier was unveiled in 1945. The Heroes' Monument of the Red Army of the Soviet Union in Vienna was built to commemorate the 17,000 Red Army soldiers killed in action during the Vienna offensive in World War II.
Ilya Arkhipovich Vlasenko was a political commissar in the Red Army during and following World War II. Vlasenko was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1943 for his leadership in the Battle of the Dnieper.
The Culture of the Russian Armed Forces is widely varied, but unique amongst the branches of the armed forces, and shared with the other uniformed organizations within Russia. Military culture is the most important component of military life. The major cultural events held by the Russian military are primarily aimed at strengthening esprit de corps as well as advancing the historical traditions of the Armed Forces of Russia. The Ministry of Defence of Russia regularly holds cultural events at various levels. The central cultural institutions of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are actively working in all military districts.
Imagery promoting the Soviet Union has been a prominent aspect of the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Both Russia and Russian separatist forces in Ukraine have used Soviet symbols as a means of expressing their antipathy to Ukraine and to Ukrainian decommunization policies. For Russia, in particular, these displays are also part of a broader campaign to de-legitimize Ukrainian statehood and justify annexations of the country's territory, as was the case with Crimea in March 2014 and with southeastern Ukraine in September 2022.