During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that had commenced in February 2022, a number of Soviet-era monuments and memorials were demolished or removed, or commitments to remove them were announced in former Eastern Bloc Soviet satellite states, as well as several other countries formerly occupied by the Soviet Union.
In Ukraine, following the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, between 2015 and 2020, around 2,000 monuments and symbols that were linked to Ukraine's communist past were removed. In 2017 Poland passed a de-communism law requiring such communist and totalitarian regime symbols to be removed. [1]
In November 2022, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had counted 322 monuments and tombstones that may be subject to removal. [2] It was decided that 244 of these would be dismantled, with 56 removed by December 2022. [3]
On July 14, 2022, Latvian Saeima approved the removal of 69 monuments, memorials, and other objects glorifying Soviet and Nazi regimes selected by the Heritage Administration, the Latvian Artists Union and Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. [4] By 14 November, all 69 monuments had been removed, as well as an additional 55 Nazi and Soviet glorifying objects removed on the municipalities' own initiative. [5]
Lithuania decided in April 2022 to complete the removal of all Russian monuments, begun in 1991, including those in cemeteries. [6]
Poland began removing monuments following the 2016 law to de-communise Poland. The invasion of Ukraine generated an increased desire to remove such items, with 20 removed by August 2022 with 40 more scheduled for removal. [7]
Ukraine had removed over 2,000 monuments to Russian communism by 2020 in accordance with the de-communism law of 2015, including 1,320 statues or busts of Lenin. Additional monuments were removed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [8]
According to governor Maksym Kozytskyi, 312 monuments were removed in 2013 in Lviv Oblast. In January 2024 the Lviv Oblast became the first oblast to remove all Soviet Union-era monuments. [9]
Monument/Memorial | Location | Country | Removal announced | Removed | Means of removal | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Narva tank | Narva | Estonia | August 16, 2022 | August 16, 2022 | Government removal | [10] [11] |
"Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders" (Red Army monument) | Riga | Latvia | May 12, 2022 | August 25, 2022 | Government removal | [12] [13] [14] |
Monument to the Fourth Unit of the Red Army's First Latvian Guerilla Brigade | Alsviķi Parish | Latvia | N/A | August 26, 2022 | Vandalized | [15] |
Memorial Stone "To the Soviet Liberators of Madliena from the German Fascist Invaders" | Madliena | Latvia | N/A | April 26, 2022 | Government removal | [16] |
Monument "To the Soviet Defenders of Liepāja"/Grenade Thrower | Liepāja | Latvia | N/A | October 25, 2022 | Government removal | [17] [18] |
Monument "To the Soviet Liberators of Daugavpils" | Daugavpils | Latvia | N/A | October 31, 2022 | Government removal | [19] [20] |
Monument "To the Liberators of Rēzekne"/Alyosha | Rēzekne | Latvia | N/A | November 9, 2022 | Government removal | [21] [22] |
World Peace monument | Helsinki | Finland | N/A | August 4, 2022 | Government removal | [23] |
Medals from the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn | Tallinn | Estonia | N/A | 12 April 2022 | Vandalized | [24] |
Monument to the Red Army | Brzeg | Poland | 24 August 2022 | 24 August 2022 | Government removal | [25] |
Bust of Vladimir Lenin | Kotka | Finland | 4 October 2022 | 4 October 2022 | Government removal | [26] |
Bust of Vladimir Lenin | Turku | Finland | 28 April 2022 | 28 April 2022 | Government removal | [27] |
Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army | Glubczyce | Poland | 27 October 2022 | 27 October 2022 | Government removal | [28] |
Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army | Byczyna | Poland | 27 October 2022 | 27 October 2022 | Government removal | [28] |
Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army | Staszow | Poland | 27 October 2022 | 27 October 2022 | Government removal | [28] |
Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army | Bobolice | Poland | 27 October 2022 | 27 October 2022 | Government removal | [28] |
Monument of friendship between Russia and Ukraine | Kyiv | Ukraine | 28 April 2022 | 28 April 2022 | Government removal | [29] |
Monument to the Liberator Soldier | Kharkiv | Ukraine | N/A | 23 May 2023 | Vandalized | |
Statues of Soviet World War Two soldiers | Antakalnis Cemetery, Vilnius | Lithuania | 22 November 2022 | 6 December 2022 | Government removal | [30] |
Soviet state emblem emblazoned on the Motherland Monument statue | Kyiv | Ukraine | 1 August 2023 | 1 August 2023 | Government removal | [31] |
Monument to the Soviet Army, Sofia | Sofia | Bulgaria | 1993 | December 2023 | Government removal | [32] |
Mykola Shchors monument | Kyiv | Ukraine | December 2023 | Government removal | [33] | |
Nikolai Vatutin monument | Kyiv | Ukraine | 8 February 2023 | 9 February 2023 | Government removal | [34] |
Catherine the Great statue | Odessa | Ukraine | November 2022 | 29 December 2022 | Government removal | [35] |
312 unnamed statues | Lviv Oblast | Ukraine | 2023 | activists and local residents | [9] | |
Monument to the War Glory of the Soviet Army | Lviv | Ukraine | 23 July 2021 | Government removal | [9] |
Riga is the capital, primate, and the largest city of Latvia, as well as the most populous city in the Baltic States. Home to 605,273 inhabitants, the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 860,142. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies 1–10 m (3–33 ft) above sea level on a flat and sandy plain.
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.
Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment refers to persons and activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.
The Muzeon Park of Arts is a park outside the Krymsky Val building in Moscow shared by the modern-art division of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Central House of Artists. It is located between the Park Kultury and the Oktyabrskaya underground stations. The largest open-air sculpture museum in Russia, it has over 1,000 artworks currently in its collection.
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.
Decommunization in former communist states is the process of purging former communist high officials and eliminating communist symbols.
The Pushkin Statue in Kronvalds Park in Riga, Latvia, was erected in 2009 as a gift from the city of Moscow and removed in 2023. It was made by sculptor Alexander Tartynov.
The Vladimir Lenin monument in Kyiv was a statue dedicated to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The larger than life-size Lenin monument was built by Russian sculptor Sergey Merkurov from the same red Karelian stone as Lenin's Mausoleum. It was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair and erected on Kyiv's main Khreshchatyk Street on 5 December 1946.
Decommunization in Ukraine started during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and expanded afterwards. Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Ukrainian government approved laws that banned communist symbols, as well as symbols of Nazism as ideologies deemed to be totalitarian. Along with derussification in Ukraine, it is one of the two main components of decolonization in Ukraine.
The demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine started during the fall of the Soviet Union and continued to a small extent throughout the 1990s, mostly in some western Ukrainian towns, though by 2013 most Lenin statues in Ukraine remained standing. During Euromaidan in 2013–2014, the destruction of statues of Lenin become a widespread phenomenon and became popularly known in Ukraine as Leninopad, a pun literally translated as "Leninfall", with the coinage of "-пад" being akin to English words suffixed with "fall" as in "waterfall", "snowfall", etc.
The Statue of Lenin in Kharkiv was a sculpture monument to Vladimir Lenin, located in Freedom Square, Kharkiv, Ukraine, that was toppled and demolished in 2014. It was the largest monument to Lenin in Ukraine, designed by Alexander Sidorenko after entering an open competition to design the monument in 1963, in the lead up to the anniversary of the October Revolution.
Victory Park is a park in Riga, located on the left bank of the Daugava, in the district of Āgenskalns.The modern area of the park is 36.7 hectares.
De-Leninization is political reform aimed at refuting Leninist and Marxist–Leninist ideology and ending the personality cult of Vladimir Lenin. Examples include removing images and toppling statues of Lenin, renaming places and buildings, dismantling Lenin's Mausoleum currently in Red Square, Moscow, and burying his mummified corpse.
Derussification is a process or public policy in different states of the former Russian Empire and the Soviet Union or certain parts of them, aimed at restoring national identity of indigenous peoples: their language, culture and historical memory, lost due to Russification. The term may also refer to the marginalization of the Russian language, culture and other attributes of the Russian-speaking society through the promotion of other, usually autochthonous, languages and cultures.
Soviet imagery has been extensively used by Russian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February 2022. Prior to 1991, Ukraine was a member republic of the Soviet Union.
The Mykola Shchors monument was an equestrian statue to Red Army commander Mykola Shchors erected in 1954, and located at an intersection of Symona Petliury Street and Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, Kyiv, Ukraine, that was dismantled on 9 December 2023.