Authors

Discussion

This paper explores the (re-)constructions of monuments related to Soviet history in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine territories. On October 11^th 2024, the Governor of Vologda region, Georgy Filimonov, announced the upcoming installation of a full-size statue of Joseph Stalin in Vologda, northwestern Russia. This ‘appearance’ of a new Stalin monument is neither a unique nor surprising phenomenon. Since the mid-2000s, dozens of monuments to the dictator have been inaugurated across Russia and, since 2014, in occupied territories of Ukraine as well. These monuments are the material translations of the Stalinist period’s valorization that has occurred since Vladimir Putin’s arrival to power, and that fit within a broader historical narrative considering Russian history as linear, evolving according to acontinuum of greatness, and articulated around glorious military events. Since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, statues dedicated to Lenin have also been put back on their pedestals – from which they had been pushed away during the so-called ‘Leninopad’ process. What do these monuments look like? Who are the actors involved in their installations? How are they inaugurated? And how are they used and perceived by the local populations? Answering these questions, this paper demonstrates how the return of this heritage of the USSR, often transformed and re-interpreted to the needs of the present, directly materializes the historical narrative developed in Putin’s Russia. It also sheds light on the paradoxes, ambiguities and contradictions of using the Soviet past today for nationalist purposes. Focusing on the form and meanings of these neo-Soviet monuments, the paper proposes a new understanding of Putinist monumental heritage.