Soviet war memorials and the re-construction of national and local identities in post-communist Poland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11048439 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ewa Ochman (0000-0003-2596-7800, University of Manchester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 509-530 |
| Publication date | 2010-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nationalities Papers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00905992.2010.482130 |
| OpenAlex | W1996429728 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 11 |
This article proposes to look afresh at the legacies of communism in urban spaces in post-1989 Poland. Specifically, it investigates the fate of Red Army monuments and explores how these public spaces have been used in the multifaceted and multileveled process of post-communist identity formation. The article suggests that Red Army monuments constitute sites for the articulation of new narratives about the country's past and future which are no longer grounded in the fundamental division between “us” (the nation) and “them” (the supporters of communism) and which are far from being fixed in the binary opposition of the banished and the embraced past. The reorganization of public memory space does not only involve contesting the Soviet past or affirming independence traditions but is rather the outcome of multilayered processes rooted in particularities of time and space. Moreover, the article argues that the dichotomy “liberator versus occupier,” often employed as a viable analytical tool by scholars investigating the post-communist memorial landscape, impedes our understanding of the role played by Soviet war memorials in the process of re-imagining national and local communities in post-1989 Eastern Europe
Art · Articulation (sociology · Binary opposition · Communism · Independence (probability theory · Literature · Narrative · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Gender Studies · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies
Ruins, Memory and Vibrant Matter
In a Time Loop
Sculpture in Socialist Realism—Soviet Patterns and the Polish Reality
Geographies of Crime and Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Caught between Germany and Russia
Silent Protesters or Acceptors? The Reaction of the Russian-speakers to the Removal of the Soviet Monuments in Latvia and Estonia after Russia’s Full-scale Invasion of Ukraine
City of felt and concrete
From socialist to post-socialist cities
The Post-Soviet City as a Communal Apartment
Navigating an unwanted heritage
Forgetting communism, remembering World War II? The case of the permanent exhibition of the Schindler Factory Museum, Krakow, Poland
Disappearance 'in motion
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,92 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |