ABSTRACT

This article examines the afterlife of the most prominent Soviet monuments in Kyiv to survive the first wave of demolitions during the early 1990s. It shows how some of them evolved into symbols of solidarity with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which made them targets of attacks during the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013–14. In an attempt to trace the changing meaning and public resonance of Soviet monuments, the author develops Jan and Aleida Assmann’s concept of “mnemonic energy,” which monuments emit. Specifically, the article puts it in dialogue with notions of “symbolic plasticity” and “memorial environment,” both proposed here for the first time. The author argues that these characteristics of Soviet monuments, which take into account changing social practices at their respective sites, ultimately determined their fate in the post-Soviet period. The author also tests Michael Taussig’s notion that monuments always contain within themselves a suppressed counter-narrative, which can be revealed when they are toppled, accepting it with the proviso that alternative readings need not be singular or stable.

摘要

本文考察了基辅最著名的苏联纪念碑的来世，这些纪念碑在 1990 年代初期的第一波拆除浪潮中幸存下来。它展示了其中一些如何演变成与弗拉基米尔·普京 (Vladimir Putin) 领导的俄罗斯团结一致的象征，这使它们在 2013-14 年的 Euromaidan 革命期间成为攻击目标。为了追溯苏联纪念碑不断变化的意义和公众共鸣，作者发展了 Jan 和 Aleida Assmann 的“记忆能量”概念，即纪念碑发出的能量。具体来说，文章将其与“符号可塑性”和“记忆环境”的概念进行了对话，这两者都是首次在这里提出的。作者认为，苏联纪念碑的这些特征，考虑到了各自地点不断变化的社会实践，最终决定了它们在后苏联时期的命运。