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Notes -
I've read the discussion on the destruction of General Lee's statue in Charlottesville in last week's thread. I got the impression that many commenters here are prone to come up with explanations why the official removal of the statue was at least unsurprising or objectively justified from a culture war perspective, and I get that. But it seems they aren't focusing on the palpable difference between legally removing a statue and destroying it in a furnace. Because as far as I'm concerned, it's a big step from one to the other.
I'm reminded of the political transitions that happened in Central Europe in 1989-91, because many local monuments to either Soviet politicians/soldiers or local Communists or Marx/Engels were officially removed as a result. Anyone can correct me if they can, but I think all those new political systems were content with just removing the statues and putting them in "museums", which in most cases basically meant that these statues were put in open-air storage in remote and mostly abandoned memorial parks to just wither away, but not destroying them, cutting them up, melting them down etc. This hasn't even happened to Stalin statues in the Baltic states, for example, even though local anti-Soviet sentiment was definitely the strongest in the entire region, not something to understate. You can still find and visit those statues today.
And in this case, even this relatively close parallel doesn't really work, because it's not like there was a fundamental regime change in Virginia since the statue was erected.
And what happened to Lee's statue certainly cannot be explained by financial considerations either, as I'm sure that whatever arrangement that was on the table for putting it away as a museum piece was cheaper than melting it down in a furnace.
The only fitting parallel that comes to mind is Napoleon ordering captured cannons to be melted down to build a gigantic iron monument in Paris dedicated to the victory at Austerlitz. But again, I'm sure I won't have to explain in detail how that political context was completely different from this, even though I'm aware there are many hardline leftists today who would've preferred the evil Confederacy to be publicly humiliated in such ways back in 1865.
In the end, the only sufficient explanation I can come up with is that local authorities were afraid that Lee's statue, no matter where it were to be placed, was likely to become a site of pilgrimage for right-winger heretics opposed to the culture-warring leftist interpretation of race relations in the US, hence the statue's destruction.
Plus, and this is just pure speculation on my part, I think General Lee was such a perfect personification of the Southern patriarchal ideal of gentlemanliness that he invites leftist hostility like no other figure in US history. Plus, he had the cheek to candidly express views on slavery and the innate characteristics of Africans that are, from a leftist perspective, uniquely horrible, just too painful, and cutting too close to the bone, as they say.
Ukraine dismantled a Soviet-era monument that symbolized friendship between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, by tearing it down and beheading. Beheading may be accidental: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zext2ui755A
Latvia pulled down 79 meter monument in 2022 that celebrated occupation of this country by Russia (there was fig-leaf explanation for it): https://youtube.com/watch?v=JF_ZGbzoc4o
Poland still has some monuments celebrating Red Army that invaded during WW II in full cooperation with Nazi Germany: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4eGxD3GIuaU shows destruction of some in 2022 (though they seem to be concrete/brick making really unfeasible to move it)
https://i.pl/runal-kolejny-pomnik-wdziecznosci-armii-czerwonej-prezes-ipn-on-byl-ahistoryczny/ar/c1-17514513 mentions one demolished in 2023 after confirming that there are no wartime graves next to it.
https://i.pl/w-chrzowicach-zburzono-pomnik-gloryfikujacy-armie-czerwona-gmina-proszkow-jako-pierwsza-odpowiedziala-na-apel-szefa-ipn/ar/c1-16115621 - another from 2022
https://radiogdansk.pl/wiadomosci/region/slupsk/2023/10/03/pomnik-zolnierzy-armii-czerwonej-w-smoldzinie-do-likwidacji-zastapi-go-tablica-pamiatkowa/ - will be replaced by memorial honouring dead soldiers
and so on
Thanks for compiling this list. A couple of things:
Yes, I'm aware that the obelisk in Riga was demolished. I posted about it here in fact, although that was a year ago. I'll only comment here that stating that it "celebrated occupation of this country by Russia" is evidence of ideological bias so severe I find it almost comical. No, it was not erected to celebrate "occupation" by "Russia". Let's be clear about that.
Also, it'd have been commendable on your part to add that all these decisions listed were made in the context of the Ukrainian war. It's not like that's not relevant here. This is a political context that has absolutely nothing in similar with the one in Charlottesville.
per your link
it was celebrating conquest of Latvia by Soviet Russia (called "liberation" by USSR).
I admit that USSR managed to be better than Nazi Germany, but it was another unwanted conqueror. And as soon as it become possible they were kicked out.
Are you going to argue that it was celebrating initial conquest, not occupation? Or that it was celebrating Soviet occupation, not Russian one? Or are going to claim that Soviet rule was welcome? And they were kicked out by CIA coup despite wishes of people living there?
Context is important, this was monument celebrating Russian conquest of Latvia and trying to whitewash communist rule via "we are better than Hitler" like that would be a high bar. As bonus, it was funded via extra tax on locals (via "voluntary" donations).
I'm going to argue that it was celebrating the military victory on Latvian soil over, you know, literal Nazis ("garbage humans", "deplorables" etc.), alien occupiers, aggressors, oppressors etc. It's not a monument, as far as I can tell, to the reannexation of Latvia, or to the establishing of Soviet military bases in Latvia i.e. "occupation", or to Russianness, a Russian empire, or to Stalin.
Not sure whether you are seriously taking name at face value and ignore context, or are you somehow treating USSR as a good thing.
If slaver kidnaps victims from another (even more cruel) slaver, then calling them "liberators" is misleading at best.
What is exactly mechanism of what happened here. Describing Red Army winning over their former ally as "liberation" and without clearly stating that USSR was also an evil regime is lying by omission.
it was whitewashing Russian army and Russian occupation as "liberation" and pretending that USSR occupation of Latvia was legitimate and welcome.
Soviets annexed Latvia and occupied it for decades, they have not limited themself to military bases
Again, the name of the monument was not 'Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga' or 'Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from dictatorial rule'. It was Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders. Context is important.
"Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga" part was problematic
"from the German Fascist Invaders" was dressing attempting to make it palatable and used to justify evil, stupid, murderous and unwanted regime that was causing variety of damage.
It is close to having monument to honour man who killed Hitler. Yeah, he killed Hitler - but destroying monument dedicated to him is still a good idea.
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