Disappearing Russain Commemorative Monuments for Stalin's Victims

Memorials honoring victims of Stalinist repression in Russia are being destroyed or vandalized as efforts to rehabilitate the Soviet dictator increase. Over the past nine years, more than 700 plaques commemorating the final residences of those who perished in Stalin's purges in the 1930s have been erected in Russia and other locations. However, since May, many of these plaques have gone missing in several Russian cities. Oksana Matievskaya, a member of the plaque project Posledniy Adres (last address), believes that this is not a coincidence and suspects that the Russian authorities are involved. She suggests that remembering the horrors of Soviet terror challenges the notion of the infallibility of the state, which is inconvenient for the Russian government, especially in light of the Ukraine invasion. During Stalin's Great Terror in the 1930s, millions of people labeled as "enemies of the people" were sent to Soviet labor camps known as the Gulag, and 750,000 were summarily executed. Other memorials, including those dedicated to victims of repression and foreign soldiers who fought in World War Two, have also been targeted. Some experts, such as Alexandra Polivanova from civil rights group Memorial, believe that the authorities are responsible for these acts of destruction, as the Russian government wants to present the Soviet Union as a powerful nation rather than an oppressive regime. They argue that the government wants to conceal the truth about the country's tragic past, especially in light of the accusations of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. In conjunction with these attempts to erase the memory of Stalin's crimes, there has been a resurgence in his popularity. A survey conducted by independent pollster the Levada Centre in July revealed that 63% of Russians held a favorable view of the Soviet leader, the highest approval rating in 13 years. Although the cause behind this increase in popularity is unclear, Russian propaganda that justifies the war in Ukraine has also glorified the Soviet past. Unlike memorials to Stalin's victims, the number of statues honoring the dictator has been on the rise. According to an investigation on the social media platform Telegram, there are 110 Stalin statues in Russia, with 95 erected during President Vladimir Putin's tenure and at least four during the invasion of Ukraine. This is accompanied by the push for more statues, such as the 8-meter-high statue inaugurated by the private Russkiy Vityaz (Russian Knight) Foundation in the town of Velikiye Luki. The foundation, which is believed to be founded by the Russian Special Forces Veterans Association, has not commented on the reasons for its campaign. The foundation argues on its website that such monuments are crucial in the context of Russia's fight in what it calls a "real Patriotic war" with Ukraine, drawing parallels to World War Two and the Kremlin's comparison of Russia's invasion of Ukraine to that war.