“Alyosha, go home!”

The Monuments of the Soviet Army in Romania and Bulgaria from the End of World War II until the Present

Abstract

As a matrix of meanings, monuments are often at stake in the processes of appropriation or disavowal of the past, while preserving their status as marks of identity for the individual, the group, the city or the nation. This was also the destiny of the monuments built during the communist period in Bulgaria and Romania in order to glorify the “all-mighty Red Army”. Carved in stone, marble or bronze, and enshrined in the city landscape, they were celebrated constantly during the communist period. After the fall of the regimes, they were often vandalised, dismantled, or melted down, and became controversial. This article looks at the different stages of those transformations, focusing on the discussions and laws in the past decades. First the general situations are introduced in both of these countries, and then a few of the most intriguing case studies are reviewed in greater detail.