The Positive Aspect of De-Sovietization: The Compatibility of Narrative and Visuality

CBEES Advanced Seminar with Viktorija Rimaitė-Beržiūnienė, Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University.

Speaker: Viktorija Rimaitė-Beržiūnienė, Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University.

Discussant: Irina Sandomirskaja, Professor of Cultural Studies, Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University.

Chair: Florence Fröhlig, Associate Professor in Ethnology at the School of Contemporary and Historical Studies, CBEES, Södertörn University.

Abstract: The dominant research of de-Sovietization in East-Central Europe focus on the elimination of Soviet monuments, i.e. by nature, a negative aspect of de-Sovietization based on the removal and dismantling of monuments. Although it is a process aimed at distancing from the old regime and leaving its symbolic space, the process of demolition and destruction is always accompanied by the creation of new symbolic, legal, and political practices. So, in terms of collective memory and its visual expression manifested through monuments in public spaces, de-Sovietization includes not only the removal and demolition of old monuments but also their replacement with the new ones, i.e. a positive aspect. The process of de-Sovietization is not complete if it is not clear what meanings, events or personalities replace the Soviet narrative about the state.

In this presentation, the de-Sovietization process is considered dual. The removal of Soviet monuments is accompanied by the construction of the new ones establishing a new narrative and state’s identity. It can be defined as a positive aspect of de-Sovietization that makes its implementation complete. It is argued that it is impossible to understand and define de-Sovietization without the analysis of the positive aspect, i.e. what monuments replace demolished Soviet monuments. The change of monuments marking the transition of the regime includes not only the narrative, i.e. thematic and conceptual level but also the visual level. Consolidation of the new political system is characterized by a new visual language and visual expression communicating the values of the new political system in the post-Soviet space. It is considered that different political regimes have different regimes of art with different visual languages (Ranciere 2009).

Using semi-structured expert interviews with sculptors and visual analysis of monuments built in post-Soviet period in Lithuania, the presentation investigates the visual features of positive de-Sovietization showing what visual choices create new narrative through monuments about Lithuania after its liberation from the Soviet Union. It analyzes the case of Lithuania as a post-Soviet state focusing on the new monumental practices that emerged in 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union to 2020 instead of highlighting the process of demolishing monuments.

Viktorija Rimaitė-Beržiūnienė (PhD in Political Science) is a postdoctoral researcher at Vilnius Academy of Arts and an assistant professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. She received her PhD in Political Science and Memory Studies in 2022 at Vilnius University. Currently, she is conducting postdoctoral research “The Positive Aspect of De-Sovietization: The Compatibility of the Narrative and Visuality”. The main specialization includes the analysis of memory processes and expressions of collective memory as politically significant objects with a focus on public spaces and visual memory practices that fill them, i.e. the analysis of different memory narratives and memory as a security issue and national as well as local history maker.