The proposed contribution will focus on statues and monuments dedicated to the Soviet army erected on the territory of Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. In the beginning, the presentation will examine the emergence of monuments immediately after the war and their perception and status during the communist regime. The main part of the paper will then deal with the role of Soviet army monuments in the new political context and their post-1989 transformation. It could be expected that the fall of the communist regime in 1989 would represent a significant turning point for these memorials. The military memorials, particularly Soviet war memorials, changed their connotation due to the changing political regime, but their removal did not occur frequently. The most visible transformation involved the incorporation of the monument into newly forming valuable historical preferences and their position in historical memory. The main objective of this presentation will be to analyse the impact of Soviet war memorials in Czechoslovak public space after 1989 and to explain their physical and doctrinal transformation.
Švardová Petra works at the Institute of Contemporary History (CAS) and the Institute of History (SAS). She previously finished her thesis under the joint (cotutelle) Ph.D. program of the Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences, and INALCO Paris (University of Languages and Civilizations). The topic of her doctoral thesis was "Material heritage from the Communist past in former Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria: the questions of preservation of monuments and their new roles. Soviet war memorials after 1989." She completed her master's degree in museum studies in 2012 at Paris Sorbonne University.