Soviet-era statues

Soviet-era statues are statuary art that figured prominently in the art of the Soviet Union. They frequently depicted significant state and party leaders, such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, and were typically made in the style of Socialist Realism.

Statues of prominent socialist figures - particularly of Lenin - were mass-produced and installed in villages, towns and cities across the Soviet Union. After World War Two, the socialist states of the Eastern Bloc similarly produced a large number of statues.

Communist symbology was of great importance for propaganda purposes. Such symbolism included other statues that were portrayals of realist allegorical figures in motion, figuratively striding forward into the new Soviet age, as well as Soviet role models, such as Nurkhon Yuldasheva.

The only statue of Stalin in Budapest, Hungary, was destroyed by citizens during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution; no replacement was ever made.

Post-Soviet developments

Since the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet-era statues and monuments have been removed from many public spaces being either destroyed, moved to less prominent locations, or in some cases sold to private collectors.

A statue of Lenin which was installed in Poprad, Czechoslovakia shortly before the Velvet Revolution was purchased by Lewis E. Carpenter, an American English teacher working in Poprad. In 1993 the statue was shipped to Seattle, Washington in the United States where it stands to this day.

Several "Sculpture Parks" have been established in post-Soviet states to display Communist-era statues in a museum environment:

• There is a Soviet Statue park (Grutas Park, promoted to tourists as Stalin World) in Lithuania.
• The open-air Muzeon Park of Arts in Moscow, Russia has over 600 Soviet-era statues.
• The Museum of Socialist Art in Bulgaria includes a statue park.
• The Statue Park Museum in Memento Park in Budapest, Hungary displays sculptures from the Communist era between 1945 and 1989.

Removal of Soviet monuments

In some countries Soviet-era statues have become the subject of debate over the legacy of the Communist era, and in some countries they have even been outlawed under "Decommunization" laws.

Many prominent statues in the Eastern Bloc countries were removed in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of their socialist governments. Notable examples include the Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky in Moscow, and the Lenin Monument in East Berlin.

The Euromaidan protests in Ukraine saw a wave of Soviet-era monuments being destroyed by protesters; a notable example being the Vladimir Lenin monument in Kyiv, the destruction of which by ultranationalists was opposed by the majority of Kyiv's residents.

In 2015 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved laws that required the removal of all socialist symbolism in public places, with the exception of World War Two memorials. By 2016, 1,320 Lenin monuments and 1,069 monuments to other socialist figures have been removed, with the last remaining monuments being either within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone or in areas under Russian occupation.

In August 2023 in the midst of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Soviet state emblem on the shield of the Mother Ukraine Monument was replaced with the Ukrainian trident emblem.

Gallery

• 
  Socialist-realist allegories surrounding the Palace of Culture and Science, Poland.
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  Relief from the Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw showing workers greeting victorious soldiers.
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  A monument to fallen Soviet soldiers in Ivanovka, Ukraine.
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  Monument to Soviet soldiers and partisans in Grodno, Belarus.

See also

• Socialist realism
• List of statues of Lenin
• Palace of Soviets
• List of Mother Motherland statues