After the removal of what turned out to be a real (not replica) Soviet tank from its pedestal in Narva in eastern Estonia, where it was placed decades ago as a war memorial, the massive Victory Memorial (more formally, the “Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders”) is, as I write, being dismantled in Riga, the Latvian capital. I wrote about this excrescence here. Good riddance to it.
Whatever it was known as, the monument was, in reality, a celebration of the brutal Soviet occupation of Latvia and, a daily insult to countless Latvians. After Latvia reclaimed its independence, it remained as a salute to Soviet rule and, increasingly, became a focal point for dissent by Latvia’s large Russian minority, a minority that is, for the most part, made up of settlers who arrived during that occupation, or their descendants. It was not a legacy of history that could safely be consigned to the past by the attachment of an explanatory plaque or two, especially with an openly revanchist Russia now on the march.
The first items in the complex to go were the giant statues (of Red Army soldiers and a figure symbolizing the motherland). They have been pulled down over the last couple of days.
To quote from the English-language service of Latvian public broadcasting (LSM):
The demolition began on August 22, with the statues of Soviet soldiers and a female sent from the vertical axis to the horizontal over the next two days.
“From the vertical axis to the horizontal.”
LSM:
As the demolition of the Soviet Army monument continues in Rīga, Uzvaras park, the dismantling of the central obelisk or pillar was launched and succesfully achieved on Thursday. . . .
It took several hours. Latvian Television and LSM offered a live stream of the process, which proved extremely popular. . . .
Predictably, Russia has threatened dire consequences and so forth.
Some good footage of the obelisk’s fall here.