The Positive Dimension of De-Sovietization: The Visuality of Post-Soviet Monuments

This article examines the processes of de-Sovietization of public spaces in Lithuania, focusing on the visual transformation of monuments after the collapse of the Soviet Union. While scholarship has primarily analyzed the dismantling of Soviet monuments as acts of iconoclasm, this study argues that de-Sovietization is a dual process involving both negative and positive dimensions: the removal of Soviet-era symbols and the creation of new monuments that articulate a post-Soviet national narrative. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s framework of artistic regimes, the article explores how newly constructed or restored monuments embody the search for a new symbolic language of political and social communication. The analysis is based on qualitative content analysis of expert interviews with sculptors, architects, and artists involved in monument-making in Lithuania since 1990. Over the past three decades, more than 400 monuments have been erected in Lithuania, reflecting the tensions between continuity and rupture with Soviet monumentalism. While naturalistic monuments often avoided controversy, projects departing from realistic aesthetics—such as Regimantas Midvikis’ Exploded Bunker and Andrius Labašauskas’ Freedom Hill—became sites of conflict and public debate. By identifying the visual features of positive de-Sovietization, the article contributes to understanding how post-Soviet societies negotiate historical memory, identity, and aesthetic form in public space.