Thousands of World War II Memorials in Russia Neglected and Falling Apart

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 10 – Given the supposed outpouring of popular support among Russians for memorializing the Soviet victory in World War II, it is somewhat shocking to discover that there are thousands of World War II memorials of various kinds around the country which are completely neglected and have fallen into disrepair, Anastasiya Olshanskaya says.

            Exactly how many of these there are, the journalist continues, is unknown but it is staggeringly large. She notes that in Novgorod Oblast alone, officials acknowledge that there are “more than 700” monuments which are in trouble (mbk-news.appspot.com/suzhet/snos-i-zabyte-kak-v/ citing vnovgorode.ru/obshchestvo/566-granitsy-territorij-200-pamyatnikov-velikoj-otechestvennoj-vojny-budut-utverzhdeny-v-novgorodskoj-oblasti.html).

            “If in cities people do look after monuments to fallen Soviet soldiers, in villages and rural areas, many monuments continue to decay. The problem is,” Olshanskaya says, “all the monuments of regional significance must be restored by regional officials – and they often do not have any money to do so.”

            Sometimes local residents take things into their own hands (vladtv.ru/society/97227/), but the tasks are sometimes too large and they face opposition from officials who hope to get their hands on the land on which the monuments or even cemeteries are located. As a result, many projects are started but don’t end with restoration.

            Instead, such projects often are hijacked in one or two ways. On the one hand, businesses often use these efforts as an excuse to highlight their high costs and work to destroy what they are supposed to be saving. And on the other, and more horrifically, officials divert funds into their own pockets, leaving the monuments in no better way than they were.

            Olshanskaya gives numerous examples of both kinds of things, adding that “if you think that such an attitude to memorials to the fallen in war is possible only far from Moscow and St Petersburg, you are very much mistaken.”  Exactly the same approaches are to be found in the two capitals.

            She gives as an example the case of one in St. Petersburg. There, officials in Soviet times built a theater over part of a war cemetery. In 2006, some business people wanted to tear down the theater so as to build a shopping center. That sparked resistance, but the businessmen have gone ahead anyway (cogita.ru/grazhdanskaya-aktivnost/precedentnye-pobedy-ngo-v-sudah/reshenie-suda-po-farforovskomu-kladbischu-vstupilo-v-silu).

            But Olshanskaya saves her greatest anger for officials who get government money to restore war memorials and then pocket it for themselves, leaving the monuments to continue to decay, a practice that should not be allowed to continue if Russia is to honor both its war dead and its own laws (v102.ru/news/78980.html).