This year, several countries neighboring Russia have responded to the war in Ukraine with a campaign against Soviet monuments. Many statues have been taken down already, and there are ambitious plans for removing many more. In Estonia, the state plans to clear all public spaces and architecture of Soviet symbols. This talk examines issues raised by these plans, ranging from the impact of the war to critiques of the removal plans posed by art and heritage experts. Finally, the talk addresses the strange silence around the most obvious of global comparisons - the removal of colonial and confederate statues in the West.

Linda Kaljundi is professor of history at the Estonian Academy of Arts and curator at the Kumu Art Museum, where she co-curated the permanent exposition on modern Estonian art. Her research focuses on imperial and indigenous imaginaries in the Baltic region, environmental history, and memory politics.

Organized by the Van Hunnick History Department, the Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies, and the Levan Institute for the Humanities.

RSVP required at [email protected]

All attendees will be emailed the Zoom link upon registration.