The project on Contested Histories primarily focuses on controversies over monuments, statues, street names, and other tangible representations of historical legacies. However, the project recognises that contested historical legacies can also include intangible heritage, such as music. In this blog post, Serena Jampel examines the role of music in political… Read More
On February 27, 2016, several Czech citizens started a petition to rename Prague’s Under the Chestnuts Square, the site of Russia’s Embassy in the Czech Republic, in honour of the murdered Kremlin critic, Boris Nemtsov. The Prague City Council finalised the renaming on February 27, 2020. In response, the Russian… Read More
The presence of the Lenin statue in the Indian town of Belonia has been a long-time subject of heated debate between the local Communist Party and the ruling Bharat Janatiya Party. After the BJP won seats in the area, unsettling the long-term rule of the area by the Communist Party,… Read More
Constructed in 1988, during Albania’s communist regime (1946-1991), the Qendra Ndërkombëtare e Kulturës “Pjetër Arbnori” (International Cultural Centre “Pjetër Arbnori”), best known as the “Pyramid of Tirana” used to commemorate Albania’s communist dictator Enver Hoxha. To many, it symbolises a dark period of Albania’s history, characterised by political oppression. Following… Read More
The largest Red Army memorial in the world stands 12 metres high at the centre of a popular city park. It includes Soviet flags carved in red granite, sixteen sarcophagi representing each of the Soviet Republics, and a quotation from Stalin declaring that ‘all now recognise that the Soviet people… Read More
Soviet memorials have been the subject of removals in Poland since the 1980s, with the Monument of Gratitude to the Soviet Army have faced the same destiny. After 70 years of reminding locals of the country’s soviet past in Legnica, Poland, the monument was removed in 2018 and moved to… Read More
Hong Kong By IHJR Research Team August 2022… Read More
The death of Francisco Franco in 1975 brought to close a painful era in Spanish History. In 2007 Spain enacted the Historical Memory Law, which formally condemns the Franco Regime and mandates the removal of public tributes to Franco. His statue in Melilla was one of the only remaining depictions… Read More
The Lenin Statue in Bishkek was erected in 1984, during the 60th anniversary of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic. Shortly after the fall of communism in 1991, all Lenin statues were taken down. However, Bishkek’s Lenin stood in the same square until 2003. This year, the square was going to… Read More
The Valley of the Fallen in Madrid was built in the 1940s by order of dictator Francisco Franco and, was in part, built by forced labour from political prisoners. Its aim was to be a mausoleum for victims of the Civil War from the Francoist side but at the end… Read More
After 30 years since the statue of Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba was removed, it returned to central Tunis in June 2016. The return of the statue was intended to be a grand gesture of patriotism, around which all Tunisian’s could unite. It became clear, however, that the move was… Read More
Unlike many monuments of past fascist leaders that have been eradicated throughout Europe, Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol, Italy, still includes a monumental bas-relief that depicts Benito Mussolini and reminds locals of the Mussolini Fascist regime of Italy. For fifty years, the bas-relief divided opinions between left-wing groups, who… Read More