As I used to be photographing Soviet-era monuments within the Lithuanian port town of Klaipėda in Would possibly 2022, I heard a girl shout at me: “You are a young Nazi who wants to remove and destroy everything”. She used to be caused by means of my presence, taking notes across the monuments and sporting a few professional-looking cameras.
I used to be in the midst of a analysis commute to record Soviet monuments within the Baltic states. The previous few years had observed some former Soviet bloc nations debate the way forward for those monuments, a lot of which have been in the beginning erected to mark the position of Soviet forces in the second one international conflict.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which started previous in 2022, had speeded up those debates in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The debates weren’t new – questions concerning the presence of Soviet-era monuments had surfaced for many years. However concrete movements to take away them were uncommon because of divided critiques over their which means.
For many of us within the Baltic states, Soviet-era monuments embodied career and served as reminders of repression imposed by means of a international regime. But for others, particularly inside ethnic Russian communities, they persevered to constitute Soviet wartime victories and functioned as websites of commemoration. Felony restrictions additionally avoided their elimination, as many monuments had been officially safe by means of legislation.
A Soviet-era monument in Narva, a town in jap Estonia, in 2022.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
Those monuments, as soon as in large part unquestioned options of the general public house, had been now being reevaluated in opposition to the backdrop of a brand new conflict and rising geopolitical tensions. And, as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine persevered, the debates over the destiny of those monuments intensified. This culminated in direct motion.
The primary movements ceaselessly started with acts of vandalism. Monuments, together with one in Ukmergė, Lithuania, which were unveiled in 1982 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Soviet Union, had been defaced. They had been often lined in blue and yellow paint, reflecting the dimensions of public anger on the conflict and team spirit with Ukraine.
The Soviet-era Flag Bearers monument in Ukmergė, a town in Lithuania, used to be lined in blue and yellow paint in 2022.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
Those spontaneous interventions had been quickly adopted by means of extra formal, centralised motion. Native municipalities held conferences to talk about relocating monuments, whilst some took steps to take away them altogether.
Lithuania’s parliament handed a so-called desovietisation legislation in past due 2022. This banned the commemoration or illustration of other people, symbols and knowledge selling totalitarian or authoritarian regimes and their ideologies. Latvia’s parliament additionally handed a legislation offering for the dismantling of web sites glorifying Soviet and Nazi regimes.
The place decision-making stalled and criminal restrictions avoided respectable motion, native communities ceaselessly took issues into their very own palms. In some instances, corresponding to within the Lituanian town of Telšiai, Soviet conflict memorials had been lined with rubbish baggage. This disadvantaged them in their symbolic presence with out bodily doing away with them.
A Soviet-era monument lined in black rubbish baggage in Telšiai, Lithuania, in 2022.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
Public opinion at the elimination of monuments used to be a ways from uniform. A 2022 survey printed that fifty% of the Lithuanian inhabitants supported the elimination of Soviet monuments (21% “fully support” and 29% “rather agree”), whilst 35% adverse it. However, Soviet monuments unexpectedly disappeared from public areas within the Baltic states following Russia’s invasion, leaving a visual mark at the city panorama.
Documenting those monuments in 2022 proved difficult as removals had been progressing at a fast tempo. In some instances, monuments had been taken down with out prior public realize to keep away from disruption. Once in a while, I arrived at websites simply too past due. Probably the most first memorials to fall in Latvia used to be positioned within the south-eastern town of Jēkabpils, which I reached when dismantling used to be already underway.
In a number of the extra high-profile instances, such because the monument within the Latvian capital Riga – to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from German Fascist Invaders – websites had been fenced off and monitored by means of police.
Memorial web site to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from German Fascist Invaders in central Riga, Latvia, used to be fenced off once I arrived.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
3 years on
Visiting the similar websites in the summertime of 2025, I seen a number of patterns within the converting city panorama. Some former monument websites nonetheless bore strains of the Soviet legacy, leaving noticeable voids within the public house. In Ukmergė, for instance, the monument itself were got rid of, however the surrounding web site remained in large part untouched. In Narva, an Estonian border town, the obelisk crowned with a five-pointed superstar were taken down. This left simplest an empty plinth as a silent reminder of what as soon as stood there.
Such instances are commonplace in peripheral cities, the place removals ceaselessly befell with out follow-up plans or allotted budget for redevelopment.
The empty web site the place the Flag Bearers monument as soon as stood in Ukmergė, Lithuania. Photograph taken in 2025.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
The empty plinth on the former web site of a Soviet-era monument in Narva, Estonia, taken in 2025.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
Even after elimination, some former websites persevered to function puts of reminiscence for native Russian-speaking communities. In Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, a monument made from six granite statues of Soviet infantrymen used to be taken down in past due December 2022.
But the web site nonetheless supplies house for commemorations, with a lit candle and a wreath positioned the place the monument as soon as stood. The statues had been relocated to Grūtas Park, a Soviet sculpture park in Lithuania, the place they’re positioned within the parking space with a lantern symbolising an everlasting flame.
The Soviet-era monument devoted to Purple Military infantrymen in Vilnius, Lithuania, taken in 2022.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
The similar memorial web site in Vilnius in 2025 after the six granite statues had been got rid of.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
Different former Soviet-era monument websites disclose putting transformations. A park in Pärnu, south-western Estonia, and a public sq. in Daugavpils, south-eastern Latvia, now display no visual strains of the monuments that when occupied an area within the city panorama there.
A monument devoted to the Soviet infantrymen of the second one international conflict in Daugavpils, Latvia, in 2022.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
The similar web site in Daugavpils is nearly unrecognisable in 2025.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
I had to go back two times, circling the park in Pärnu, sooner than I may recognise the spot the place I had photographed the monument 3 years previous. Those monuments have slipped right into a silent oblivion.
A monument in Pärnu, Estonia, devoted to the folk killed protecting the Soviet Union. Photograph taken in 2022.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
The memorial web site in Pärnu, Estonia, has slipped into silent oblivion.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
Lots of the Soviet-era monuments had been in the beginning positioned inside army cemeteries the place Soviet infantrymen had been buried. Most often, those cemeteries had been maintained by means of Russian embassies. On the other hand, with the monuments long gone – and their position as visible propaganda erased – lots of the websites had been left left out. Their maintenance is faltering along their symbolic energy.
An army cemetery the place Soviet infantrymen are buried in Seredžius, Lithuania, has been left out after the elimination of the Soviet monument.
Kristina van Kuyck, Writer supplied (no reuse)
The conflict in Ukraine has caused putting adjustments within the city panorama around the Baltic states. Those adjustments disclose no longer a uniform tale of erasure however somewhat a fragmented panorama of reminiscence.
My pictures display how some puts are marked by means of absences, others are inscribed with other meanings, and lots of have fallen into forget.
