Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Since 2013 I’ve been researching on how political situation in Ukraine impacts visual art, as well as how the works of art and art institutions function in the realms of hybrid war with Russia. In my paper about the so called Leninopad - a very intense process of destruction of Lenin monuments in Ukraine - I am having a closer look on how and in what circumstances the monuments were destroyed, as well as what happened with the places where the monuments stood before. I am taking into consideration the decommunisation laws and how they have affected the destruction processes. I am concluding, what does the destruction mean for the future of Ukraine, what symbols and messages does it show to both - Ukrainians themselves, as well as the international public opinion, and why did it take such a brutal form. The purpose of this work is to understand a very complex processes of late decommunisation, which took place almost 20 years after gaining independence from the Soviet Union.