Soviet war cemeteries in Poland as places of imperial memory and power. Three case studies

Abstract

During winter of 1945, Soviet Red Army units, defeating the Wehrmacht on the pre-1939 territories of the Second Polish Republic, left behind many wartime graveyards. From early spring of 1945, the Soviet military command ordered the construction of monumental war memorials. In this article, I argue that material structures and spatial features of those cemeteries-mausoleums show and articulate a direct political aim behind their establishment — one of Soviet imperial policy towards Poland. By close examination of necropolies in three middle-sized or small Polish towns — Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Kalisz and Wolsztyn — I discuss their urban contexts, ideologically marked elements of form and spatial arrangements. This study offers a new approach to Soviet cemeteries in Poland, shedding light on their long-time usage as tools of imperial propaganda, related to the Great Patriotic War of the USSR.

Keywords

• Soviet War Cemeteries
• Great Patriotic War
• Polish history
• Soviet Union
• Twentieth Century