Browsing by Author "Jordan, Jace"

Monuments and the memories they represent are constantly responding to political and cultural changes in the human environment around them. This thesis analyzes how Soviet monuments, primarily the T-34 Narva Tank in Estonia and the Victory Monument in Latvia, were securitized following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In particular, the study dissects the role that external actors and other motivating factors had in these processes, and what causal mechanisms can explain for the subsequent removal and destruction of these memory edifices. Expounding upon established theoretical and conceptual frameworks of memory securitization, mnemonic security dilemmas, and the hardware of memory, this thesis explores how seemingly benign objects in a memory landscape can be mobilized by conflict situations and result in escalatory securitized measures between states. The method of process tracing allows the two cases to be considered parallel to one another, constructing a timeline of events through an extensive analysis of news articles, public statements, and legal documents released in Estonia, Latvia and Russia. Elite Interviews conducted with memory experts in these states also inform the analysis, and provide critical perspectives on non-reported elements and variables that impacted events. Site analyses conducted at these sites of memory further nuance the findings of this research, providing an ethnographic understanding of how the removal of these monuments not only altered the physical landscape in which they existed, but the human communities around them as well. Key evidence is revealed regarding the primary role that articulated Russian threats played in the securitization and subsequent removal of these monuments, presenting compelling avenues for future research on the role that external actors play in internal memory processes. As memories of the past continue to find themselves intertwined with conflicts of the present, this research presents novel contributions to understanding how memory wars are waged, and through which means, if any, they can be de-escalated.