The Monument To the Soviet Army Is Marching With the Times

dnevnik.bg ^ | 18 June 2011 | Julia Lazarova, Photographer

[annalex]

The Monument to the Soviet Army responded to the beat of the times, as unknown artists colored the figures in the sculpture compositions as heroes of American comic books.
Julia Lazarova, Photographer



Santa Claus, Ronald the McDonald's clown, and Superman replaced the heavily armed soldiers and guerilla fighters.
Julia Lazarova, Photographer



From the Capital City management, a comment was made to the "Sega" newspaper, that they plan to investigate who painted over the monument and they will seek a way to clean it up, but it is not going to happen soon.
[the spray-painted text is "Marching with the time" (A-x)]
Julia Lazarova, Photographer



This artistic expression concides in time with the art-initiative by Sofia Design Week and the action for street art by the Transformers partnership, who painted over the old electic panels and transformers along the nearby Aksakov Street.
Julia Lazarova, Photographer



In the meanwhile on June 1 the potholes in Sofia streets woke up colored by spray paint, as an act of anonymous artists dedicated to child pedestrian safety.
Julia Lazarova, Photographer

[annalex]

After the Red Army set up Communist dictatorship in Bulgaria following the Second Wold War, a memorial to the Red Army was erected in the center of Sofia. Ugly and gray, it domineers the cityscape to this day, apparently too expensive to remove. But thanks to some civic-minded citizens, it is gray no more.

[annalex]

The Balkan bandit bump.

[Thrownatbirth]

Holy Perestroika! I guess that’s the best way to memorialize invaders you’d rather not.

[dfwgator]

Good for them....The Red Army liberated nothing. Just exchanged one set of chains for another.

[Bringbackthedraft]

There are also many monuments in the former East German Republic that are just falling apart. Sure they are for the Soviet Army, but they are also for soldiers who gave their lives to defeat a common enemy. Soldiers are soldiers no mater what country they fought for. They should be honored for their service, not desecrated for the behavior of their “political” leaders. I don’t support the political types that were in the NKVD, SS/SD or the Kempeitai, I feel for the avg. soldier, who left his job and family to go off to war, whether he volunteered or was conscripted, to defend his country, the “my country, right or wrong, my country” type.

[Thrownatbirth]

Soldiers are soldiers no mater what country they fought for

You should probably read up a little on the average joes in the Red Army during the final months of WW II. John Toland's "Last 100 Days" would be a good start.

[hellbender]

How about the orgy of rape engaged in by those wonderful heroes of the Great Patriotic War as they "liberated" the countries they had previously helped the Germans carve up in 1939 and 1940?

How about the glorious political commissars who stood behind the advancing heroes and shot anyone who retreated? Ah, the beauty of socialist warfare.

[RichInOC]

“Why so socialist, Comrade?”

[Amberdawn]

You make a good point and one that isn’t easy to answer.

[Lazamataz]

I understand where you are coming from, but an ugly, Godless system also can create an ugly, Godless populace. Therefore I might not have quite the same view.

We here in America have very little room to critize, for we are becoming the Soviet Union ourselves.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Average Joe’s were a part of all the Armies. Most of the graves I saw in East Germany contained bodies of young soldiers. Most were neglected, but then again the German Graves in Russia were probably also neglected. The monument on Seelow Heights is well maintained and there is a museum at the base of the hill dedicated to the Russian Liberation, if you can call it that.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Most of the graves I saw in East Germany ................. I was talking about the Russian Graves. Yes, they did nasty things, most of the nasty was done by the rear reserve troops. The Germans in Russia didn’t exactly behave like Altar Boys.

[VeniVidiVici]

Visted the Soviet War Memorial in East Berlin before the Wall fell. Buddy of mine, German speaker, and myself, doing the tourist thing in our dress uniforms.

As we walked up to this refreshment stand in the park there was a group of East German kids milling about. They looked to be about 9 or 10. I thought it would be cool to have my picture taken with them so I told my buddy to ask them. They thought it was a great idea, much to my surprise!

I gathered the kids around me (about six of them) with me in the back. Just as my buddy snapped the pic, the kids' teacher comes running up the path yelling at the kids. The look on their faces was pure fright. She got to where we were and started sheparding the childen away without giving any acknowledgment of our presence save for a whithering glare. She continued to berate the kids till they were out of earshot.

I asked my buddy what she said and he said that in a nutshell they were in very serious trouble for having their picture taken with a "capitalist pig". I kid you not.

[null and void]

It’s vandalism. Would have loved it in non-permanent colors (such as chalk)

[kearnyirish2]

The US alliance with Stalin was one of the darkest moments in our history; any European (even American ones) can attest to that. To have Britain & France go to war to protect Poland, and have Stalin “win” Poland at the end (while killing many more people than Hitler), is an absolute disgrace; it was conveniently ignored that Stalin invaded Poland IN CONJUNCTION WITH GERMANY, KILLED THEIR OFFICER CORPS IN KATYN, and still was our “ally” (?). There is a reason why Europeans don’t trust us (and we shouldn’t trust them); France left NATO because the last successful invasion of France was the American invasion of 1944 (the “foothold in Europe”, that we obviously had in 1943 in Italy).

[DesertRhino]

It was sick, but at least remember what the Nazis did. Whatever happened to them when the Soviet army swept in, they brought upon themselves. Everytime they stripped naked several thousand young mothers in Russia, and shot them, along with their children, they created Germanys fate.

Im proud of our guys behavior in the downfall of Germany. But our didnt carry them memory of the mass murder of millions of American wives, daughters and mothers.

I agree, defacing a monument to regular grunts is nearly always wrong.

[DesertRhino]

“You should probably read up a little on the average joes in the Red Army during the final months of WW II. John Toland’s “Last 100 Days” would be a good start.”

The last 100 days? Interesting,,, but out of context without knowing how nazis acted when they controlled half of the USSR. The disgusting behavior of the nazis as they swept into Russia is what mostly created the tragedy that later engulfed them. You need read about Babi Yar in Kiev. It’s only ONE mass murder of tens of thousands of women, kids and other innocents.

*Of course* there is gonna be some world class revenge if someone did that in your hometown.

[hellbender]

I was thinking more about what the Soviet troops did to countries like poor innocent Poland, which was invaded and fought over by both sides. I know some E. Europeans, and they say that the Germans were bad but the Russians were worse.

If the Germans in Russia had behaved like American troops, many Soviet civilians would have helped them, esp. in the Ukraine, but Nazi ideology ridiculed Slavs and planned to evict, slaughter, or enslave them, so the Germans made no attempt to be nice to them.

[annalex]

It's vandalism

Technically, it is. The sculptor wanted a monument (not a grave site one -- the place had been known for years as Tsar Boris's Garden), -- a monument that would glorify the conquest of a country which never fought the USSR and with no German troops on her territory at the time of the Soviet invasion. He did not want to paint Mickey Mouse characters over it. So it is not a restoration, and therefore "vandalism".

Central and South Europe needs more of it.