Commemorative vigilance between totalitarianisms: Slovakia’s 'Victims Warn' sculpture, from counter-monument to anti-monument

• Published in: Journal of historical geography Vol. 81; pp. 55 - 66
• Main Author: Chloupek, Brett R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2023
• Subjects: Anti monument; Counter monument; Lieu de mémoire; Slovak National Uprising; Slovakia; Ukraine; Anti monument; Counter monument; Slovakia; Slovak National Uprising; Ukraine; Lieu de mémoire
• ISSN: 0305-7488; 1095-8614
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhg.2023.04.007

Near the end of World War II, a diverse coalition of Slovak political parties and citizens orchestrated an insurrection against the Nazi occupiers and their Slovak client government. While it ultimately failed to liberate Slovakia, the narrative of the Slovak National Uprising of 1944 become central to the Slovak memory wars which have followed. Virtually all post-war political regimes have sought either to uphold the legacy of the uprising or to attack it as an anti-state action. Such memory wars extend to monumental commemorations of the uprising—most notable is Jozef Jankovič’s 1969 monument entitled 'Victims Warn'. The monument’s surreal, humanistic style and counter-monumental social message offended communist sensibilities and it was quickly removed. Since its restoration to the central courtyard of the Slovak National Uprising Museum in 2004, it now increasingly functions as an anti-monument to nationalist political narratives, including those related to NATO, Russia, Ukraine, and the legacy of the wartime Slovak state. This paper tracks the monument’s transition from counter-monument to anti-monument, and also looks at commemorative vigilance issues that currently threaten to alter the monument’s original meaning, its spatial context, and Jankovič’s original artistic vision. •The Slovak National Uprising (SNP) and its monuments have taken on new meanings in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.•The Slovak National Uprising has served as the cornerstone of Slovak identity construction since World War II.•Most SNP monuments are socialist and didactic in nature, making them less evocative and meaningful in current times.•‘Victims Warn’ is stylistically an outlier in its humanistic focus and should serve as a model for monuments in Ukraine.•Nationalist commemorative maintenance around the monument site threatens Jankovič’s original artistic vision.