The number of memorials to fallen soldiers is increasing in Russia: installation of memorial plaques in schools raises objections from local leaders
Kyiv • UNN
Russia is facing tensions over the increasing number of memorials to soldiers fallen in Ukraine; local leaders oppose plaques to "heroes" in schools, citing the psychological impact on children.
All over Russia memorials to people who died as part of the occupation forces during the during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine: they are installed on the initiative of relatives, organizations partly by the Russian military ministry. At the same time, the "mandatory" memorialization of of the military in the form of "desks of heroes" or plaques at schools is increasingly psychological pressure - local leaders are asking to stop hanging plaques to the fallen, Radio Liberty writes and UNN reports .
Details
According to the As the publication points out, the Russian Ministry of Defense is funding the so-called program "Perpetuation the memory of those killed in the defense of the Fatherland for 2019-2024, which cost the aggressor state the aggressor state more than five billion rubles. At the same time, quite recently recently, the occupiers' military department has increased the number of names of those killed from 199,272 to 228,005 the number of names of the deceased to be inscribed on the memorial structures of military burial sites as part of a five-year program. To what extent is this increase due to the the Russian war in Ukraine, it is difficult to assess: under this program, memorials are also being erected and memorials to participants of the Second World War, the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Syria.
The monuments appear on private initiative. The publication writes that in the suburbs of Belgorod a local resident "funded a memorial to his fellow soldiers who lost their lives in a who lost their lives in a battle in which the patron managed to survive".
Also, the installation of monuments are also supervised by public organizations that cooperate with the authorities.
According to anthropologist Serhii Mokhov, an anthropologist and researcher at Liverpool John Moores University, says that many monuments are appearing, mostly at burial sites.
It's hard to say what function [the new monuments to fallen soldiers] are fulfilling now, because they don't present any clear narrative. We still cannot understand their main idea, the hard message of the massively emerging practices that would involve not only the relatives of the dead
Necropolis in a school
A common way of of memorializing the military in the form of "heroes' desks" or plaques at schools from which the victims graduated, is already facing partial rejection, as it puts psychological pressure.
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According to Radio Svoboda, the head of the Teachers' Alliance, there are already stories of boards: it's like a political decision from above that will be implemented and impossible to resist. That is, there are cases when supporters of the invasion did not want to see memorial plaques in schools, and vice versa. "[Among teachers the opinion is being formed] that there is no need to create a constant reminder of death. There are already schools with 3-5 plaques, like on the wall of a columbarium," he says.
An interesting fact happened in November in the city of Penza, where Mayor Oleksandr Basenko demanded at a meeting of the city council to stop hanging plaques of the dead participants of the Russian aggression on educational institutions.
I want you to think about how the children's psyche will perceive the large number of memorial plaques on school buildings. These are primarily educational institutions where children from the age of 7 study. I may be telling a military secret, but we have schools with 7-8 dead graduates. [...] We are asking for time to honor the memory and not to create necropolises on school buildings. Understand, there are children there, their psyche is not yet stable
Recall
The losses of the Russian Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the losses of the Russian occupiers have already reached about 355,750 people, 5,913 tanks and thousands of pieces of other military equipment, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Also, UNN also reported that the Ukrainian soldiers captured and shot by Russian troops, were fighters of the 82nd separate airborne assault brigade of the Airborne Forces of Ukraine.