THE MONUMENT TO V. I. LENIN IN SEATTLE: THE PROBLEM OF "TRANSFERRING" HISTORICAL MEMORY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the place of the monument in the context of historical memory on a specific example – the monument to V. I. Lenin, installed in Seattle. This monument is a unique example of studying the phenomenon of "transfer" of historical memory, as it passes a long historical path from Czechoslovakia to the United States. If initially, the monument was an ideological weapon, the main purpose of which was to convince the masses of the inviolability of the regime, then, after the "transfer", the meaning of the monument changes. Thanks to the aesthetic assessment of the monument by the patron of arts L. By Carpenter, it was preserved, was transported to the United States, and was thus endowed with a different cultural code. Its meaning has been rewritten or even adjusted to match the place it went to. In Seattle, a place inhabited by a different intellectual generation, the monument becomes the object of" performances " or attacks from various political forces opposed to the symbols of the left. The monument to V. I. Lenin in Seattle: the problem of "transferring" historical memory.