The Marshal Koněv Monument as a "Site of Memory": Mediating Post-Soviet Collective Memory in Prague

Abstract

This thesis critically examines the interaction between memory construction, representation, contestation, and interpretation within the Czech collective memory context through a detailed qualitative analysis examination of one Czech "site of memory" - the former monument to Marshal Ivan Stěpanovič Koněv in Prague 6. The analysis is informed by the theoretical assumption that collective memory construction and interpretation are continually interacting, and the meaning and function are continuously changing. As such, multiple components of the memory site are incorporated: the changing site in Prague 6, counter-monument responses occurring elsewhere in Prague, discourses surrounding the site in media and social media, and qualitative survey research of individual and local consumption of memory narratives surrounding the monument and media discourses. The results of this analysis demonstrate a clearly articulated struggle for the possession of memory narratives surrounding the monument. These tensions reflect shifts in the Czech collective mnemonic framework and the inherent plurality of memories within that framework. Consequently, there is no clear consensus as to how collective memory regarding Koněv and his historic legacy should or is represented in the present-day Czech political, cultural,...