New Europe College Regional Program Yearbook 2001-2002

N.E.C. Yearbook 2001-2002
monuments to the Soviet army in the region and in allegoric
representations of victory (for example, the victory monument in
Constanþa, Romania, [fig. 2]); were inseparable elements even with
brotherly mounds and war memorials (for example, the brotherly mound
in Sofia, [fig. 3]). To give just one example – the image of the child in
the soldier’s hands (introduced by E. Vuchetich’s monument to the Soviet
soldier in Berlin-Treptow), found expression in numerous monuments of
the period. Children were depicted as the first to meet the liberators and
as happily rejoicing at the overcoming of the trials of war and the victory
of socialism. Being in the hands of the saviors was meant to be the most
secure position possible; offering a child to be hugged and caressed by
the victors was considered a sign of utmost respect for their humane
mission; having a child represented as rejoicing in the monumental
composition was the most powerful way to introduce the idea of the
happy future, which was believed to have been established with the
coming of socialism. What is important to emphasize is that this
atmosphere of the festive spirit was depicted as possible due to the sacrifice
and dedication in battle, with continual representation in parallel pictures.
The greater the happiness and rejoicing, the higher the cost paid for it.
Images of war, soldiers on the attack and dying comrades, were
inseparable elements of the scenes of victory – remembering death, though
regarding it as historically determined and necessary starting point for
the life to come. The carnage of war, the representation of which was
primarily justified by its nature as a source of life and regeneration.
It should not be forgotten, however, that the relationship between
death and vitality owes much of its specificity to the general system of
representation during the socialist period and to the rules and visions
regarding the function of art, which, though they seem distant and hostile
to opinion today, not that long ago were believed to be innovative and
effective. The transparency of meanings, the extreme “actuality” of art
in the period, related to its high propaganda function. The concept of art
as a weapon, fighting for particular goals, 14 the context in which the
language of art loses its variety and freedom and turns into a figure
reflecting ideological postulates – all bear witness to a special mode of
representation, which monuments of the socialist period used to
demonstrate. In such a way, the real, though having been strongly
proclaimed to be the ultimate and only goal of representation in art, fell
away, leaving room for ideological assumptions and postulates to take
advantage. But the problem is not only about the nature of truth and
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