ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses social memory, the shared histories of social groups, as the means through which events are commemorated or discarded, and materiality as the tool that enforces or erases such memories. Historical memory is often produced by the state and aims to present a single objective truth. Memory imbues the past with meaning, the present with motivation and the future with promise. Materiality informs social memory, the collective remembering and forgetting that shapes our social interactions each day. A material dimension can be critical to the identification of turning points in history. Materiality is reshaping power constellations throughout post-communist Eastern Europe. Monuments can help a nation come to terms with the cultural traumas of the past. Desecrating a monument or tearing it down and eliminating it from the landscape is an exercise of power. Monuments help legitimise, affirm, and strengthen the presence of established regimes within a community, communicating the shared values, identity, and histories of ruling groups.
