Conclusion

Summary

In February 1987, members of a Russian ethnonationalist network calling itself Pamiat’ (Memory), after the title of Chivilikhin’s 1982 novel, rallied to the defense of a war memorial design by the sculptor Viacheslav Klykov. Klykov’s design – one of nearly 400 proposals exhibited in central Moscow as part of the renewed search for a “Victory” complex on Poklonnaia Hill – had incorporated a central monument that closely resembled a Russian Orthodox church. Although Klykov had conspicuously substituted a “Soviet” mother-motherland figure in place of a Christian cross, the Pamiat’ activists keeping vigil around the exhibition hall saw the motif for what it was: an attempt to anchor the Soviet victory in Russian historical continuity.