Od kulturnog ka komunikativnom sećanju i nazad: Spomenici poginulima u borbi za oslobođenje Beograda u Drugom svetskom ratu
From Cultural to Communicative Memory and Back: Monuments to the Fallen in the Battle for the Liberation of Belgrade in the Second World War

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the issues of collective memory within the local community, intending to consider to what extent what we remember is conditioned by the interests of a particular community, as opposed to or in conjunction with the influence of the publicly dominant narrative. As a case study, monuments dedicated to the soldiers who died in the battle for the liberation of Belgrade in the Second World War, erected in the villages around it, were selected. The villages considered, referring to previous research, which mostly dealt with monuments dedicated to the soldiers of the Red Army, as well as the results of field research carried out in 2017, 2023, and 2024,were: Veliki Mokri Lug, Mali Mokri Lug, Kaluđerica, Pinosava, Višnjica, Ripanj, Leštane, Veliko Selo, Slanci, Borča, Resnik, Vinča, Vrbovski and Kovilovo. During the research, it was concluded that the monuments in the villages around Belgrade have mostly survived to the present day, as well as that in most cases they were dedicated not only to soldiers of the Red Army but also to the fallen members of the local community. That is highlighted in the paper as the most significant difference between monuments that have survived and those that have not, and on that conclusion, the initial hypothesis was based, according on which the importance that monuments had in their local environment was seen as a decisive factor for their fate, unrelated to the official discourse of the culture of remembrance. After a presentation of each monument that was considered during the research, with special reference to its current state, and having in mind theoretical points originating from the culture of remembrance and heritology, it was discussed in more detail, and consulting different examples, how and why some monuments were preserved and others were not. In the end, the conclusion was made that the monuments, if they have a certain significance in the local environment, continue to exist and retain that significance regardless of the officially adopted narrative.

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