This thesis examines the role of monuments during times of socio-political change, with a focus on the monument complex of friendship between the Russian and Ukrainian nations: The Peoples' Friendship Arch in Kyiv. The thesis seeks to define the main features of the monument at the time of its inception and evaluate the changes which have taken place up until now. In order to better understand this, the principles of decommunisation (the process of removing content related to the Soviet period from public spaces, institutions, and society as a whole) and its impact on the monument are analysed. This facilitates a consideration of the monument's reception in Soviet society compared with post-Soviet Ukrainian society, focussing on the impact of the heightened Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
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