 Goddess of Democracy replica | |
 Interactive map of Victims of Communism Memorial | |
| Location | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°53′54″N77°00′43″W / 38.8984°N 77.0120°W /38.8984; -77.0120 |
| Designer | Thomas Marsh |
| Type | Statue |
| Beginning date | September 27, 2006 |
| Opening date | June 12, 2007 |
| Website | victimsofcommunism |
TheVictims of Communism Memorial is amemorial inWashington, D.C. located at the intersection ofMassachusetts and New Jersey Avenues and G Street,NW, two blocks fromWashington Union Station within view of theU.S. Capitol.[1] The memorial is dedicated "to the more than one hundred million victims of communism". TheVictims of Communism Memorial Foundation says the purpose of the memorial is to ensure "that the history of communist tyranny will be taught to future generations."[2] The Memorial was opened byPresidentGeorge W. Bush on June 12, 2007. It was dedicated on the 20th anniversary of PresidentRonald Reagan's "tear down this wall" speech in front of theBerlin Wall.[3]
The Memorial features a ten-foot (3 m) bronze replica from photographs of theGoddess of Democracy, erected by students during the1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.[4] The monument's design and the statue are works of sculptor Thomas Marsh.[5] He led a project in 1994, to re-create theGoddess of Democracy inChinatown, San Francisco.[6][7] The inscription reads: (front) "To the more than one hundred million victims of communism and to those who love liberty", and (rear) "To the freedom and independence of all captive nations and peoples"[4]
A bill, H.R. 3000, sponsored byRepresentativesDana Rohrabacher andTom Lantos andSenatorsClaiborne Pell andJesse Helms, to authorize the memorial passed unanimously on December 17, 1993 and was signed into law by PresidentBill Clinton, becoming Public Law 103-199 Section 905. It was backed by prominent conservatives includingLev E. Dobriansky,Grover Norquist,Zbigniew Brzezinski, andLee Edwards.[8] Because of delays in establishing the memorial, the authorization was subsequently extended through Section 326 of Public Law 105–277, approved October 21, 1998, until December 17, 2007. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation had the duty of funding and directing the first stages of planning the memorial.
In November 2005, theNational Capital Planning Commission gave approval to the monument's design. After raising overUS$825,000 for construction and maintenance costs, the groundbreaking ceremony was held September 27, 2006.[9]
On June 12, 2007, the memorial was officially dedicated. Among the hundreds of invited guests were people from many countries who suffered hardships underCommunist regimes, such asVietnamese poetNguyen Chi Thien,Chinesepolitical prisonerHarry Wu,Lithuaniananti-communist journalistNijolė Sadūnaitė and others.[10] During the opening ceremony, President George W. Bush referenced millions of those unnamed who suffered under Communism:
They includeinnocent Ukrainians starved to death in Stalin's Great Famine; orRussians killed in Stalin's purges; Lithuanians and Latvians and Estonians loaded onto cattle cars anddeported to Arctic death camps of Soviet Communism. They include Chinese killed in theGreat Leap Forward and theCultural Revolution;Cambodians slain in Pol Pot'sKilling Fields;East Germans shot attempting to scale theBerlin Wall in order to make it to freedom; Polesmassacred in the Katyn Forest; and Ethiopians slaughtered in the "Red Terror"; Miskito Indians murdered by Nicaragua's Sandinista dictatorship; and Cuban balseros who drowned escaping tyranny.[3]
President Bush also said, "We'll never know the names of all who perished, but at this sacred place, communism's unknown victims will be consecrated to history and remembered forever. We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to those who died, to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory."[11] Bush equated communism to the threat ofterrorism then facing the U.S.: "Like the Communists, the terrorists and radicals who have attacked our nation are followers of a murderous ideology that despises freedom, crushes all dissent, hasexpansionist ambitions and pursuestotalitarian aims."[12]
On the first anniversary, there was another ceremony by the International Committee for Crimea.[13] On June 9, 2011, a second commemoration ceremony was held with representatives of ethnic and religious groups who suffered under communist regimes.[14]
Andrei Tsygankov ofSan Francisco State University criticized the statue as an expression of the "anti-Russia lobby" in Washington and a revival of Cold War symbolism.[15] Russian politicianGennady Zyuganov, leader of theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation, said that U.S. President Bush's appearance before the unveiling of the monument was a "clumsy propaganda attempt to divert the world public opinion's attention from the true, bloody crimes of U.S. imperialism in general and the current administration in the White House in particular." Zyuganov also accused Bush of hypocrisy: "How can an American president open it given the blood of civilians inIraq,Afghanistan, Somalia,Serbs in Kosovo,Guantanamo Bay, as well as CIA prisons in Eastern Europe [that] are part of the black list of crimes of theglobalists."[16]
The statue drew criticism from the Chinese embassy in Washington because the memorial evokes the Tiananmen Square protests.[17] AChinese foreign ministry speaker said those behind the memorial are "driven by a Cold War mentality and by political imperatives, are provoking confrontation between ideologies and social systems".[18] The embassy called its construction an "attempt to defame China." The chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation,Lee Edwards, said he was not aware of any official complaint.[17]
