Editing Damnatio memoriae (section)

== Analysis ==
The term is used in modern scholarship to cover a wide array of official and unofficial sanctions through which the physical remnants and memories of a deceased individual are destroyed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Varner |first=Eric R. |title=Monumenta Graeca et Romana: Mutilation and transformation: damnatio memoriae and Roman imperial portraiture |publisher=BRILL |year=2004 |page=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedland |first=Elise A. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture |last2=Sobocinski |first2=Melanie Grunow |last3=Gazda |first3=Elaine K. |publisher=Oxford |page=669}}</ref>

Looking at cases of {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} in modern [[Ireland|Irish]] history, [[Guy Beiner]] has argued that iconoclastic vandalism only makes [[martyr]]s of the "dishonored", thus [[Streisand effect|ensuring that they will be remembered]] for all time.<ref name="fr">{{Cite book |last=Beiner |first=Guy |author-link=Guy Beiner |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/forgetful-remembrance-9780198749356? |title=Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular; Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster |date=2018 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0198749356 |pages=380–381}}</ref> Nonetheless, Beiner goes on to argue that the purpose of {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}}—rather than being to erase people from history—was to guarantee only negative memories of those who were so dishonored.<ref name="fr" /><ref name="rem">{{Cite book |last=Beiner |first=Guy |url=https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3846.htm |title=Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory |date=2007 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |isbn=978-0-299-21824-9 |location=[[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]] |pages=305}}</ref> Pointing out that {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} did not erase people from history but in effect kept their memory alive,<ref name="rem" /> Beiner concluded that those who partake in the destruction of a monument should be considered agents of memory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beiner |first=Guy |date=2021 |title=When Monuments Fall: The Significance of Decommemorating |journal=Éire-Ireland |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=33–61 |doi=10.1353/eir.2021.0001 |s2cid=240526743}}</ref>

Author Charles Hedrick proposes that a distinction be made between {{lang|la|damnatio memoriae}} (the condemnation of a deceased person) and {{lang|la|abolitio memoriae}} (the actual erasure of another from historical texts).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hedrick |first=Charles W. Jr. |url=https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/hedhis |title=History and Silence: Purge and Rehabilitation of Memory in Late Antiquity |date=2000 |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |isbn=978-0292718739 |location=[[Austin, Texas|Austin]] |page=93 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611104830/https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/hedhis |archive-date=11 June 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In case of removal of Soviet monuments in [[Eastern Europe]], the primary reason was that they were established as a symbol of occupation, domination or [[cult of personality]], rather than simple historic mark. It has been pointed out that all Nazi-established monuments and street names have been removed after [[World War II]] which has been perceived as natural reaction after liberation at that time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrejevs |first=Dmitrijs |date=17 August 2022 |title=Ukraine war prompts Baltic states to remove Soviet memorials |url=http://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-prompts-baltic-states-to-remove-soviet-memorials-188388 |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Should Soviet monuments be dismantled or preserved? – DW – 07/09/2023 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/should-soviet-monuments-be-dismantled-or-preserved/a-65949228 |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=dw.com |language=en}}</ref>