Protests against racial and other discrimination have engulfed half of the globe. In their quest for justice, demonstrators have targetted monuments of people associated with slavery, racial and other forms of discrimination.
Authorities across the world have put demonstrators on a par with ordinary vandals, imposing enormous fines and even criminal penalties for destroying or desecrating monuments.
As monuments, bas-reliefs and sculptures fall one by one, do they take with them memories and understanding of the distant past and chaotic present? Will the authorities succeed in stopping them? Which side are you on? Prominent Russian journalists, writers, musicians and architects will discuss the issue this Thursday.
The Russian Jewish Congress (RJC) has invited leading experts to an online discussion called "war of monuments."
Invited experts: Yevgeny Ass — Rector of the Moscow School of Architecture (MARSH); Anatoly Golubovsky — member of the Council of the Free historical society; Andrei Makarevich — musician; Alexander Etkind — historian, professor at the European University in Florence; Joshua Yaffa — journalist, writer, Moscow correspondent at The New Yorker.
The online conversation in Russian will be hosted by journalist Mikhail Gurevich.
The free event will be broadcast on July 16, this Thursday, at 5 p.m. (Moscow time) on Facebook and YouTube.
You can send your questions to participants of the online meeting in advance here.
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