Military monuments as objects of cultural heritage: features of state protection (on the example of Krasnodar krai)

The aim of the study is to determine the status and peculiarities of the state protection of cultural heritage objects, which were created in order to perpetuate military history and are works of monumental art, within the framework of the current Russian legislation. The materials used in the article mainly relate to the regulatory framework for the protection of monuments in Krasnodar Krai. The study is based on documents from the departmental archive of the regional Office of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of Krasnodar Krai, on national standards of the Russian Federation, and on acts of federal and regional legislation. The study uses historical legal, formal legal, and comparative legal methods, as well as methods of interpretation of law and logical methods. The authors examine the novelties of the Russian legislation affecting the establishment of protective zones around the monuments of architecture and urban construction and note that the acts of Krasnodar Krai also prescribe the arrangement of such zones for monuments containing burials and monuments of monumental art. The authors formulate questions related to the law enforcement practice in relation to the mass graves of soldiers and to individual monuments containing military equipment, replicated monuments, and obelisks made of sheet iron. The authors analyze the national standard of the Russian Federation, “Cultural Heritage Preservation. Terms and Definitions”, and give examples of checks for compliance with the terms in the standard at individual objects of cultural heritage. The analysis of the status of monuments containing military equipment is based on methodological recommendations published in the 1980s. They prescribed state protection for monuments made at a high artistic level from durable materials, but in practice these requirements were rarely met. The authors conclude that, along with samples of military equipment, works of architecture or sculpture created in honor of specific historical events, including guns or transport-combat vehicles installed on pedestals, are subject to state protection. It is the presence of an architectural base that allows classifying such objects with the term “monument”. In each specific case, the legal status and features of the state protection of the monuments considered in the article can be established based on the regulatory and technical documents (national standard) that contain sufficiently accurate definitions of these objects.