The article explores the problems of the origin and evolution of the genre of counter-monument in sculpture of the second half of the 20 th - early 21 st century. It considers a range of issues related to the reasons for the emergence of such a direction, its relationship with the ideas of public art and the general crisis of monumental sculpture. It also traces the history of the most outstanding monuments of memorial sculpture in Western Europe after the Second World War. A comparative analysis of stylistic characteristics in Soviet war memorials and alternative forms of memorialization in the practice of modern foreign sculpture is carried out. Particular examples analyzed are the counter-monuments in modern Germany. The final part of the article is related to the analysis of Holocaust memorials, established in Vienna and Berlin in the 2000s and still causing debates about the adequacy of their embodiment the ideas of memory and repentance. Refs 9. Figs 11.