One of the insoluble questions that constantly causes heated discussions is what to do with monuments to “controversial” historical figures? Demolish? out of sight? leave it in the same place? Participants in such disputes often refer to the example of France, and the French are taken as allies by both those who advocate the preservation of odious monuments and those who disagree with this. How things actually stood in France in the 19th century with monuments can be found out in a book of modern French historian Emmanuel Furex. It is dedicated to political iconoclasm, that is, the fight against political signs and emblems, which the author himself calls “an alternative way of doing politics.” The period explored in the book is from the toppling of Napoleon's statue from the top of the Vendôme Column in 1814 to the demolition of the Vendôme Column itself in 1871. However, the book tells not only about the struggle, but also about what these political signs were: flags, baldrics, cockades, statues and busts, flowers, pets, coins, seals and stamps, razors, knives, playing cards, snuff boxes, fans, cane handles, waffle molds, labels for liqueurs and perfumes, soap, candies, gingerbread cookies and much more other. Everything risked offending someone's watchful eye and turning political semiotics into semiotic paranoia. Everything was significant, everything could and did become an argument and a target in the political struggle.