[babuskov]

Native speaker here.

Spomenik comes from "spomen", which translates to "recalling /remembering someone dead or some event from the past". It's basically a memorial that should invoke the viewer to recall the events past and/or people who were involved.

While spomenik is used for all monuments around the world, when someone just says "spomenik" the first thing that comes to my mind are those post-WWII spomeniks - probably because there's so many of them.

I feel like monument isn't a right translation. Do you call Eiffel Tower a monument? If yes, I can tell you that Eiffel Tower is definitely not a spomenik. If that is the case, "memorial" is the proper translation for spomenik.