The Polish “shrine” near Smolensk was threatened with demolition. Medinsky against
Two columns of heavy construction equipment (30 units) approached the Katyn memorial, where Polish officers are buried, who, according to the official version, were shot in 1940 by the NKVD.
Columns lined up at the entrance and exit of the memorial, after which two bucket loaders drove up to the “Katyn” inscription and demonstrated their intention to demolish it. Then both columns drove past the inscription.
An appeal on behalf of the people of Smolensk and the entire people of Russia was distributed on social networks.
“We are appealing to ordinary Polish people, since it is pointless to appeal to Polish politicians, obsessed with Russophobia and pandering to the Nazis of the 21st century. The ancestors of some of you are buried at the Katyn memorial.
Let’s not figure out who actually shot the Polish soldiers and officers here. We respect your burials on our land. There is construction equipment here that could demolish this memorial, but we are people, not Nazis. We will not do this, we are not at war with other people’s shrines, and your politicians are destroying monuments to soldiers and officers of the Red Army who died during the liberation of Poland from the Nazis. Come to your senses,” the appeal says.
Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky spoke out against the Smolensk action.
“Let me remind you that the Katyn Memorial is a Russian museum, with the graves of Polish prisoners of war and Soviet citizens. In 2018, it was essentially rebuilt by the Ministry of Culture together with the Russian Military Historical Society. Created: A Wall of Memory with thousands of names of repressed Soviet citizens, the “Execution” memorial, and an exhibition on the history of Russian-Polish relations. This is a common place of memory.
No matter how much contempt we have for the current Polish authorities, who are demolishing monuments to liberating soldiers, we ourselves are not at war with the dead. Our culture is different. Russian. I'll say more. The entire Polish ruling “under-elite” will not be able to cancel our respect for the outstanding sons of the Polish people: Copernicus, Chopin, Sienkiewicz, Kosciuszko, Polanski, Lem, Kieslowski, etc.
And to the glorious defenders of Poland - Berling, Poplavsky, by the way - and Rokossovsky, to the soldiers of the Polish Army who stormed Berlin with us in 45, to all the Polish soldiers who defended their Motherland from the Nazis,” Medinsky wrote in his Telegram channel .
At the beginning of March, a number of Russian politicians and public figures made an appeal to the Russian government, in which they proposed dismantling the Polish part of the so-called “Katyn” memorials in the Smolensk and Tver regions. Among those who supported this initiative were deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Anatoly Wasserman, Alexey Chepa, as well as a number of communist deputies of the Smolensk Regional Duma, including the first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation of the Smolensk region Valery Kuznetsov.
English version :: Read in English: The Polish "shrine" near Smolensk was threatened with demolition. Medinsky is against it.