Protests of the Russian Foreign Ministry were ignored - dismantling of the monument to Soviet soldiers began in Warsaw
The authorities of the Polish capital have begun dismantling the monument of Gratitude to the Red Army, installed in Skaryshevsky Park on the right bank of the Vistula, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The press secretary of the Warsaw City Hall, Bartosz Milcharczyk, announced this to the media today.
“The dismantling of the monument has begun. It will last until the end of the month,” he said. “In accordance with the decision of the Institute of National Remembrance, it will be transferred to the Museum of the “Cursed Soldiers,” added a representative of the mayor’s office.
The Monument of Gratitude to the Soldiers of the Red Army was erected in Skaryszew Park in the Warsaw district of Prague on the right bank of the Vistula on September 15, 1946 in memory of the Red Army soldiers who died on September 10-15, 1944 in the battles for this area of the city. This monument is regularly targeted by vandals. Fragments of the monument were repeatedly broken off, and offensive inscriptions were written on it.
On October 21, 2017, an updated decommunization law came into force in Poland, which provides for the demolition of monuments and memorials paying “tribute to persons, organizations, events or dates symbolizing communism or other totalitarian system.” The role of the main advisory body, whose opinion can guide local authorities, is assigned in the law to the Institute of National Remembrance. Its experts believe that about 230 monuments to the Red Army in the country are promoting communism. Several dozen of them have already been dismantled.
Previously, the Russian Foreign Ministry repeatedly appealed to the Polish authorities to leave the monument alone through its speaker Maria Zakharova.
Russian Foreign Ministry protests ignored – Warsaw begins dismantling monument to Soviet soldiers