Polish authorities demolished four communist-era monuments on Thursday as part of a campaign to “derussify” public spaces, which has been stepped up by the Warsaw government over the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported, citing Agerpres.
These actions are aimed at “making all monuments glorifying the communist system disappear in Poland,” said Karol Nawrocki, director of the Polish Institute of Historical Remembrance (IPN).
All these monuments “symbolize the evil of the communist system”, so they must be removed “not so much because of aesthetics, but because of their meaning”, the quoted official claims.
Four monuments were demolished at the same time, but 30 more remained to be destroyed after 20 other monuments of the same type had already been removed.
One of the four monuments demolished on Thursday with the inscription “gratitude to the Red Army” was restored in 2017 for 7,000 euros, and after the Russian attack on Ukraine, it was painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
Not all Polish cities agree with the demolition of Soviet monuments
But some local Polish administrations, “one or two”, according to the director of the aforementioned institute, expressed a desire to preserve the monuments included by this institute in its list for “derussification”.
For example, the mayor of Dombrov-Gurnych, supported by many local residents, opposed the demolition of the monument dedicated to the “heroes of the red banner” because, in his opinion, it commemorates the Russian revolution, “the events that took place between 1905 and 1908. , not related to the communist era in Poland.”
The case went to court, and in the end the court in Warsaw gave permission to preserve the monument.
In 2016, Poland passed a law regulating the removal of any traces of the communist era, allowing the removal of street names and monuments associated with the former Soviet Union.
The conservative government in Warsaw has become one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
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Source: Hot News RU
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