“Glory to the Russian people, the nation of victors,” reads an inscription on a World War II memorial near a kindergarten in the center of the German city of Legen.

On the other side of the monument, a quote by Joseph Stalin about 12 prisoners of war who died at the hands of the Nazis is written in bright red. A scarlet star with a golden hammer and sickle adorns the top of the pyramidal monument.

Legen is no exception. Throughout Germany, but mostly in the former East Germany, there are more than 4,000 protected monuments dedicated to Soviet soldiers in the fight against Nazism.

Farther east, Dresden provided funds this year for the reconstruction of the first monument erected by Soviet troops in Germany. Soviet tanks also line up just half a mile from the German parliament in Berlin, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave his Zeitenwende speech, declaring that “the world will never be the same” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, several incidents of vandalism against Soviet war monuments were reported in Central and Eastern Europe, especially after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bratislava’s iconic Slavin monument, a war memorial dedicated to the Soviet Red Army, was painted blue and yellow on March 2. Slavin is one of the largest war memorials in Slovakia and was used as a cemetery for thousands of Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

Against the background of the above, historians, activists, officials and ordinary citizens argue that the monuments are an unwavering commitment to the victims of the Nazi period. Officials in East German cities say their duty to take care of the monuments dates back to the so-called “good neighborly agreement” between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1990.

At the same time, the majority of Germans express support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. At the same time, more than a million refugees from Ukraine arrived in the country after the war.

“However, the refusal of the Scholz government to re-evaluate the symbols glorifying Russia testifies to the ambivalence of Germany.which was typical in the case of the provision of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine,” the New York Times comments.

Hubertus Nabbe, a German historian, has called for a reassessment of the 1990 agreement, which also binds the two countries in peace and respect for territorial integrity. He says that by invading Ukraine, Russia canceled the spirit of the pact.

Nabe asked the Soltz government to explain why Moscow is still directly involved in the construction of one of the main memorials of World War II – the Berlin-Karlhorst Museum.. The museum’s board of directors includes representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense and five other Russian government agencies.

Last year, museum owner Eno Lenze applied for a permit for an exhibition outside the Russian embassy in Berlin showing a Russian battle tank destroyed near Kiev. He said local authorities ignored his application for a month and then dismissed it, citing, among other things, risks to public safety and the risk of injury to Syrian refugees.

It took E. Lenza months of legal battles and tens of thousands of euros to finally get permission, just three days before the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of the invasion. Although similar demonstrations of destroyed Russian tanks were staged all over Eastern Europe, he said that not a single German politician publicly supported him.

According to the New York Times