The sun is so hot that even the grass has turned yellow. Quiet, only birds can be heard. In a cemetery not far from Warsaw Airport, wherever you look, you can see the same columns of graves with half-erased red stars. “Lev Krupnikov, January 15, 1945”, “Viktor Kravchenko, October 4, 1944”, “Ivan Kiselev, September 14, 1944” - all surnames are written in Polish, in Latin. Here lie 21,468 Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of the capital of Poland during the Warsaw-Poznan operation. Not a single person around. Not a single (!) wreath lies near the sculptures depicting Red Army soldiers wounded in battle ... With sadness I recall the same Treptow Park in Berlin: there the foot of the stone figure of our soldier with a girl in her arms is buried among the flowers. However, there is a possibility that the sculptures themselves will not be in Warsaw soon. In the spring, the Institute of National Memory of Poland came up with a proposal: to demolish 500 (!) monuments to Soviet soldiers who died for the liberation of the country from the Nazis.
...- This is a completely idiotic thought, - does not hesitate in expressions Chief Editor Portal Strike Maciej Wisniewski. — In 1939-1944, the German invaders killed 6 million Poles: if the Soviet Union had not come to the rescue, we would simply have disappeared as a nation in twenty years. However, I want to assure you: the orgy taking place in Poland around the monuments to the fallen is a perverted game of purely politicians and government, and not ordinary people. In April, 90 (!) percent of the inhabitants of the Polish city of Rzeszow were categorically against the dismantling of the memorial to the soldiers of the Red Army: the authorities were forced to take their position into account. From now on, monuments to Russians began to be removed quietly, without polls among citizens. We have such a wonderful democracy that officials are not interested in the opinion of the people of Poland.
A strange glass composition appeared on the site of the demolished monument on Vilna Square.
bathed in red
At the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw, they flatly refused to comment for AiF - “we are now undergoing a change in leadership, we don’t know what to say.” A number of Polish politicians also dodged interviews, citing busyness. Only known for its anti-Russian orientation Member of the Seimas Andrzej Rosenek stated bluntly - Demolishing monuments is stupid, not even worth discussing!».
This is how they painted and filled with paint the memory of the liberators
Surprisingly, there are more than enough people among Polish officials who want to fight the dead, but they are afraid to substantiate their opinion, to give arguments. On the square near the Vilna railway station in Warsaw, where the monument to Soviet-Polish friendship used to stand, now there is a glass booth - a new entrance to the metro. Residents of the area did not agree with the dismantling - the authorities lied to them that the memorial would be removed temporarily, for "reconstruction". They removed it with a crane, split the pedestal - but as a result, they never returned it to its place. There are rumors that the next candidate for demolition will be the monument to Soviet soldiers in Skarishevsky Park. I'm going there. Couples are strolling by the monument, children are playing - upon closer inspection, traces of cleaning are visible on the silhouette of a warrior with a machine gun: he was repeatedly doused with red paint. “I don’t understand why destroy monuments?” - gets excited Malgorzata Kaminska, young mother with stroller. Do officials have so much money? The sculpture doesn't bother me."
"Insulting people"
...- Mentally healthy people do not fight with monuments, says Mikhail Gratsky, independent Polish publicist. —And, unfortunately, this is direct evidence that Polish politicians are almost completely going crazy. They are not even aware that such actions offend not your government at all, but the entire Russian people. Why start the demolition of memorials right now, 25 years after the collapse of the USSR, when the monuments stood for so long, and no one demanded their dismantling? I talked to the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland, liberated by Soviet soldiers: everyone remembers how they cried with happiness when the Russians came. By doing so, Poland is simply destroying the memory of itself.
Mocking over the graves
During the business trip, I communicated with dozens of the most different people in Poland. The overwhelming majority (and I emphasize this) are against the demolition of monuments. But there were also enough of those who tried to justify such a policy. The conversations went in the same style. "You have no monuments to the Poles, and they fought with you against Hitler." “Tell me, what city did the Poles liberate in the USSR? I will raise the issue in the press to put up a monument.” Silence. "Stalin and Hitler partitioned Poland in 1939, so we don't want to leave memorials to the Russians." "Then return the FRG to Silesia and Prussia, transferred to Poland by the Soviet Union - as a sign that you are abandoning the legacy of Stalin." Silence. "Russians are the same occupiers for us as the Germans." "The Third Reich destroyed and divided Polish state: under the USSR, the lands of your country almost doubled, and no one sought to exterminate the Polish people. Silence. It is very convenient to deal with dead Soviet soldiers. Absolutely safe, fashionable, and most importantly - you will be known as a patriot. Although not all Poles adhere to this opinion, this, alas, does not change the situation. No one will come out with protests to protect the graves of our soldiers.
I put flowers at the monument at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers. My great-grandfather also lies in the Polish land - in the north, closer to the Russian border. He left the front as a volunteer: to avenge the missing person on Kursk Bulge son, and was killed near Konigsberg. Great-grandfather was not a political commissar or a communist. And he did not want to enslave the Poles, as the current propaganda claims - he simply fought for his homeland. The Polish government is now practicing spitting on the graves of Red Army soldiers, and in this regard, I want to ask the readers of AiF one thing - maybe we should stop humiliating ourselves already? Why not collect money from the whole country and transport monuments to fallen soldiers from Poland to Russia? “I am against such an idea,” says Professor Monica Platek. “These monuments are not yours, they are ours…”. That's right, Pani Platek. But we are tired of waiting for Polish politicians to stop mocking the dead.
"They treat us like natives from Africa." What is the opinion of the Poles about the deployment of NATO battalions near the Russian borders? Read in sl. AIF number.
WARSAW, 21 Oct- RIA News. A law allowing the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers comes into force in Poland on Saturday.
Amendments to the law banning propaganda of communism or another totalitarian system in the names of buildings, objects and premises for public use were initiated by the Senate, the upper house of the Polish Parliament. By mid-summer, the document went through all the adoption procedures in both houses of parliament and was signed by the president. It involves, among other things, the demolition Soviet monuments.
According to the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland, the law will affect more than 450 monuments across the country, 230 of which are monuments to Red Army soldiers. All monuments subject to the law must be removed from public places within 12 months. The state allocates about five million zlotys (about $1.4 million) for this. During the liberation of Poland, more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers died, and about 700 thousand Soviet prisoners of war were also killed by the Germans.
Symbols of totalitarianism
"On the one hand, we do not doubt that the Red Army liberated Poland from the occupation of the German fascists. This, of course, is an opinion that corresponds to the truth. But, on the other hand, this liberation was not followed by the return of independence to Poland, because the occupation began later Soviet, the reign of the communist regime, terror began. And we interpret this period as de facto another occupation, "Daniel Markovsky, specialist of the Bureau for the Perpetuation of Struggle and Martyrdom of the Institute of National Memory of Poland, told RIA Novosti.
He explained that "symbolic objects dedicated to the Red Army should be removed from public space as they propagate foreign totalitarianism and another occupation."
Cemeteries will remain, the star will remain
The law will not affect cemeteries where dead Red Army soldiers are buried. The representative of the Institute of National Remembrance confirmed exactly this interpretation of it. "This does not apply, I would like to emphasize this, in no way does it apply to cemeteries. Because the graves of soldiers, regardless of their nationality, religion, and so on, are holy places for the Polish state. These objects are under the legal and actual protection of the Polish state," he said.
Nevertheless, the Polish authorities will take care that "symbols of totalitarianism" are not left in the cemeteries either.
"If we are talking about cemeteries, then the changes may concern purely symbolic objects - first of all, we are talking about such symbols as the hammer and sickle, images of Stalin. These objects will also be removed from cemeteries. Symbols of the Red Army, such as, for example, will not be removed. like a red star," Markovsky explained.
The Sejm is not completely unanimous
Not all Polish parliamentarians are unanimous on the issue of monuments to Soviet soldiers. Several people dared to vote against the bill. So, the deputy of the Diet Yanush Sanotsky considers that demolition of monuments will be a huge mistake.
“I am against the elimination of the monuments in question. The destruction of these monuments would be a huge mistake, because today they are not monuments to communism, but only monuments to Soviet soldiers who defeated Hitler, and thanks to this we, Poles, live,” Sanotsky said. in an interview with RIA Novosti. "You just have to face the truth," he added.
Political scientist: Russia has not yet exhausted all the possibilities of influencing PolandRussian businessmen offer to buy Soviet monuments from Poland. Political scientist Yury Svetov believes that this noble impulse is understandable, but the hypocrisy of the Polish authorities cannot be left unanswered. He shared his opinion with Sputnik radio.At the same time, he emphasized the need to distinguish between monuments to people who brought harm to Poland, and monuments to soldiers. "If the monument is to some killer or criminal, then, of course, it needs to be removed, but monuments to soldiers ..." - said the agency's interlocutor.
The deputy also spoke extremely negatively about the regular desecration of monuments to Soviet soldiers in Poland. “Stop desecrating monuments. This is wrong thinking. It’s not the 70s, not the 80s for a long time. The Soviet Union is long gone, and these monuments are not a symbol of the occupation of Poland,” he said.
Voted against and the most senior member of the Seimas Kornel Morawiecki, who can not be accused of pro-Russian sentiments. During the time of the PPR, he was an activist of Solidarity, was arrested and deported from the country.
"We are talking about monuments to Soviet soldiers who died on Polish soil. They, fighting the Germans, fighting the invaders of Poland, liberated us. Then they sent us to communism, but before that they saved us from extermination. Therefore, I think that there must be honesty" , said the parliamentarian.
"In my opinion, monuments should not be demolished. I believe that these monuments should not be destroyed. We must perpetuate the memory and honor of the people who died," he added.
Didn't wait
Some representatives of local authorities did not wait for the law to come into force and have already begun to eliminate the monuments.
In early September, the Polish authorities began to liquidate the mausoleum at the site of the mass grave of Soviet soldiers in the Polish city of Trzczanka. This memorial Complex, which includes a military mausoleum in memory of the dead Soviet wars during the capture of the city of Trzcianka, according to some information, is the very first memorial dedicated to the Great Patriotic war in Poland. Its construction began on April 24, 1945, and was completed on August 15 of the same year.
The situation in Trzcianka extremely outraged the activists of the Polish public organization"Kursk", which is engaged in the restoration of monuments to Soviet soldiers. They intend to seek prosecution of the perpetrators.
"In November, a round table meeting will be held on the situation with the memorial in Trzcianka. There will be a prosecutor, lawyers, police officers, officials. At the end of this meeting, we plan to make a decision on the prosecution of Trzcianka's measure. We will prove that he committed a crime," told RIA Novosti the head of "Kursk" Jerzy Tyts.
According to the interlocutor of the agency, at first the documents will not be submitted to the court, but to the prosecutor's office.
“If they don’t make a decision and say that everything was fine, then we will go to court – first Polish, and then international. We begin to restore order. I think this will be a turning point against the demolition of monuments, against Russophobia,” concluded Tyts.
According to wPolityce, the package of amendments introduced by the Sejm to Polish legislation "will make it possible to create a legal mechanism that will eliminate references and glorification of the totalitarian regime in public places and buildings." This document was supported by 408 parliamentarians, seven opposed, and another 15 abstained from voting. Now local authorities in Poland will receive legal grounds for renaming bridges, roads, streets, squares, which currently “glorify with their name people, organizations, events or dates that refer to communism or help the totalitarian regime.” The bill also proposes to “remove from public space” monuments “glorifying the communist heritage.”
These memorials do not include monuments located in cemeteries or territories of other burials, objects that are not on public display or are demonstrated for scientific purposes, as a work of art, as well as monuments included in the register of architectural monuments. Polish legislators propose to dismantle memorials not belonging to these categories within 12 months after the amendments enter into force.
On the territory of the country, experts counted at least 469 such objects, about 250 of which are dedicated to the Red Army. The amendments, adopted by the Seimas on June 22, will come into force three months after their official publication.
The decision of the Polish authorities has already been criticized by Vice Speaker Iryna. “The deputies of the Sejm of Poland seem to have lost their conscience and head,” Yarovaya said. She expressed regret that “not a single deputy was found who would stand up and read excerpts from the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which was established for all time as proven historical fact that the Soviet soldier liberated not only his Fatherland, but all of Europe and the whole world from fascism. “Crimes against peace and humanity that politicians commit can be different in terms of their treachery,” the vice speaker continued. But it is quite obvious that
politicians of Poland, who considered it possible to destroy monuments in honor of the Red Army, commit a crime against their country, destroy gratitude to those who gave peace to Poland and its people, desecrate the memory of those who were burned in the furnaces of concentration camps and gave their lives for these politicians lived today.”
In total, during the Second World War, more than 600 thousand soldiers and officers of the Red Army died in Poland. In their memory, a large number of monuments and commemorative plaques were erected in the country. The most famous of them today remains the Cemetery-Mausoleum of Soviet Soldiers in Warsaw, located on Żwirki and Wigura Street on the way to Chopin Airport. The remains of about 21.5 thousand Red Army soldiers are buried there. A large obelisk is installed at the entrance to the necropolis, next to it is a sculptural group designed to recall the battles of 1944-1945 in Poland. On January 17, 2002, on the anniversary of the liberation of Warsaw from Nazi invaders in 1945, the presidents of Russia and Poland laid wreaths at the cemetery. In March 2017, it was desecrated by unknown people, which caused a major international scandal.
Many monuments that have become symbols of post-war Poland have already been dismantled by local authorities. For example, the Monument to the Soviet-Polish Brotherhood in Arms (popularly known as the "Four Sleepers"). The sculptural group was opened in autumn 1945. On the pedestal there is an inscription in Russian and Polish: “Glory to the heroes Soviet army. To the brothers in arms who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of the Polish people, the inhabitants of Warsaw erected this monument.” The monument stood in one of the oldest districts of Warsaw - Prague, next to the Vilna railway station.
In November 2011, the monument was dismantled for the construction of the second line of the Warsaw Metro. Then it was officially announced that after the completion of the work, the monument would be returned to its original place. Moreover, in 2012-2013, a number of opinion polls were held in Warsaw, and the majority of respondents were in favor of returning the monument to the square in front of the station.
The Legislative Assembly of Warsaw even decided to re-install the sculptural group. However, this was opposed by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, and in February 2015 the Warsaw legislative assembly canceled its own decision to return the "Four Sleepers" to their place.
No less scandalous were the events around the monument to General of the Army Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who died in the battle for the liberation of the city of Panenzho in northern Poland. In the 1970s, a monument to this officer was erected there. It was a high concrete stele with a bronze bas-relief of Ivan Chernyakhovsky on top. The monument was included in the register of the Polish-Russian intergovernmental agreement on the protection of monuments from 1994. However, in 2014, local authorities decided to demolish the monument. They motivated this by the lack of funds for its maintenance, as well as by the fact that they took part in the disarmament and exile to Siberia of more than 8 thousand soldiers of the Home Army (an armed formation that operated in Poland during World War II). A year later, despite the protests of some local residents, the stele was demolished. The bronze bust of the general was transferred to the Institute of National Memory of Poland, where it is planned to be exhibited along with other communist monuments.
Due to new amendments to the law
the fate of the monuments to the Poles, which also played a prominent role in the history of the state during the Second World War, is not completely clear.
These include General Zygmunt Berling, who was captured by the Soviets after the partition of Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR, but then led the 1st Army of the Polish Army, which fought against the Germans along with the Red Army on Eastern Front. More than 200 thousand people turned out to be under his command, they participated in the liberation of Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, part of Warsaw from the Germans. After the war, Bergling was the head of the Polish Army for some time, and then retired. After his death in 1980, many streets of Polish cities received his name, and in Warsaw, near the Lazienkowski bridge across the Vistula, a monument to this military leader was unveiled. The Institute of National Remembrance of Poland has repeatedly called for the renaming of objects bearing the name of Berling, but so far the monument to the officer stands in the same place.
The Polish authorities decided to dismantle over 500 Soviet monuments. Built during the era of communism in Poland, they should be demolished and transferred to museum complexes. Monuments at the site of military graves will not be touched, said Lukasz Kaminski, head of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance.
The project of large-scale demolition of monuments identifying the communist past of Poland will go to all municipalities, writes Onet.pl.
“The preservation of Soviet monuments was the result of an unfinished policy in the 90s. This is a fatal mistake that is used in propaganda and provocations against Poland,” he stressed.
We are talking about more than 500 small architectural forms erected in public places "as a token of gratitude to the USSR." According to the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, after the dismantling, the monuments will go to museums, where "they will demonstrate difficult times."
Kaminsky emphasized that the monuments at the mass graves of Soviet soldiers and officers would not be demolished. The Republic of Poland will take care of them as before, RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
Earlier, we already wrote that the Polish authorities demolished the monument to General Chernyakhovsky in Penenzhno. The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Warsaw to stop the "war on monuments" and punish those responsible for vandalism.
Polish historians have stated that a Soviet general ordered the arrest and deportation of over 6,000 Home Army militias who, together with the Red Army, liberated Lithuania and Poland in 1944.
Demolition of Soviet monuments in Poland will be discussed at the UN, UNESCO and OSCE
The Institute of National Remembrance of Poland has developed a project for the demolition of more than 500 monuments of gratitude Soviet Union who liberated Poland from fascism. The head of the institute, Lukasz Kaminsky, said that Soviet memorials symbolize the dominance of the communist system over Poland and should be demolished.
In this regard, a press conference was held at the press center of the information agency “National News Service” on the topic: “The war of monuments. Why is Poland tearing down history?
As a member of the Federation Council Committee on international affairs Anatoly Lisitsyn, proposals for the demolition of monuments are a special form of Western pressure on Russia.
monument to General Chernyakhovsky in Poland
demolition of the monument to General Chernyakhovsky
“Before that, the United States announced a campaign to the East, taking advantage of the collapse of the USSR, the weakening of Europe. They hit the Middle East. And now, when they saw that Russia was getting up from its knees, they did not like it. Therefore, they try to hit the sickest person, including historical memory. We must study our past. A few years ago in France, when restoring our graves, the word “Russian” was removed. Now the best way to treat monuments and maintain their condition is in Germany,” the senator stated.
According to Russian legislation, no funds are allocated from the budget for the preservation and maintenance of memorials located abroad. In this regard, activists involved in the restoration of monuments are forced to look for sponsors.
“We have to pay attention to what is happening. We must use "soft power" in working with our neighbors. There is something for us to think about. For the state, such an action is illegal - the demolition of monuments and burials. Yes, the budget cannot be spent on the restoration of memorials outside the territory of the Russian Federation. We have to look for sponsors. For example, Anatoly Chubais personally allocated money for the restoration of the Motherland monument in Western Ukraine,” Lisitsyn said.
He is sure that in order to protect the interests of Russia abroad, it is necessary to strengthen the relationship of the state with Russian-speaking people living in other countries. This will help prevent situations like Polish ones.
“30 million Russian speakers live outside the Russian Federation. We do not hear the voices of our compatriots abroad. This issue is not even funded or developed. There is nothing pro-Russian, only pro-Western. This applies, among other things, to the development and promotion of the Russian language,” the parliamentarian said.
In turn, the chairman of the commission for the development of public diplomacy and support for compatriots abroad Public Chamber Russian Federation Elena Sutormina reported in the press center of the NSN that the proposals for the demolition of Soviet monuments in Poland are good example attempts to rewrite history.
“For many years, non-governmental organizations with vivid anti-Russian rhetoric have been supported in Poland. Financial support mainly came from the United States. Anti-Russian ideas are promoted mainly by non-governmental organizations. Ordinary citizens calmly and normally relate to monuments. All ideas come from the top government,” Sutormina recalled.
According to her, Moscow should not ask not to demolish these monuments, but should not allow them to be dismantled. Sutormina said that she plans to raise this issue at the UN.
In addition, the member of the OP added that Poland, deciding to demolish monuments of gratitude to Soviet soldiers, violates international agreements that were concluded with Russia regarding the preservation and free access to Soviet monuments.
“On the part of the Public Chamber, last week we turned to UNESCO with a request to consider this issue at a separate meeting. An appeal was also sent to the OSCE today. In 1991, Poland assumed obligations to protect historical and cultural monuments, ”Elena Sutormina said at the NSN press center.
In 1992 and 1994 between Russian Federation and Poland signed agreements regarding Soviet memorials. Thus, the Polish authorities, agreeing to the demolition of monuments, violate the international norm, said the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, head of the Center for Wars and Geopolitics of the Institute world history RAS Mikhail Myagkov.
Currently, this issue is being resolved through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, this is not the only way resolution of the situation.
“We must act not only along the line of the Foreign Ministry, but also along the line of culture. Now 500 monuments have been announced, but there are reports of 1,200 memorials being dismantled and moved. We must be engaged in the study and research of those exploits that were performed on the territory of other states by Soviet soldiers. Now European cinema presents Soviet soldiers as degenerates, freaks, rapists. We must respond to this by creating films about the friendship and exploits of Soviet and Polish soldiers. Moreover, in the Year of Cinema, it is easier and more symbolic to do this,” the expert said.
In his opinion, proposals for the demolition of monuments in Poland could lead to serious international consequences: by its actions, Poland calls into question the results of the Second World War.
“Monuments should remain in their places, there is no need to transfer them to our territory. If we agree to the transfer, then we will only spur a greater desire on the part of Polish activists to remove memorials to Soviet soldiers from the territory of Poland,” Myagkov is sure.
“The situation with the demolition of 500 monuments in Poland is part of the pressure that is being exerted on Russia. There are levers that are not in Poland itself, but across the ocean. There are legal norms and agreements. In this case, Poland violates international law and those treaties that were. Not only UNESCO, but also the UN should be involved in resolving this case,” the RVIO representative concluded.
Recall for last years was defiled in Poland whole line Soviet memorials, including those where the bodies of Red Army soldiers are buried. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has repeatedly expressed a strong protest to the Polish side. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that the Polish state leads Europe in the number of cases of vandalism against Soviet and Russian military graves.
One of the hottest topics of recent months remains the massive demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers in Poland in order to combat the legacy of the “Soviet occupation”. But in the neighboring Czech Republic, the monuments are not touched, although there are enough questions about the socialist past there too. Why, then, in the two West Slavic states that survived the Nazi occupation and then built socialism, do they treat the legacy of the past differently?
Let's start with Poland, where settling historical scores with neighbors remains the cornerstone of the policy of the ruling Law and Justice party. As a matter of fact, since the beginning of the 1990s, its leaders have been making a career of fighting the past. So, 26 years ago, the current Minister of Defense of Poland, Antoniy Matserevich, became the main "lustrator" of the country, who saw Soviet agents in almost everyone, including the recognized fighter against socialism Lech Walesa.
As a matter of fact, back in those days, the war with monuments in Poland began. So, 26 years ago in Krakow they demolished a monument to Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev, whose troops liberated the old Polish capital in January 1945. And not just freed, but also saved from destruction, similar to Warsaw. And the fact that today Krakow has become the main tourist center of the country is a great merit of I.S. Konev. But the "fight against communism" turned out to be more important...
Since the second half of the 1990s, the Poles seem to have passed the acute phase of the fight against monuments, but during the years of the presidency of Lech Kaczynski (2005-2010), the issue arose again. In those years, mass demolition did not happen, but the ghost was in the air. A new season of "hunting" for monuments began after the start of the Ukrainian crisis. In May 2014, in Katowice, the Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army was thrown off the pedestal, and in Warsaw, the Monument to the Soviet-Polish Brotherhood in Arms was not returned to its place after the restoration.
After the representatives of Law and Justice returned to power two years ago, the war with the past was put on a grand scale. So, in the town of Penenzhno, not far from the border with Russia, a monument to the legendary general Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky was demolished.
In Szczecin, vandals, with the tacit approval of the authorities, damaged the Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army. In Warsaw, tombstones at a military cemetery were defaced this year. Such incidents can be listed and listed ...
Finally, on June 22 (the date looks like a demonstrative spit in the direction of Russia) of the current year, the Seimas adopted a law on the dismantling of monuments reminiscent of the “Soviet occupation”. Only a few people voted against. The document was supported not only by deputies of the ruling party, but also by supporters of EU President Donald Tusk from the Civic Platform, and representatives of the Cookie-20 party, and deputies from the Peasant Party. On September 2, the law came into force.
These actions were substantiated by Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski. “It must be remembered that the Soviet Union contributed to the outbreak of World War II, and also invaded Poland together with the Germans. Thus, this is a joint responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War ... If these are monuments in a cemetery, then they are under protection. If not, why should we value them?” he said.
There were still protests against the demolition of the monuments. So, quite recently, in the city of Drawsko-Pomorie, residents did not allow the removal of a monument to Soviet tankmen. But you should not deceive yourself.
The vast majority of Poles are at least not against the war with monuments, there is no mass protest on this issue. And the country's political elite showed almost complete unanimity on this issue.
And now at least 230 monuments (the number was also mentioned at 350) will be demolished.
The dismantling will look especially wild in Gdansk, Szczecin or Wroclaw, which until 1945 were called Danzig, Stettin and Breslau. Thanks to the Soviet Union, Poland received up to a third of its current territory, including a long outlet to the Baltic Sea and large deposits of coal in Silesia. If we follow the logic of abandoning the Soviet legacy to the end, we need to return these lands to Germany ... But from it, as well as from Russia, the Polish authorities still want reparations for some reason.
Thanks to what is happening in Poland, one may get the feeling that the former socialist countries are experiencing new war with history. But it's not. There is no war with monuments in the Czech Republic. As with the northeastern neighbors, here the vast majority of both politicians and citizens perceive the times of socialism negatively. Particularly acute feelings are caused by the entry of troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia in August 1968. But today it does not turn into vandalism.
It cannot be said that the Czechs escaped the fate of the war with monuments. 26 years ago, in Prague, the Monument to the Tankers-Liberators was painted pink. No one began to launder it - in the same 1991 it was dismantled, and today it stands in this form in the military-technical museum in Leshany. Repeatedly there were also cases of obscene inscriptions on the monuments. In the second largest city in the country, Brno, vandals knocked down a hammer and sickle from the monument to the Red Army soldiers in the Kralovo Pole area ...
But such an orgy did not acquire a large scale - and even more so, it did not come to the mass demolition of monuments. By the way, the hammer and sickle in Brno was quickly returned to its original place. Another story in the same city is very indicative. In 2013, the Monument to the Liberator Soldier standing in the very center of the city was sent there for restoration. And, unlike Warsaw, they returned to their place. It also happened in a number of other cases.
For a long time, former Czech radical anti-Soviet dissidents sought to dismantle the monument to Marshal Konev and rename the street named after him. However, both veterans' organizations and former and current presidents Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman were categorically against it. In 2015, there was again talk that the monument could be demolished, but again nothing came of this idea. Liberator and honorary citizen of Prague Konev where he stood, he stands there.
Nothing happens to the monument at the memorial Olshansky cemetery in Prague, where the Red Army soldiers who fell in May 1945 are buried. Yes, there is a memorial sign of the ROA nearby - but there is no monument to its fighters. The Vlasovites in Prague also died in battles with the Germans, but the attempt to turn them into liberators of the capital failed.
The Czechs remember very well to whom they owe the preservation and liberation of both the city and the country. As President Zeman said, if it weren’t for the Red Army, then “the Czechs would speak German and throw ridges.”
Why didn't the Czechs become like the Poles? It seems that they also have a dislike for the times of socialism. There are also outright Russophobes like the former Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and his associates in the Top 09 party. And a number of other political forces are anti-Russian, supporting sanctions against our country in every possible way. Nevertheless, even before the introduction of a bill on the demolition of monuments, similar to the Polish one, in Parliament, it did not come.
One of these components is the depth of contradictions with Russia. At the level of states, the Czech Republic has never fought with us (white Czechs from the times civil war were, but the newly formed Czechoslovakia did not fight with Russia as a country). And from the listing of the Russian-Polish wars, you can lose count. There have never been disputed territories between the Russians and the Czechs - unlike the Poles.
Unlike the Poles, the Czechs did not prohibit Communist Party, which has its own 10-15% of the votes and is consistently represented in parliament - although no one called her to the government. There are also “right-wing” nationalistic Russophiles there, and they also periodically go to parliament. Frank Russophobes also have their plus or minus 15%, but in Poland these figures are much higher. So the behavior of the authorities is quite consistent with the mood prevailing in society.
Probably, the standard of living also plays a role. In the Czech Republic, it is significantly higher; Czechs rarely go to other countries to work. You can't say the same about the Poles - up to five million Polish citizens work in Germany, France, Great Britain, Norway ... Accordingly, Polish politicians need to justify their own failures in the economy with various historical deeds. The Czechs have such a need much less.
This story is also paradoxical in the sense that the Poles consider themselves devout Catholics, while the Czechs are one of the most non-religious nations in the world. They constantly talk about the faith and traditions of politics from Law and Justice, and then, contrary to Christian doctrine, they begin to fight the dead.
Czech politicians talk about this much less often, but, unlike their neighbors, there is no state vandalism in their country.
Vadim Trukhachev
