According to the head of the Polish president’s International Policy Bureau, monuments that celebrate the deeds of the Red Army have no place. This statement implies that such monuments should not exist in Poland.
In an interview with public radio on Friday, Marcin Przydacz addressed the recent demolition of a monument dedicated to the Soviet forces located in the Opole region of southwestern Poland.
Przydacz stated that the feedback received on this issue was unambiguous.
“Anyone who has even a little knowledge of history, of what happened during World War II, cannot advocate for monuments glorifying the Red Army, because the Red Army was followed by the NKVD (the interior ministry of the Soviet Union – ed.), by (counter-intelligence organisation – ed.) SMERSH, it murdered Polish patriots, established the system of communist enslavement,”
Przydacz said.
“There is no place today for any monument glorifying it,” he continued, adding that cemeteries of fallen soldiers were a different matter as they were not only Russians but also Ukrainians, Uzbeks and Kazakhs. “But there can be no talk of monuments glorifying the deeds of the Red Army,” he reiterated.
The removal of the monument in Glubczyce, located near Opole, is being carried out in accordance with a 2016 law that prohibits the promotion of communism or any other totalitarian regime. The monument was erected in 1945 and was intended to honour the memory of 676 Red Army and 1st Ukrainian Front soldiers who lost their lives in a battle for the town during the same year.
Russia has previously expressed strong opposition to the dismantling or removal of Soviet-era war memorials, often reacting negatively to such actions.