A monument commemorating Poles and Lithuanians, victims of Soviet deportation to Galashor in Perm, Russia, has been destroyed, the Memorial Association, an independent Russian NGO documenting Stalinist crime, has announced.
The news of the monument’s razing was provided by local Memorial Association activist Alexei Kamensky.
“I have just received information about the dismantling of a monument to Polish and Lithuanian exiles who died in the settlement of Galashor in the north of Perm Krai. The (construction) equipment was driving through the wilderness, bypassing the villages, so that the residents who look after the cemetery would not raise the alarm,”
Kamensky reported.
The memorial, he added, was erected in 2016 in the cemetery of the former Galashor exile settlement, which functioned from 1939-70.
Memorial, an organisation banned by the Russian authorities, stated on its website that around 60 Lithuanian and Polish families from Lithuanian territory were deported to Galashor in 1945 and the following years.
“They lived in barracks built from the felled forest. In 1957, many Lithuanians managed to leave for Lithuania and Poles managed to leave for Poland,” – reported Memorial.
Nearly 100 people deported from Lithuania were buried in Galashore. By 1970, the settlement was completely deserted.
The memorial was funded by a Lithuanian organisation commemorating the victims of repression. The money came, among other things, from a community collection.
The inscriptions on the monument read: "Here were buried Lithuanians and Poles, victims of the political repression of 1945" and "We remember you, we love you, we miss you. Compatriots."
The names of the victims of repression were inscribed on two metal plates.