Exactly 80 years ago, a monument that became a long-standing symbol of communism was unveiled in Warsaw. “Donald Tusk decided to mark this day by placing a living symbol of communism in the Speaker’s chair of the Sejm,” commented Mariusz Błaszczak (Law and Justice), referring to today’s vote on the candidacy of Włodzimierz Czarzasty.
Although most Poles do not want this, Włodzimierz Czarzasty from the New Left will likely become Speaker of the Sejm today. This was part of the arrangement when Szymon Hołownia became the first “rotating Speaker.” It turns out that Donald Tusk “hit” a symbolic date with Czarzasty’s appointment.
Exactly 80 years ago, on 18 November 1945, the Monument of Brotherhood in Arms ‘Four Sleepers’ – a symbol of communism – was unveiled in Warsaw – Mariusz Błaszczak (PiS) reminded on platform X.
“Donald Tusk decided to celebrate this day by placing a living symbol of communism in the Speaker’s chair of the Sejm. Down with communism!” he added.
The “Sleeping Soldiers Monument,” officially the Monument of Brotherhood in Arms, stood at Wileński Square in Warsaw’s Praga district from 1945 to 2011. Its creation was personally overseen by Major Hryhorij Nenko, a longtime NKVD apparatchik who ensured that the design complied with communist ideological standards. The monument was meant to symbolize Soviet domination over Poland. Nenko himself took part in repressions against Polish soldiers of the Home Army (AK) and Freedom and Independence (WiN) who found themselves in the USSR. He personally interrogated and tortured officers, boasting during numerous torture sessions that “he would kill Poles until the end of his life.”
In 2011, the monument was taken for conservation – it never returned. In February 2015, the city council decided it would not be reinstalled.
Włodzimierz Czarzasty was a member of the communist Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) from 1983 to 1990. He joined while studying at the University of Warsaw and became an active member of the Union of Socialist Polish Youth (ZSMP). In the second half of the 1980s, he worked within the PZPR party apparatus (including at the Voivodeship Committee in Radom and at the Central Committee in Warsaw), focusing mainly on youth affairs and propaganda. After the PZPR was dissolved in January 1990, he moved to the SdRP, later to the SLD, and eventually to The Left and the New Left.