- Title: Polish agency pushes to take Soviet monuments off streets
- Date: 23rd May 2016
- Summary: LEGNICA, POLAND (MAY 20, 2016) (REUTERS) COMMUNIST-ERA MONUMENT OF POLISH-SOVIET FRIENDSHIP FIGURES OF POLISH AND RED ARMY SOLDIERS SHAKING HANDS BAS-RELIEF ON MONUMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) LEGNICA RESIDENT, HALINA SIENKIEWICZ-GUZ, SAYING: "I think it's just unattractive in its shape. Not what it represents - it's just unattractive." (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) LEGNICA RESIDENT, TOMASZ KACZMARSKI, SAYING: "Of course it should disappear from here, all grown up people know its history and we know what it shows." (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) LEGNICA RESIDENT, LUDWIK OLSZOWY, SAYING: "It's the memory of those who are buried there. If you want to remove the monument, then remove cemeteries, scatter the ashes. So many of them died, they were not playing politics." SCINAWA, POLAND (MAY 20, 2016) (REUTERS) WORLD WAR TWO TANK ON MONUMENT COMMEMORATING RED ARMY SOLDIERS FALLEN IN JANUARY 1945 TANK OLESNICA, POLAND (MAY 21, 2016) (REUTERS) MONUMENT WITH FIGURES OF POLISH AND RED ARMY SOLDIERS FIGURES OF SOLDIERS WROCLAW, POLAND (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE HEAD OF RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, DOCTOR GRZEGORZ WALIGORA, LOOKING THROUGH BOOK PHOTOGRAPHS OF MONUMENTS IN BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE HEAD OF RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, DOCTOR GRZEGORZ WALIGORA, SAYING: "The monuments of the so-called gratitude for the Red Army or Soviet Army had been built on Polish land practically since the end of World War Two, mostly during the forties and fifties. Altogether there were approximately 500 of them, now in the public space there are approximately 300 monuments of different types, preserved in better or worse condition. It was an element of historical politics of memory supported by the Soviet Union, aiming to legitimize the presence of the Red Army on Polish land." GARNCARSKO, POLAND (MAY 20, 2016) (REUTERS) MONUMENT COMMEMORATING FALLEN RUSSIAN SOLDIERS RED STAR ON MONUMENT WROCLAW, POLAND (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE HEAD OF RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, DOCTOR GRZEGORZ WALIGORA, SAYING: "The monuments will probably be placed in so-called monument reservations or monument parks. At present there are two locations offered to us, in Czerwony Bor and Borne Sulinowo, an educational park will be built in one of them, the where the visitors will be able to see the monuments as well as learn why they had been built and by whom." SCINAWA, POLAND (MAY 20, 2016) (REUTERS) MONUMENT FOR FALLEN RED ARMY SOLDIERS INSCRIPTION READING (Russian): "ETERNAL GLORY TO FOR THE WAR HEROES OF [PART UNREADABLE] 1945" ADVERTISEMENTS OF MUSIC FESTIVAL ON MONUMENT OBORNIKI SLASKIE, POLAND (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST LIVING IN POLAND, PROFESSOR NIKOLAI IVANOV, AT WORK VARIOUS OF IVANOV (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST LIVING IN POLAND, PROFESSOR NIKOLAI IVANOV, SAYING: "For me as a Russian living in Poland for almost forty years in whose home Russian traditions have always been maintained, this decision is of course painful. This is because the soldiers commemorated by these monuments didn't fight for Stalin, they didn't fight to bring Poland a new occupation. They died on this land and died literally like flies." SCINAWA, POLAND (MAY 20, 2016) (REUTERS) PARTLY DESTROYED MONUMENT FOR FALLEN RED ARMY SOLDIERS VARIOUS OF MONUMENT OBORNIKI SLASKIE, POLAND (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST LIVING IN POLAND, PROFESSOR NIKOLAI IVANOV, SAYING: "Most important is that Russians, that the contemporary Russian nation, judges events happening in Poland through the lens of Russian television. And in Russian television no one explains that Poles are going to remove monuments and symbols of Soviet occupation. They inform that Poles are fighting with the graves of Russian, of Soviet soldiers that are located on Polish land. And that's why unfortunately today in Russia aversion and malevolence towards Poland and Poles are growing." CYBINKA, POLAND (MAY 12, 2016) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE TO CEMETERY FOR WORLD WAR TWO RED ARMY OFFICERS FIGURE OF RED ARMY SOLDIER TREADING EAGLE THE EMBLEM OF NAZI GERMANY PLAQUE WITH REPRODUCTION OF RUSSIAN MEDAL WITH IMAGE OF SOVIET LEADER JOSEF STALIN AND INSCRIPTION READING (Russian): "OUR GOAL WAS JUST AND WE WON" CANDLES AND POLISH FLAG WITH INSCRIPTION TEXT READING: (Polish): "WAYFARER! TELL MOTHERS OF SONS LYING HERE THAT THEY DIED FOR FRIENDS AND FOR POLAND. RUSSIAN MOTHERS, I THANK YOU FOR YOUR HEROIC SONS. PEACE TO THEIR MEMORY. FORMER SOLDIER OF 5TH PANZER DIVISION. MAY 9, 2016" FLOWERS VARIOUS OF CEMETERY / GRAVESTONES
- Embargoed: 7th June 2016 17:54
- Keywords: World War Two Soviet Stalin Red Army
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, POLAND
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, POLAND
- Country: Poland
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0014J11XDL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Polish agency is campaigning to take monuments to the Soviet armed forces off the streets, dubbing them a bitter reminder of Moscow's domination, and consign them to less conspicuous "educational parks."
In a central square in the Polish town of Legnica, two soldiers shake hands whilst holding a little girl in their arms.
One Polish and the other from the Soviet Army, the figures depicted have been standing in Slowianski square since 1951 -- when Poland was a Soviet satellite state.
The statue is one of hundreds built in honour of Soviet armed forces across Poland, where the state-backed Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) now wants local authorities to take them down in a move likely to anger neighbouring Russia.
Emotions around the monument amongst Legnica residents were mixed, but tamer than the political discourse around the matter.
"It's just unattractive," one resident, Halina Sienkiewicz-Guz, said, adding that her opposition was on aesthetic, not moral, grounds.
Others were keen to see the statue go for historic reasons.
"Of course it should disappear from here, all grown up people know its history and we know what it shows," another resident, Tomasz Kaczmarski, said.
The IPN, an agency tasked with investigating crimes against the Polish Nation since the beginning of World War Two until the fall of communism, is currently cataloguing 300 such monuments, of which those in a decent state would be preserved. The plans would not affect Soviet cemeteries in Poland.
"The monuments will probably be placed in so-called monument reservations or monument parks," Gregorz Waligora, of the IPN's research department, told Reuters, adding two sites had been proposed, including a former Soviet army base in Borne-Sulinowo in northwestern Poland.
"An educational park will be built where visitors can see the monuments as well as learn why they were built and by whom," he added.
The plan leaves local councils free to make their own decisions. It has been criticized by Moscow, which urged historians to "talk to the Polish veterans ... who fought side by side with Russian soldiers" before deciding anything.
Moscow last July said it was outraged by a move by Polish authorities in Nowa Sol to reduce to rubble a memorial depicting Polish and Red Army soldiers as brothers in arms.
In September, Moscow summoned Poland's ambassador to protest against the removal of a Soviet-era statue in the town of Pieniezno.
For one Russian living in Poland, this move would mean that a key issue is overlooked about the Soviet troops who fought and died in World War Two - that most were not fighting for a political cause and should not be blamed for the decisions of Soviet leader Jozef Stalin, who ordered the murder and deportation of thousands of Poles to the Gulags.
"For me as a Russian living in Poland for almost forty years in whose home Russian traditions have always been maintained, this decision is of course painful. This is because the soldiers commemorated by these monuments didn't fight for Stalin, they didn't fight to bring Poland a new occupation. They died on this land and died literally like flies," political scientist Professor Nikolai Ivanov said.
Ivanov added that Russian state television reports the plans of the IPN in a manner that inflames relations with Poland - a NATO member and staunch opponent or Russia's annexation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in east Ukraine.
The neighbours share a complex history. Soviet troops invaded eastern Poland weeks after Adolf Hitler's forces attacked from the west in September 1939. The Red Army later freed Poland from Nazi occupation, but also persecuted soldiers from the Polish underground army.
After World War Two, Poland spent four decades under Soviet domination before embracing democracy and joining the European Union. More recently, it has been among the strongest critics of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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