Russia condemns dismantling of Soviet monument in Rzeszów — Notes from Poland
In the Polish city of Rzeszów, the dismantling of the Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army, erected after World War II, has begun. The Embassy of the Russian Federation — an aggressor state — called the work a “sacrilegious step” and the Polish authorities’ policy “barbaric,” and demanded that it be immediately stopped and that the monument be restored to its previous form. This was reported by Notes from Poland.
Parts of the monument will be transferred to a cemetery and museum
The 8.5-metre-high, 6.6-tonne monument stood in Ghetto Victims Square, created after the war on the site of a former Jewish cemetery destroyed by German occupiers in 1942. The pedestal featured bas-reliefs of Soviet generals Ivan Konev and Karol Świerczewski, soldiers, industrial and agricultural workers with a hammer and sickle. The top of the column was adorned with a sculpture of a woman and child.
The city will spend 156,000 zlotys, or about €35,700, on the dismantling. The bas-reliefs are to be moved to a cemetery for Soviet soldiers, while the sculpture of the mother and child will be transferred to the city’s Museum of Technology and Military Affairs. The work, which began this week, is expected to continue until November. After the above-ground part is dismantled, a special conservation commission, which will include a representative of Poland’s Rabbinical Commission for Cemeteries, will determine the future of the foundation.
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The dispute lasted for years
The monument’s fate was the subject of a lengthy legal and political dispute. In 2016, Poland’s then government adopted a law on the decommunisation of public space, providing for the removal of objects and names promoting communism. The government-appointed voivode and Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance demanded that the monument be dismantled, considering it a symbol glorifying communism.
City authorities challenged the decision, insisting that the monument did not promote communism and that its name was not official. In 2019, the voivodeship administrative court supported the city. In April 2022, Rzeszów Mayor Konrad Fijołek stated that the monument should not remain in its current location, but should be relocated rather than destroyed. The Institute of National Remembrance opposed relocation and insisted on the site’s complete removal.
The Russian Embassy also stated that the dismantling violates Russian-Polish agreements on the protection of memorial sites. Poland, in turn, notes that the 1994 agreement concerns graves and military cemeteries, rather than individual monuments or symbols, which may be dismantled in accordance with legislation.
