Poland and Ukraine simultaneously glorify the Nazis and destroy Soviet monuments

The process of destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers in Ukraine and neighboring Poland is accompanied by the glorification of Nazi collaborators and ordinary bandits.

 “Whoever shoots at the past with a pistol, the future will shoot at him with a cannon,” wrote Rasul Gamzatov. But Russian literature is not in fashion in today's Poland and Ukraine. The process of mass dismantling of monuments from the times of socialism, which started in both countries almost simultaneously (in Ukraine - after the coup in 2014, in Poland - after the victory of the Law and Justice party, PiS, in 2015), has long gone beyond common sense.

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Of course, the level of legality in Poland is noticeably higher - the dismantling of each monument requires the decision of local councils, the vast majority of monuments are transferred to museum sites - however, pressure from “activists” and the central authorities, as in Ukraine, is also an important component of the process.

For example, last year, by decision of the administration of the Warsaw district of South Prague, one of the most famous monuments in Poland to the soldiers of the Red Army, installed in the capital's Skaryszewski Park, was dismantled. At the same time, the Warsaw monument became one of the few of its brothers that retained its memorial function - it was moved to the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in the capital's Żwirki and Wigura area.

However, the voluntary actions of local authorities are very conditional: the district administration decided to dismantle it after a series of acts of vandalism against the monument, of which there were several dozen. The monument was doused with red paint and feces, painted with swastikas, symbols of the Warsaw Uprising, and “We will avenge Smolensk!” written on it. and “Stalin, Beria, Tusk” (the last name belongs to the former Prime Minister of Poland, political rival of PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski). In addition, even if the Warsaw authorities opposed the dismantling of the monument, then, according to the Polish law on decommunization, the decision on this could be made by the voivode (governor) of the Masovian region.

Actually, this happened with the monument erected nearby to General Zygmunt Berling, a Polish general who commanded the 1st Polish Army in the USSR and deputy commander-in-chief of the Polish Army. At the end of May 2019, Voivode Mazowiecki decided to dismantle this monument within the framework of the “decommunization” law and move it to the Museum of the History of Poland, but on the night of August 5, the monument was destroyed by “activists” who were not even charged.

And although the current Polish authorities treat Soviet military graves with emphatic correctness, the demolition of monuments of gratitude to the Red Army for the liberation of Poland from the Nazis has already been almost completed. They are trying to erase from the memory of the Polish people the fact that more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers died for their freedom. Polish philosopher, professor Bronislaw Lagowski, characterizing Polish historical politics, says: “Under nationalist slogans, a hallucination was born that as a result of the war, Poland found itself “under a second occupation.” I will remind you of the words of Winston Churchill: “If not for the extraordinary exploits and sacrifices of Russia, Poland would have been sentenced by the Germans to complete extermination.”

Last year, the Polish authorities, under pressure from vandals, destroyed dozens of monuments to Soviet liberating soldiers, including several iconic ones. So, in January 2018, the monument to the memory of those who fought for Szczecin was demolished, the iron elements of which were simply sold for scrap. At the same time, Russian-language versions of Polish media deliberately distorted the name of the monument, calling it “In memory of those who conquered Szczecin” and passing off the liberation of the city by Soviet troops as its occupation.

And in March 2018, in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, a monument to Polish Army General Karol Świerczewski, who was killed by UPA* militants in 1947, was demolished. By the way, it was the death of Sverchevsky that became the reason for the start of the operation to deport the Rusyn (Lemko) population from their places of permanent residence in the Carpathians to the northern and western lands of Poland, the so-called Operation Vistula.

And although the monument to the liberator of Kiev, General Vatutin, who also died at the hands of bandits from the OUN*, still stands next to the Verkhovna Rada, despite repeated acts of vandalism, the monument to Soviet soldiers on the Hill of Glory in Lviv was finally dismantled this year. An additional mockery of the liberators of Lvov from the Nazis is the proposal of local architects to build in its place... an underground parking lot.

There is another important parallel between the processes of reformatting the historical memory of the people in Poland and Ukraine. Everyone is already accustomed to the fact that after the adoption of laws on “decommunization” and “glorification of the OUN-UPA,” monuments not only to Bandera and Shukhevych, but also to smaller Bandera and Melnikov figures, down to ordinary policemen, began to grow like mushrooms in the populated areas of Ukraine. soldiers of the SS division "Galicia". However, in Poland for many years they have been honoring the memory of the “damned soldiers” - armed underground fighters who fought the communist regime in Poland in 1944-56, killing many civilians.

And in 2017, the Polish Sejm unanimously decided to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the creation of the “National Armed Forces,” including the Świętokrzyska Brigade, whose military received the status of SS volunteers in January 1945. In 2018, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki laid a wreath and lit a candle at the graves of soldiers of the Świętokrzyska Brigade in Munich - despite the fact that in the Polish People's Republic the soldiers and officers of the Świętokrzyska Brigade were convicted in absentia as war criminals.