Poland on Wednesday began demolishing a Soviet-era monument to Red Army soldiers, an unwanted reminder of the force Moscow once exerted over Poland and a symbol that has become even more reprehensible after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The removal of the monument in Brzeg, in southwestern Poland, came on Ukraine’s Independence Day and the sixth month of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
This is a component of a longer effort to remove hated communist symbols from public space in Poland and the region. Poland, like some of its neighbors, was invaded and occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II, and then endured decades of Moscow-backed rule until 1989.
Poland’s state institute of antiquities, the Institute of National Memory, has worked with local communities to remove dozens of Soviet-era memorials.
Rafal Leskiewicz, a spokesman for the institute, said that in March, when a resolution to remove them was announced, there were still 60 standing. The Brzeg monument is the 24th to be demolished.
He said it is vital to remove those monuments because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, but also because a 2015 Polish law calls for their removal.
“It’s to keep such monuments in the public sphere,” he told The Associated Press.
The dismantling of the Brzeg monument is expected to take several days, he said.
Poland, which sits on Ukraine’s western border, has been a key best friend of Kyiv’s, sending military and humanitarian aid to the war-torn country. It also has an exile position for more Ukrainian refugees than any other country.
The progression in Poland comes after the Estonian government last week unveiled a Soviet World War II monument near a town on the Russian border as part of a broader effort, sparked by russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to dismantle the remaining Soviet-era symbols. .
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