Poland adopted the law on the dismantling of hundreds of Soviet monuments. The Russian Foreign Ministry considers this "mockery"

On June 22, the Polish parliament approved at least 469 monuments to Soviet soldiers - throughout the country. The law says that dismantling will not affect cemeteries and military graves, but the Russian Foreign Ministry still called the Poles’s decision “shameful mockery of the memory of the dead.”

On June 22, the lower house of the Polish parliament (Sejm) approved the dismantling of monuments to Soviet soldiers across the country. The adopted amendments to the law on the prohibition of propaganda of communism or other totalitarian system provide for the removal of the monuments “from public space”. “For” 408 deputies voted, “Against” - seven, another 15 abstained. The upper house of parliament (Senate) proposed such amendments at the end of April 2017.

The law on the prohibition of the propaganda of communism or other totalitarian system has been valid in Poland since April 2016. At first, he provided for the renaming of streets, squares and bridges with Soviet names; Now monuments are also added to the law.

Cemeteries, soldier's burials and monuments with art or scientific value will not be demolished. Dismantling will affect objects that are "put on public display in order to promote a totalitarian regime." At least 469 Soviet monuments throughout the country will be dismantled. The ligators (regions) have already compiled a list of monuments, but so far it is not complete. In controversial situations, the final decision will be made by the Institute of National Memory ( an institution that collects information about the activities of Poland Security from 1944 to 1990, as well as security agencies of the Third Reich and the USSR, if it is related to the Poles - approx. Medusa ). Amendments to the law will enter into force 3 months after the official publication, the monuments must be dismantled within 12 months after that. Dismantling costs - 5 million zlotys (about 79 million rubles) - will take on the state.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is outraged by the fact that the Polish Sejm approved amendments to demolish monuments on June 22. “With special blasphemy, the Polish authorities timed this decision to the holy and tragic day for us the beginning of Hitler's aggression against the USSR. Otherwise, such actions can not be called such actions with shameful mockery of the memory of the dead. They are convinced that many in Poland do not accept this vile behavior. Those who continue the war camp with monuments should understand that they are provoking further aggravation in Russian-Polish relations, ” the comments of the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 22, published in the evening of June 22.

In Poland, Soviet memorials were previously demolished. Usually these were monuments to the soldiers of the Red Army. Under the adoption of the law on the ban on the propaganda of communism “good”, local authorities gave the dismantling. Back in 2015, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Poland of the “War of Monuments”, saying that only 10 Soviet memorial facilities were defiled and destroyed there during the past year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that Poland lead to “stop this bacchanalia, which contradicts all conceivable ideas about modern civilization” and comply with the agreement with Russia on the protection of monuments concluded in 1994. The Poland Foreign Ministry in response has stated many times that the contract concerns cemeteries and military graves and does not apply to the memorials, "under which the remains of soldiers are not located and which are symbols of Soviet domination."

Olga Korelina