All photos by Mat Fahrenholz © for Poland In Your Pocket
Warsaw is giving the go ahead to remove 200 monuments and plaques relating to the Soviet “liberation”. We thought it might be a good time to share this pic of the monument to the Soviet army in Skaryszewski Park and give you the heads-up since it might be your last chance to see some of these often hated yet imposing monuments in their original settings.
Our Warsaw-based photographer, Mat Fahrenholz (#matfahrenholz), spent yesterday’s afternoon at the Soviet Cemetery, where he had to hide most of the time as a storm broke!
I doubt the cemetery is on the “hitlist” but it was more poignant and depressing than the Warsaw “Disneyworld” museums. Seems that a lot of the major Soviet glorification monuments were demolished in the last few years – even ones that still appear on many websites. The one I thought was a Soviet monument is actually a monument to Polish bomb disposal squads! The Russian style helmets confused me!
Despite the diverging views in regards to this historical event and its socio-political consequences, this mausoleum is a part of both Poland’s and Russia’s common heritage and as such it should be kept to honour the memory of the fallen in battle. Mat is right…
The new plan does not include monuments in cemeteries or the burial sites of Red Army troops, which are to remain intact. Some 600,000 Soviet troops were killed fighting the Nazis in Poland and remain buried there.
